Instinct or Choice? What exactly is Fear?

It’s tempting to experience fear as instinctive: the primal rush of survival energy coursing through our body. When a threat is poised to strike, our biology reacts before we can even think: our heart races, breathing quickens, muscles click into fight or flight mode. Fear, or at this level to differentiate the two I refer to this as the state of ‘being scared’, becomes reflexively triggered. But beyond this reflex, fear becomes something deeper, something we can also choose. After the first instant of pure instinct, what you do next — whether to stay scared or hunt down whatever scared you — is a matter of will. It is in this space between instinct and deliberation that fear is a choice. The true division is what we do with the reflex of fear that differentiates us. The body’s signal is merely an alert and alerting itself to potential threat; the mind ascribes significance to this warning. For some, fear means stop; for others, it's a call to greater strength. It's not whether we get scared or even feel fear, for we are human after all, the problem lies when folks are governed by fear. And in this respect, fear isn’t something done to us —it’s something we enable.

Understanding this about ourselves is essential to our flourishing as humans. By buying into the idea that anxiety is completely out of our hands, we relinquish ourselves to passivity and powerlessness. But when we acknowledge that fear is, at its core, a choice of attitude and interpretation, we take back that agency. We know that courage is not the absence of fear, but the mastery of it. By revealing this nuance, individuals may learn how to lead a more fearless life—not by pretending that fear does not exist, but rather realizing they do not have to obey it and have the authority to dismiss it whenever it attempts to creep back in. 

In the Bible, it says in 2nd Timothy 1:7 NLT version that, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” If we were not given fear by GOD almighty himself, how is it possible that fear can be an innate instinct or feeling?? It only stands to reason that fear is a conscious choice that many use to rationalize a variety of excuses for why they are in the circumstance or situation they are in. I find it incredibly difficult to even argue that Fear is something that can be utilized for some positive end as it happens to be one of the main tools of the enemy. 

Fear is a filler and merely a state of mind that can and should immediately be replaced with Now and Applied faith. Within Napoleon Hill’s popular book, Outwitting the Devil, Hill writes the story as if he is personally having an interview with the devil himself and says that, “As long as people fear something no matter what, [The devil] will have a hold on them.” The enemy only exists in the minds of people who have fears. Fear is something the devil uses to poison your perspective and coerce you to forget your individualized greatness. Some may claim that fear is a natural instinct, whereas I wholeheartedly believe fear is a choice. Not only is fear a choice, but it’s also a distraction which can lead to a variety of symptoms you and I would not voluntarily accept.

Therefore, it’s necessary that we discipline our thoughts and thinking patterns to master all our fears; those we’re cognizant of, as well as those that are buried too. Your life will always move in the direction of whatever you consistently hold and dwell upon in your mind, so ensure your thinking consists of curiosity and audaciousness. Fear typically comes to the forefront when you do not feel in control, but this is when Faith is to enter the picture, seeing as how Faith begins where understanding ends. 

"Fear is the enemy of will. Will is what makes you take action. Fear is what stops you, makes you weak.”--Green Lantern 

“The LORD is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?”- Psalms 118:6 NLT.

“The lion takes its fierceness from your fear.”