‘There’s Fear in the Air’ Series

What Fear Does to Health

Fear causes the body to stay in a condition of a fight or flight state. The level of adrenalin produced from feeling threatened, which we need in emergency situations, stays high. Our bodies were not made to live in that state all the time. The physical health of our bodies need rest.

Signs of Fear

When we are in a fight or flight state of existing, these signs of fear affect our health:

• Our body lacks sleep
• We do not eat regularly
• We do not eat healthy food but
• We crave food that will satisfy our emotional needs.
• Panic attacks increase because our emotions are out of control.
• We cannot concentrate or thrive as we could do in a healthy environment, because we are focused on one issue, a negative issue.

Internal Effects of Fear

The emotion of fear causes certain effects internally that can lead to chronic disease or impaired wellness. This is what happens to our bodies internally:

• Stress hormones, including adrenaline, are released when we feel threatened. When stress continues, the body stops resisting, and over time, uses up all the stores of energy released to cope with the state of emergency that the body is in.
• Being in a high state of stress, the body loses its defense ability and systems weaken, allowing illness.
• A particular illness will come in the area of most weakness. When a body system is strong, systems are strengthened, but over time of high stress, a malnourished system will weaken and start breaking down.
• When we nutritionally neglect to give the organs what they need to grow, specific organs weaken and that affects the function of other organs. Soon, we are in a state of chronic illness.

This state of high stress can spiral out of control, The eventual result is mental breakdowns. The high energy we experience will burn out the systems of operation our body uses daily. We become exhausted, our internal organs get stressed from not enough nutrition and rest and start shutting down. Our immune system starts attacking normal cellular processes and we get disease.

Fear stresses us out emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.

Bodily functions that are starved of nutrition will break down. Our bodies are growing toward decline in old age as a natural process, but fear and other negative emotions hasten that declining process.

I picture an emaciated human form locked up and unable to escape, and just waiting for the end of life. The picture I have is horrifying, but it is not far from the truth of what fear does to us. We can tell ourselves not to fear, but that does not make us fearless.

Fear leaves scars on our lives that may heal, but the scars will always be there. It would be much easier to prevent the scars of fear than to heal them. So, learning not to fear is a process.

How to Respond to Fear

I love this quote from a movie series I enjoyed, ‘Poldark’.

“Work is the thing, not drink, not despair, but build a thing, mend a thing. Even if there is hell in your heart, by the end of the day you will feel better. So, let’s build.”

1. To fear is to despair. To work is to mend your emotions. The best remedy for fear is to change the thoughts. When hard at work, or exercise, it is easier to clear the mind and change your thinking, which summarizes the process of healing.
2. The next important thing to do is change your emotion of fear to a positive one of your choice. Happiness is one of the healing emotions. Our joy of living does not depend on anyone but ourselves. Another of my favorite quotes from the movie, ‘Poldark’:

“Is our happiness contingent on his demise, or your rise contingent on his fall?”

*Note: This series ‘There’s Fear in the Air,” was started September 3, 2019. It was a great help in preparing me for a time in life where fear would try to rule in this COVID world now.