Fear is our primary emotion of all.
Its job is to protect us.
A well connection to our fear is matter of survival, a matter of life and death!
It is interesting to see that fear appears at the base of emotions also in Abraham Maslow's pyramid of needs.
Its illustration is attached.
This psychological theory defines 5 level of needs.
The needs in the first level are physiological: breath, food etc.
And the needs of the second level are Safety - which are related to fear.
According to the yogic anatomy, our fear sits in the first (base) chakra (muladhara) which is in the base of the spine. And the emotion which is related to this chakra is fear.
Again we see that fear is our primary emotion.
Every chakra have a parallel physical gland in our body.
The gland which is related to the first chakra is the adrenal.
The adrenal gland becomes active in fight-or-flight conditions, strong fear.
It is interesting to see the connection between fear and the base of our spine which is the location of the first chakra in the language:
There is a saying that describes scare to death: "to shit in the pans out of fear"
Which is actually what may happens when someone experience a sever fear of death.
Because he looses his control on the body - will be discussed later on.
In relation to this, it is interesting to see that in Hebrew the word for strong fear is HALHALA which is similar to HALHOLET which is the rectum - and that is related to the mentioned above - Base of the spine, shit in pants.
There are many types of fear, fear of death, of loss, of pain.
And it is natural and good that we are all have fears.
Through our life we gather many experience and attach them to fear.
And even when we grow up we continue to be afraid of them although there is no need.
Fear from our parents, fear from our boss, from authority...
Fear of being beloved, of being not beloved, fear of speaking in public...
Fear of insects, snakes, claustrophobia, agoraphobia...
Fear is a very strong emotion that takes over our mental part.
This is where we lose judgment.
These are strong emotional mechanism.
In many cases fear does not really helps us.
Sometimes it even disturbs us.
It can stands in our way to self fulfillment.
It can weaken our health, by over using the adrenal gland.
When we are full of fear and it takes over us, actually we are satisfying this primary emotion.
And the mental force is being surrender in face of the emotion force.
unconsciously we love strong feelings who take over us, conquer and fill us.
This is why we love horror movies, and children like being afraid.
Maybe we are even addicted to this a bit and letting the fear to take over us.
This is another case where our mental part is surrender in front of the feeling.
Yoga teaches us restraint.
And avoid surrender to the immediate satisfaction.
Yoga strength our mental part, and our body.
It teaches us to enjoy the pleasure of conquering the emotions.
Thus releases us from slavery to emotions and satisfaction, who are leading us in wrong circles of suffering.
Some times we see photos of yogis on top of a cliff.
Such two are attached.
Why?
This is exactly the reason. It demonstrate the fear being conquered by the mental force.
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