The Warrior & Dragon's Tale

FEAR

Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we couldn't feel it, we couldn't protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But often we fear situations that are in no way life-or-death, and thus hang back for no good reason.

 Fear is something we all experience,  How we deal with fear however is often quite different.  Both the hero and coward faced with a threat experience the same sympathetic nervous system physiological arousal.  We experience  an increase in our rate of breathing.  Blood is shunted away from our digestive tract and directed into our muscles and limbs, which require extra energy and fuel for running and fighting.  Our pupils dilate. Our awareness intensifies.  Our sight sharpens.  Our impulses quicken.  Our perception of pain diminishes.  Our immune system mobilizes with increased activation. We become prepared—physically and psychologically—for fight or flight. We scan and search our environment, "looking for the enemy."

With all of these sudden changes taking place which prepare us to survive the threat, some of us will choose to run, and some of us will choose to fight.  I find it interesting to observe how martial artists deal with this.  For example, everyone of us has experienced these changes as we performed in a test, or entered into competition.  Again, some of us will use this sudden surge of energy to perform at our best, while others will experience panic, often performing below their capabilities.  This is often referred to as “biting the bullet” or “freezing.”  These very capable martial artists will choose not to compete—to run, rather than develop their skills and compete.

In his first Inaugural Address, on March 4, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear it self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

 It is said that to overcome fear, you only have to face it!  I hope each of you has the courage to face your fears, and thereby free yourself of them.  We all experience the same thing when faced with a threat.  We have a choice to fight or run; hero or coward.  Life seems much better when we make the choice to face our fears, rather than run from them!

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UPCOMING EVENTS:

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Destiny is no matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.               

                                                                                               -William Jennings Bryan