Battling your worst fears
Fear is by far the most crippling of human emotions. Last night, I saw the film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara which left a lasting impression on me. Three boys on a holiday in Spain deal with the fear that each one cradles for many years. They face their fears through different experiences and release themselves of this incapacitating emotion that keeps a person caged in a box.
The expression on the actors’ faces, as they escape an attack by raging bulls, that joy and fearlessness spelt freedom for me. The movie made me think about how important it is to confront what makes you fearful, and break it down and expel it from your system.
I had once seen a movie about a couple, who visit a clinic to deal with their problems and emotions that weigh them down. The man, meek and fearful, hides behind his wife for protection. I remember the scene in the movie where they chain the man, and a short distance away, have some men maul his wife whom he dearly loved. The man breaks the chains goes charging towards his wife to protect her, in short he breaks free of his fears.
My uncle Ranbir suffered from prostrate cancer not to mention some other forms of the disease as well. Several years ago, when he first found out about the ailment, he kept it a secret from his family for five years, till he had no choice but to tell them.
“The fear that my family had regarding the disease would have gotten to me, and would have killed me. It was better that the fear was deleted from this already dismal scenario,” he explained to me. Now after 12 years, the man leads an unbelievably healthy and normal life, the reason for this is
that he is devoid of fear.
However, when my father was suffering from a heart disease, I was ridden by the tremendous fear of losing him. Being away in Mumbai with him in Delhi, I would constantly keep checking my phone. “Don’t be afraid when I am alive. I feel that at least when I am dead you would have gotten rid of this gnawing emotion, which is eating into you,” he would say to me.
When he passed away I understood what he meant. After my father’s death, I started facing situations that made me fearful and crippled me, working towards the freedom and power that comes from fearlessness.
As an image consultant for the Miss India pageant, I found that contestants’ biggest hurdle is their battle with the fear of being on the stage with the world as an audience, and the fear of answering incorrectly. I find that my biggest challenge is to create an aura of fearlessness around them.
These are some of the fears, which we can work on and liberate ourselves. We need to look deep within ourselves and see what are the aspects that pull us down. Analyse these issues and become aware of them, and after that try and erase them from our being. However, what is frightening is the fear that is generated in
our society leaves us totally helpless and frustrated.
The bomb blasts that occurred in our city recently created a fear of the unknown. Here the system has to help and become far more functional and proactive to keep its people safe and protected.
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