What do you fear?

The other day, someone asked me what I feared. After much thought, I found I could not answer them. This isn't to say that I have no fears. Nothing could be farther from the truth; I'm a coward. Yet I haven't actually thought out my fears... they are just something I experience. Most of this morning was spent trying to articulate my fears to myself.

I deeply fear trust. I fear people suddenly turning on me. I fear uselessness, and being forgotten. Moreso, I fear dreams and aspirations. Not that I think they are dangerous, but that I might chase them and end up in a place much worse. Of course, there are leftover fears from childhood, such as being alone in the dark. Being in abandoned, decrepit, and lonely places. The latter derives from earlier fears of the supernatural, while I think the former is common fears that most people would have concerning relationships and themselves.

In fact, the only fear I've ever managed to defeat was the fear of heights. Other than that, I'm every bit of the coward I was as a child, if not more so.

What are your fears? And what do you think they say about you?

Greetings,

I have also been contemplating my fears lately. Currently I am taking one of my electives in college dealing with religion, and one of the topics has been Buddhist teachings. As I was studying the Four Noble Truths, which consists of (1) Life is Suffering, (2) Suffering comes from desire, (3) There is a way to end suffering which comes from ending desire, (4) That ending desire can come from following the Eightfold Noble Path, I have come to the conclusion that I suffer greatly from desire. It seems to overrun my mental patterns. That no matter how much I intellectually know that I should react in certain ways, I let it take a hold of me, then dwell upon it.

My number one fear comes from abandonment and being cheated upon. It first started with the divorce of my parents. My mother has been wrapped up in addiction to drugs and sex, to the point where she neglected my sister and I to the point of malnutrition. My father was rarely home because of his work. All my mom had to do to have join custody with my father was to check into rehabilitation, but she chose not to. So my distrust of female figures began there. Since then, I have been cheated on by partners so many times my head could explode. In my previous marriage, I decided to instead of ending the relationship, I decided to cheat. I developed a sex addiction. It was really bad there for a while. In my currently relationship, many of my unhealthy thoughts intruded when my wife's ex-boyfriend got involved in her life again, confessing his love for her and all that. I became exceedingly jealous...so much that I began to emotionally separate myself from her. I tried to talk to her about how I felt about this person but I felt she was ignoring me. I began to talk to someone that felt my pain...needless to say, I ended up having an emotional affair on my wife. All due to insecurity and lack of faith and trust. Since then, I realize that my negative emotions have a tendency to create self-fulfilling prophecies. I need to overcome these demons if I am to live a full and happy life.

That is where the teachings of the Temple of the Jedi Order have helped. I have begun to explore myself, to understand where these fears originate from, have sought counseling for them, and while I still feel the emotions and feelings, I have improved on how I deal with them. The root issue is attachment. I must obtain a serious mind focused upon equilibrium with life, and let go of my fear to experience life as it really is, and not at how my Monkey Mind perceives it.

Thank you for posting your thoughts as I wouldn't have had the strength to confront these demons in a public way.

I fear that I might be the cause of another's suffering.

That is a great question… :laugh:
And, I have no idea. :huh:

Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT implying that I have no fears. Well, I guess right now I don’t. But I have feared things before. I have been afraid! I’m sure I will fear again… but as to what I fear right now, I don’t!?!? :S

I’ve thought about it. There were a few constant fears I had years ago, like failure, not having the money to care for my daughter, letting people down and worst of all I use to fear myself. What I was capable of, the choices I could make if left to me own devises. Not that I was evil in any way or anything like that. I was, well, I had my moments of being a complete idiot! Not to say I don’t do dumb things now.

I don’t know that you ever completely defeat your fears, but I have not feared any of these things in quite a while. :whistle:

Now there are things that concern me and may cause me to plan ahead for their possible eventuality, but it is not the same as fear. It doesn’t have the same gripping effect or control over me, my thoughts or emotional state.

I have said before that anyone that tells you they don’t fear anything is either a liar or insane. I honestly don’t feel as though I am deceiving anyone so I guess I must be down the path of insanity… but I don’t feel crazy!

My fear is to live my life in no control or order.

I read this earlier and have been thinking..
I believe I also fear people taking things I'm saying out of context and twisting my words into something I didn't mean... because it's happened a few times by people I thought would know me better than that.
I worry a lot about what others think of me.. probably a bit too much. I know I make mistakes but I also believe that I am a good person who is trying every day to do and be better.
Another of my fears is that I won't. That I will fail.
I worry about causing people pain and have a very difficult time forgiving myself when I do.

I also fear public speaking and being in the spotlight very much.. but I face that fear quite often and it makes me nervous every time.

Really, when it comes down to it - I fear what others think of me and that I will end up doing or saying something to cause them pain somehow.

And also aliens... but that's just silly so it doesn't count.

Oh boy. It might be easier for me to tell you what I DON'T fear haha. I have anxiety issues so fear is something I've seriously been working on for the last several years.

I'm afraid of new things (doing new things, going to new places) I need something really big to drive me to do something alone. I'm afraid of hurting my family or losing them. Physically or mentally. I'm terrified of becoming my mother. I'm afraid of decisions and where those choices will lead (sometimes even deciding what to eat feels like a life-altering choice). My fear of abandonment has mostly subsided. I'm afraid of making a mistake. I'm afraid of not having control.

I don't know what my fears say about me. They're as much apart of me as breathing. A dragon that I've been trying to tame for a lifetime. She and I are starting to come to terms with each other.

I fear that i could be bound, chained and locked up. Forgotten and that i would spend the rest of this lifetime in a cell, a cage or bound by a wall.

Everyone if afraid of something and maybe many things.

I fear being weak and not being the master of my fears.

Do Phobias count?