Many people are tricked. Tricked by other people, media, information, their own mental processes, even their own experiences. Awareness of this is critical so one isn’t holding onto fears that are really just False Evidence Appearing Real. Because things could be true AND it also may lead to irrational fears.

If someone goes on some website and hears that 3 people died of shark attacks in the last week, they could develop fear from this TRUE fact, even though it’s not warranted. Because not only is it just 3 people out of hundreds of thousands at least that were in the ocean in the past week that were attacked, but other factors such as how deep into the ocean, time of day, exact location, etc. surely influenced the odds to the point that most people can reasonably conclude if they take precautions their odds of getting attacked by a shark is essentially 0%.

Fears can also develop from distorted information that isn’t even true. Say, an adult develops fear of a certain gender, race, category of people due to some singular experiences in their past or even experiences in OTHER people’s past they were simply told about. Someone could have fear from certain unfounded beliefs or biases in their head, and this fear can severely negatively impact someone’s life – All because this person didn’t take the time, energy, and effort to really analyze where their specific fear is coming from.

So ask yourself for every fear you have: Where did this fear come from? Is it from biased information & if so, am I reading the statistics properly? Is this fear from my direct experience or someone else’s experience? And even if it is from my own experience, what are the odds it will happen again if I take certain steps to mitigate risk? Even if it is from my own experience, am I broadening this fear into some area or grouping that doesn’t make sense? Is this fear helping me? Is it even worth having? Are there ever good fears? Why not just re-label your fears as “thoughts I will overcome”? In fact why don’t we all simply walk FEARLESSLY and for instances of real danger, take responsibility to control our circumstances as well as we can to minimize any potential for negative experiences? Let’s all do that last part …