Fear is exciting until it is overwhelming
This nature of fear reveals the truth about life:
Risk is advantageous until it is excessive. Then it becomes harmful.
(At least when you’re antifragile)
Your default risk-management system — FEAR — doesn’t always understand the risk concerned.
Most people overestimate the risk in their own lives. Their sick attachment to their lives stability precludes the change either for worse — or even for better.
The rest of the people who underestimate the risk are usually crazy. Extreme sports is just extreme stupidity — getting high on adrenaline no differently then on fucking coke — only with far greater risk to life.
How we manage the risk in the world is a whole different matter — in which we usually underestimate the risk due to our inability to understand it, and our very modern, very western epistemic arrogance.
When fear becomes overwhelming — there is nothing you can do. BY DEFINITION. You can’t OVERCOME large enough fear. Not without a miracle of impulse yet more powerful.
Large fear may be indicative of a large, unnecessary risk — or it may be an illusion, a MISINTERPRETATION of the actual situation. The absurdity of it doesn’t however alleviate it. There is nothing to feel guilty about — and in fact — guilt will only aggravate the fear.
The only way to work around an excessive irrational fear is to break it down.
What constitutes the whole of your fear? WHAT EXACTLY it is that you fear? Maybe it’s a collection of attributes, perceptions, complexes, ideas, memories, about the thing?
There is no other way but break it down — then CONFRONT each part separately, and proactively.
Fear is so common in our society. Inaction is so common in our society. Yet I don’t believe most of us understand this simple method of tackling fear. We feel guilty and weak because of our fear and we feel suffocated by it and disabled — when really there is nothing to be ashamed of — and yes, you can get over your fear.
I advice facing one’s fears regularly. Not with pride and aggression of the ambition — but as a tool of self-enquiry, tool of self-understanding. And subsequently — door to world-exploration, a window on the world which is far more comprehensive, far more rich and fascinating.
Face your fears calmly without putting on some super-hero super-ego mask. Not only is it the only way to avoid pitfalls of self-deception — but it’s the most effective way of dealing with one’s fears. The more identity you invest to anything — the more weight it gains, and so does the fear. When you accept your fears and face them dispassionately — you are on the verge of lifting their’s terrible yokel. And thus unraveling a fantastic freedom.