Conquering fear

The code and the Doctrine state that fear can be conquered through faith in the Force. But how is it applied?

I guess that everybody has a lot of experience of conquering fear with pure meditation.

The question is - what if meditation does not help?

For example, imagine a novice (Jedi) boxer, who is afraid before going to the ring. Meditation doesn't work for him in this example (and I suppose in real life, it rarely works too).

For me, there are two kinds of fear: one that can be meditated out and one that should be acted upon.

I can only speak from my experience, and my experience is that meditation hasn't really done much for my fears.

I am needle phobic.. the only way I have managed to get to a point where I can have blood taken is simply by repeated exposure and a lot of positive talking.

I think that it's all about attitude.. you can say, I am afraid, it's too strong or too tough, I don't want to do it. Or you can say, I am afraid, but I don't have to be, I am tougher than this.

In which case I guess I believe that all fears are ones than can be acted upon.

den385 wrote: The code and the Doctrine state that fear can be conquered through faith in the Force. But how is it applied?

I guess that everybody has a lot of experience of conquering fear with pure meditation.

The question is - what if meditation does not help?

For example, imagine a novice (Jedi) boxer, who is afraid before going to the ring. Meditation doesn't work for him in this example (and I suppose in real life, it rarely works too).

For me, there are two kinds of fear: one that can be meditated out and one that should be acted upon.

In order to "conquer" fear, one has to accept that fear is going to happen, but don't let it make your choices for you. Each fear is different. You have to identify the root of the fear, acknowledge it, and remove any power it has over you.

How one gets to that point is entirely up to the individual. In the case of this boxer, the more he gets hit in the face, the less "afraid" he'll be of getting hit in the face. I think that in this case the fear comes from not knowing what's going to happen. Fear of getting knocked out, of getting hurt, of disappointing someone if he loses. All those things can be factors.

As for the last bit there, there are never two kinds of anything. You don't meditate fear out and you certainly don't act upon it. You can use meditation for introspection and as a way to understand the root of each fear, but meditation alone will not rid anyone of any fear except maybe fear of the dark. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your use of "act upon" here, but in my opinion, fear is the worst motive for any action.

You're going to be afraid of things. It's a natural physiological reaction. The key is to not let it control you. How someone does that is entirely up the the individual.

A fear may be overcome through courage: taking action and facing it, despite one's fear, through realization and acceptance of what is more important in the moment. "Faith in the Force" to me is another way of saying the same thing. "The Force" depicts the "bigger picture" (which is what we realize is what is most important), and the realization of it is where we may find our faith about the whole affair.

^ Has helped me numerous of times.

Well I'm just a guest so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Fear is an emotion if you want to control it then it will help to study personality types that do so. Link provided below.

INTJ Emotions

The important thing to take away is that you don't stop feeling it you just control it using the part of your personality that is stronger. For the INTJ this is logic for other personality types it may be duty, discipline, confidence or mate ship. Now think about organisations that train people to excel in fearful situations. The Army maybe for example. Think about the values they try to instil. Analyse your own personality and find the part that will overcome fear.

Personally I like the INTJ approach (kind of bias this way thought). Fear is an important emotion that you never want to lose. You actually want to be very sensitive to it (feel it intensely) so you can listen to what it is telling you. After you have listened though you need to suppress its so that it does not have negative effects on you. Logic does this for me.

Eg. Thanks fear for letting me know to watch my step on this high ledge. I must cross this ledge for a very good reason so I will be mindful of my step and check that the rock is stable.

Fully suppressing fear will eventually get you killed. Control it just enough that it doesn't cause you to hesitate or make a wrong choice but keep it in the background so you can listen to its warnings.

Visualization can help. Imagining in high detail undertaking the activity in various scenario's of both winning and losing. The loses can help prepare and create an opportunity for creativity to solve the problems, while the wins can help refine application and give a boost to confidence.

To empower that process, I'd also do some visualization prep for things your really good at, or just not afraid of... so the subconscious knows that what you visualize can indeed come true. Work the technique to make it more effective, in making you more effective. So if you get to a freak out moment you can fall back onto the libraries of visualizations as a foundation of preparedness. Forewarned is forearmed ~ praemonitus praemunitus

That said, sometimes fear can be an important warning to information you have not yet processed consciously, just to confuse things :lol:

Fear is coming.

It's like a train. And you're standing right in the middle of the tracks.

Fear is coming.

You can't stop it. You're not strong enough to halt the motion of so much steel and power.

Fear is coming.

It's coming fast. Too fast. You don't have time to run, or duck, or dodge, or hide.

Fear is coming.

But if you stand perfectly still, if you face it, if you show it that you refuse to give in to its overpowering whistle, the terrifying speed of its wheels, you'll find it's just a ghost train.

And it will pass right through you, and be on its merry way.

You're talking about bravery, den. Conquering fear is about doing what you're afraid of doing, not eliminating fear so that you can do it.

I agree with Streen and Proteus and Oneiros and Edan on this topic.

Grit is my answer.

Meditation used to help to get rid of internal fears, yet external fears can not be worked out with meditation.

* By "acting upon fear" I meant applying courage and will to proceed through the fear.

I sincerely thank everyone, may the Force be with you.