Author: Dr. Evgenia Leonova
“The only thing that is worth of your fear is death. But death is not avoidable. So, I am afraid NOTHING” – The Hero Of Our Time, Mikhail Lermontov, published in1840.
“…the fear memories can be changed when recalled, a process referred to as reconsolidation” – Dr Merel Kindt
The human brain is inherently adjusted to consume emotions that evoke fears first and foremost. This consumption of everything that makes you feel pain, discomfort, horror, or loss was dictated by evolutionary mechanisms. The memories, the links between neurons, dedicated to these emotions, and learned reactive actions to these emotions are the strongest in the human brain. The bad emotions attract the most cognitive attention and can retain attention the longest.
This ancient survival mechanism has only one goal: to protect you from any injury or any other potential emotional or physical harm. The scientists from Saudi Arabia published in September 2022 very interesting findings.
For the managerial system that uses fear to control the population they use the term ‘feararchy.’ According to their research, the authority uses three forms of fear: ontological (the normalization of fear), epistemological (the utilization of fear to shape knowledge), and axiological (the influence of fear on acceptability).
The fear used in management has a scientific reasoning behind it.
Fears impact decision making
It is scientifically proven that humans experiencing stress are not able to make rational decisions. They tend to be driven by emotions and can be easily manipulated.
People with chronic conditions or obesity have very similar decision-making patterns. According to the scientific findings, even their gut microbiome tends to be less stable and they perceive things based on emotional clues, missing the actual facts.
Fear hurts reproduction and longevity
It is the scientifically proven fact that chronic or unchecked fear and anxiety can be deadly for humans. The prolonged exposure to the unpleasant emotions can cause stress and lead to unhealthy physical conditions, can hurt endocrine, autonomic, and immune systems.
It has been noticed by Dr Sue Carter and published in August 2022 in Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, that love and positive emotions are less common to be used in social settings. Also, the mechanisms of oxytocin synthesis and its implementation is less common, but that is the main hormone, which is responsible for the feel of being loved and the feel of safety.
Fears define by classical conditioning
Everything depends on the context. And fear is not an exclusion. Fear is usually learned and generalized. The only way you learn to fear or not is via certain stimuli that speak to you and activate your amygdala.
The amygdala is not responsible for the cognitive functions of the brain. That means that you can experience fear, you can sense it, but it is up to you to decide to fear or not.
The stimuli that talk fear to your brain can vary depending on your personal experience. As a rule, they are not rational. The stimuli are usually linked to a particular time frame, personal emotional state, visual effects, and other environmental settings.
You can experience fear because someone you trust taught you to do so. Or you learned to fear via public media or any other source.
The first step to exclude fear from your cognition is to recognize it and link it to environmental settings. The next step is to use your rational cognition and explain to yourself the irrationality of this unhealthy emotion.
Fear is an irrational emotional reaction to environmental stimuli. It can be easily transformed to pleasant experience via cognitive effort, explanation, and classical conditioning.
Fear can be transformed via classical conditioning
The parts of the brain that are responsible for fear are the same parts that are responsible for the pleasant feeling and reward experience. You can activate the pleasant experience via sound, smell, taste, or any other positive rewarding sensation. To rewire your brain to a more positive experience to certain negative stimuli, you can link the stimuli to a positive experience. For example, if you are afraid of something you can easily smooth out the experience via music you love, the smell you love, the food you love, or simply make fun of it.
Healthy Happy HelpFul, by Dr. Evgenia Leonova
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