Kate Ashley-Norman is a long-time resident, entrepreneur, mum, and owner of The Didim Hypnotherapy Clinic
WHAT a mess this world is in! Our politicians are falling over their own, and each other’s, ineptitudes. Masked warriors are cutting a swathe through what little peace existed in the Middle East. Cold winds are once again whistling through the Crimea. The UK only narrowly avoided its own geographical beheading.
News bulletins lurch from one crisis to another. Natural disaster follows man-made disaster follows natural disaster. Stony faced world leaders make their exultations from their televised pulpits, but the ineffectuality of their words gets lost in sound-bites and sabre rattling.
World crises have created their own industry – from the press crews that risk death and kidnapping to the Think Tanks who comment on every obvious and hidden nuance, to the rolling 24 hour news and media agencies, and instant access social media. It would appear the world is spiralling out of control.
But switch off the news, lay down your newspaper, and tuck away your Smart phone and tablet, and what do you have? – A life that continues as normal.
You wake up to a routine of shower, shave, breakfast, you shop in the supermarket, watch Loose Women, and the X-Factor, or Strictly Come Dancing. Babies are born, people get cancer, people overcome cancer, others die. It rains. It’s sunny. Homework gets set, and then avoided. You book your holidays. You book appointments with doctors, dentists, hairdressers. In essence, life continues as normal for the vast majority of us.
Yet the fear lingers. And it is this ‘fear’ we fear most of all. David L. Altheide says in his excellent book, ‘Creating Fear – News & the Construction of Crisis’ – “Fear has become a dominant public perspective. Fear begins with fear, but over time, with enough repetition and expanded use, it becomes a way of looking at life.”
Anyone who has a severe phobia will understand how that phobia can sometimes become so entrenched in your everyday life you simply cannot imagine a life without it – it becomes an intrinsic part of you that you somehow ‘manage’ on a day to day basis.
Emetophobia – the fear of vomiting – is an extreme example of how a simple fear can creep into every area of your daily existence. Emetophobes try and exert control over every area of their lives to avoid vomiting themselves or being confronted by the possibility of others vomiting. Emetophobia is a way of looking at life through fear.
The Oxford English dictionary defines fear as ‘an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm,’ and also as ‘a feeling of anxiety concerning the outcome of something, or the safety of someone.’
Ultimately fear is something we all experience – it is in its purest form a natural physiological reaction. But fear itself becomes caught up in the maelstrom of our thinking and belief. And the fears we have these days contribute to the stresses and anxieties that plague our modern day 21st century lives, and eventually contribute to very real mental and physical conditions and diseases.
Perspective is a great friend to whom we do not turn to often enough. Maintaining perspective is the first step to helping yourself allay these fears, and working towards managing your thinking more effectively.
As David Altheide concluded: “Danger is not enigmatic. Fear is. Danger does not define an expanding array of news reports. Fear does. Danger can be dealt with one event at a time. Fear cannot. We must return to a sense of proportion. “