Today I want to talk about fear. I think fear is something you learn, either from other people, (let’s say your parents) or from your own experiences. Two examples:
- My mom LOVES ladybugs. So as a kid if I ever found a ladybug, I would pick it up and bring it to my mom to show it to her. In high school I met a girl who is TERRIFIED of ladybugs. I obviously asked her why and she said “because they bite.” This didn’t really tally with my life experiences, I told her she was wrong. Turns out, though… ladybugs DO bite! Who knew? Even with this knowledge though, it would never occur to me to be afraid of ladybugs, I never learned that fear.
- On the flip side of this is driving in the snow. As a kid it never really occurred to me that this was something to worry about. As an adult I have learned the opposite. I hate driving in the snow. I hate everything about snow, actually. Also we just got four feet of snow which is what got me thinking about all this.
I guess my point is… what have you learned to be afraid of, that you could, you know…not be? Or I guess what can you do to not learn new fears? I’m no psychologist or anything so I can’t offer any actual advice here as I don’t know what I’m talking about. But I can say that if fear is something you can learn, it’s also something you can not learn or maybe even unlearn?
