Is fear always "bad"?

Just don't let it drive.

Their is rational fear and irrational fear, and of course the condition of not knowing which one it might be! I view fear as handing over control of conscious decision making to the subconscious, at its peak that flight, fight or freeze response but at lower levels its more about attention seeking (by the subconscious) to make one focus and decide how irrational that fear might be. If the fear really is irrational, then its probably a mixed message IMO, such as the subconscious using a handy proven mechanism to try and get your attention to some other thing the subconscious is aware of but cannot port directly into conscious awareness... failing that it might be ESP hehe, or perhaps reinforcing habits of self distraction/destruction ie playing oneself against oneself across time in a pattern in what could even be called a syndrome.
But even if its rational fear, how much purpose could it ideally serve... as a detection and identification device for sure, but I get a bit cautious about handing over too much control to automated instinct as I''d guess instinct is designed for survival at all costs and that game is not really often confronted these days and even if so, not really designed for anything more then the most simple class of reactions, IMO.

The replies to this thread reminded me of this song by the love of my life -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHpvlr_kG6U&list=RDQHpvlr_kG6U&index=1

Right now fear is keeping me from making a choice that will benefit me. But when the time comes to move past that fear, I'll need it--the fear--to develop the courage to move beyond this state. There is no courage without fear, so fear is necessary to develop courage.

steamboat28 wrote: Right now fear is keeping me from making a choice that will benefit me. But when the time comes to move past that fear, I'll need it--the fear--to develop the courage to move beyond this state. There is no courage without fear, so fear is necessary to develop courage.

This is exactly right. Fear will always be. It's natural. The "good" or "bad" comes from how we decide to proceed with that fear. Courage isn't a lack of fear. It's logical action despite the fear.

I'm not certain I have anything to add. The lessons here are quite good.

Perhaps I can offer this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J6jAC6XxAI

JLSpinner wrote:

steamboat28 wrote: Right now fear is keeping me from making a choice that will benefit me. But when the time comes to move past that fear, I'll need it--the fear--to develop the courage to move beyond this state. There is no courage without fear, so fear is necessary to develop courage.

This is exactly right. Fear will always be. It's natural. The "good" or "bad" comes from how we decide to proceed with that fear. Courage isn't a lack of fear. It's logical action despite the fear.

Makes me think of some functions, for fun, being the action of equals:
fear + hope + reward = courage
fear + hope = serenity
fear + reward = passion
hope + reward = confidence
Which if accurate (all my ifs are big!), could mean fear leading to anger is specific to fear alone, left to its own device, rather then fear itself ie it left alone 'leads to' anger, hate etc. I was trying to pin down how courage felt if not just fear being confronted as I was almost going to say courage cannot be felt only observed but ended up thinking it might be felt as a mix of those three things. Which therefore, could help generate courage by perhaps making it more tangible.