Have you ever feared failure when you really needed to win? Just as you hit cutting edges of a brilliant opportunity fear can stalk genius – so we all lose.
Scared or Smart?
Terrified‘s a fitting response to salacious front-liners that favor greed and tout ethical lacks to cripple entire communities.
Recently I switched on a light and bees swarmed at me out of nowhere. My heart hit the floor while my feet flew toward the nearest entrance! Has it ever happened to you? Have you feared attacks when you least expect them?
The bees formed a hive – undetected while we worked in other areas of the brain center. To stir an active beehive, suddenly triggered a lifetime fear of stingers that appear without notice. Exterminators removed the bees. The attack reminded me though, of the high price we pay for sudden terror that eradicates brainpower.
Where’s hope many ask – when fear’s hard to tank and stress strikes as killer bees?
Should we not also ask:
- Why is there a 400% rise in adults taking anxiety medications?
- Or why do more than 1 American in 10 now take anti-depressant pills?
- Or why are only 1/3 of those who are deeply depressed – getting help?
With or without meds, here’s another rub to consider. Your brain comes equipped to reboot innovation beyond fear. How so?
Fear may shut down genius like tsunamis shut down cities, but alternatives reside in a healthy and alert brain. Harvard Director of Risk Communication, David Ropeik, reminds us that brains hard-wire to fear first, and reflect second. Have you experienced brilliant insights on just the other side of fear’s luring traps?
Fortunately, the brain comes equipped with chemicals for calm and capabilities such as tone tactics for tough times, to create genius opportunities beyond fear. Natural drugs of choice, such as dopamine arm you to look terror in the eye, and watch your brain expose its toothless bites.
Your amygdala offers unique tools to transform fear into genius – when you act on the other side of anxiety. How so?
1. Name what upsets you. Worrisome thoughts often slink into dark mental spaces, to stalk and rob brainpower.
2. Choose novelty to improve reality and fear begins to fade. Share new insights with a trusted peer and lock in genius opportunities even more.
3. Embrace change in your day by going with the flow at times to stoke innovations that come from curiosity run amuck.
4. Enroll in a workshop, read blogs, or attend a seminar on the topic of your fear. If death scares you, take a class on afterlife. Fear loneliness? Then read a book on healthier relationships.
5. Attempt to do things that caused fear in past. Start slowly, and you’ll gradually gain mental courage to lead genius on the other side.
6. Risk new experiences that grow talents. Ski, dive, enjoy dinner alone, or offer your insights to experts. Risk-taking builds mental tenacity.
7. Focus on learning new skills, see beauty in life, laugh with family, invite friends to lunch, or consider new career choices. Emphasize brilliance that folks crave, and fear tends to fade in response.
8. Draw on faith, and spend time with God if you believe in Divine help. Hang with people sensitive to spiritual wealth and energize your spiritual IQ.
9. Show kindness when others toss around fear, and build new neuron pathways to brilliance that literally rewires IQ based on what you do.
10. Visualize a peer overcoming fear, propose one small step toward smarter outcomes, and celebrate every trace of progress that peer makes.
To run or hide from fear is to magnify its peril. What’s your genius plan of action, the next time fear hits through media, peers or selftalk?
Worthwhile reading on the topic of mastering fear – is also Dr. David Dobbs’ Mastery of Fear findings.
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