why is fear such a huge part of
our lives?
But why is fear such a huge part of
our lives?
By world standards, we are incredibly
well off,
so why are we still afraid of not
having
enough? And we were obviously good
enough
to get as far as we are, so why are
we still
afraid of not being enough? Where
does all this
fear come from?
The answer is in the structure of the
brain. The
brain stem, which we share with
lizards, is the
part with the fight/flight/freeze
response. Our
ancestors needed this part for the
dangerous
situations they encountered before we
all
started building houses and living
safe, cushy
lives indoors. If a big, hungry
animal is after
you, you don’t have time to ponder,
you need
the fear instinct to kick in with
fight, flee, or
freeze, immediately! This reaction is
out of
place in modern life, when the most
dangerous
thing most of us face is probably a
stapler, but
we still have the brain stem looking
at
everything with fear, because that’s
what it’s
built for.
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