“I realized that everything I was afraid of was neither good nor bad, but only affected the mind.” Spinoza. Today I would like to talk a little about our fears. I don’t think there is a person who hasn’t experienced this feeling. Let's try to take a closer look at it. Firstly, fear is a purely individual experience. We are all afraid of different things and with different intensity. Someone, seeing a rat, will calmly pass by, and someone will fall unconscious. Secondly, fear affects a person holistically, i.e. influences our thought processes and is reflected in bodily experiences. Having seen or imagined something scary, we may lose our breath, our blood pressure may rise, our body may become stiff, and our thinking may become less flexible and only repeat “scary, scary...”. Third, we have different behavioral responses to fear. One will rush to run, the other will be in a stupor, and someone will try to understand their fear and draw up an action plan. Fourth, a story of fear. Fear does not arise on its own. Conventionally, I will divide them into three types of origin. Real: fear formed as a result of some event, most often traumatic. Fear of driving, after a serious accident, fear of flying, after a plane crash, etc. Those. fear gained through direct experience. Contrived: a fear that has little to do with reality. From birth, we have an energy inherent in us, which is expressed, if you can call it that, in universal anxiety. It is almost unbearable to experience it, so we sublimate it. This anxiety gives us energy, and we choose its vector ourselves, sometimes consciously, often unconsciously. So some of us convert some of it into fear. This is how phobias can arise. After all, at first glance, it’s a little strange to walk around Freedom Square, afraid that a comet will fall on it. There is another version of far-fetched fears. This is when we have certain needs and desires, feelings that we do not accept in ourselves. We can suppress them very strongly or, alternatively, transform them into fear: destructive anger can, for example, transform into fear of being attacked on the street. Instilled: fear that we inherited from someone, often from family. Someone in the family was considered a loser, and now he lives in constant fear of “not falling in the face”, proving that he is a worthy member of the family. True, sometimes it is difficult to determine the source of fear. Its history can be so complicated that it can be difficult to find the roots. Fifth, the functions of fear. This is where things get very interesting. For you, a sign of health is integrity. Integrity both physical and mental. In this regard, fear performs protective functions, i.e. protects us from an object that can cause us physical harm or violate our personal ideas (that we are strong, beautiful, etc.) about ourselves. But fear also limits our physical and personal growth. Fear takes energy for conservation (I’d rather be like this than...), leaving nothing for development (I can be or become...). Now I’ll focus on the practical side of overcoming fear. In general, these five points can be taken as a basis for understanding your fear: 1. Determine the influence of fear on your sense of comfort. 2. How do thoughts about the object of fear manifest in your body? 3. What are your dominant thoughts and actions during fear? 4. Where do the legs of this fear come from? However, most often a professional assistant is needed here. When you know where fear comes from, it is easier to deal with it. 5. Determine for yourself the benefits of fear - it is more profitable for you to maintain it or expand the scope of your personality. A simple defragmentation technique can help you a little. Fear itself is a kind of “stopped” action. Therefore, in order to cope with it, you should 1) break it down into the maximum number of small steps; 2) arrange these small steps in a logical sequence; 3) take these steps as the basis for a plan to overcome fear; 3) the completed step is your success, praise yourself; 4) do everything step by step. Good luck!