What is fear? What is its nature? What causes fear?

Is there a root cause to all our fears?

Fear manifests itself in many forms. At its mildest, it appears as just a mild form of uneasy or discomfort, a feeling that something is not quite right. At its worse, fear can kill. In between these two extremes are found all types of fear - anger, frustrations, rage and just about any negative emotions. In fact, all negative emotions have their roots in fear. Another way of saying this is that fear is the mother of all negativity in us.

However, despite the many forms of fear, it can be gathered into 3 main fears:

1. Fear of insecurity

2. Fear of loneliness

3. Fear of loss

Fear of Insecurity

Fear of insecurity manifests out of a need for safety. When our safety or security is threatened, this fear arises. Safety here refers not only to physical safety but also emotional and mental safety. We take great pain to protect ourselves from emotional and mental hurts and harms.

Fear of LonelinessThis fear includes also the fear of separation and arises out of our need to be accepted and included. We fear being excluded, forsaken, shunned, rejected, ostracized or abandoned. The sense of loneliness can be felt even when one is physically present in the midst of a crowd of people. What we want is not merely physical closeness but emotional and mental acceptance. We longed for approval and acceptance.

Fear of Loss

This fear arises out of our need to hold on. We fear loss of our life, our property, our family, our money, our reputation, our fame, our freedom, and just about anything you can think of. We cling on to things we like and run away from things we don't. This fear of loss is the fear of loosing everything we considered dear and near to us.

Yet even these 3 basic fears can be traced back to a root cause, which is the belief that we are merely physical being. The more we hold on to this physicality, the more we fear, for there is nothing that can be permanent or secure in this physicality. No amount of money or properties we hoarded can save us from the destruction of a tsunami or hurricane, for example. Our physical body also must one day decay and die. Our physical life must come to an end in death.

The only way to reverse this fear is therefore only possible if we begin to believe in our spirituality, that we are indeed spiritual beings. Our spirituality offers us continuity, security, permanence, love and completeness. Only when we operate from this perspective can we begin to release our fear and embrace the love, peace and completeness that have always been there.

So to eliminate the root cause of our fear, we need to change our beliefs.

We will delve more deeply into our belief systems in the next article.