{"id":1644,"date":"2022-10-10T01:12:56","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T00:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2022-10-10T01:33:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T00:33:17","slug":"miedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2022\/10\/10\/miedo\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00b4s already mid-October, and Halloween costumes and decorations are everywhere in the shops these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u00b4t say Halloween is my favourite time of the year. As I said last year<\/a>, I don\u00b4t like scary things, not even a little bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Child<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always wondered about the people who actually enjoy watching horror movies and things like that; I guess part of the fun is because it\u00b4s \u201cfake\u201d fear, I mean, it\u00b4s clear that it\u00b4s a made-up story, not reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what happens when our fear is not fake? What is fear, how does it appear, and what\u00b4s its purpose?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear is one of the emotions that are recognized as universal, that is, all human beings experiment it since birth. We also share this emotion with the animal kingdom, and as you can imagine, it\u00b4s very closely related to our survival instinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every emotion is an indicator, an alert sent by our brain to let us know that something important is happening, and each emotion brings us a different message<\/strong>. In the case of fear in particular, the message talks to us about danger, about a situation that can threaten our safety<\/strong>; that\u00b4s why our body reacts by staying still and sharpening its senses, to get ready to face the danger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most interesting thing of it all is that our brain can\u00b4t distinguish a real threat from an imaginary one, and on top of that, when faced with an unknown situation<\/strong> and lacking information, it also thinks that there may be a danger, and sets off the alarm just in case<\/strong>. It\u00b4s our brain\u00b4s way to say \"I can\u00b4t protect you beyond this point, because I don\u00b4t know what\u00b4s out there\". This is how our fear of the unknown appears, making it so difficult for us to get out of our comfort zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, fear is a tremendously useful emotion when there\u00b4s a real danger: thanks to its warning we can get to safety. But, what about situations when it shows up for other reasons, for example when faced with an important decision and worrying about the consequences, or in an uncertain situation that reaches out into the unknown? Here are a few suggestions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n