Anxiety is an emotion characterised by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.
Fear is an emotional response to an immediate threat. It is more associated with a fight-or-flight reaction – either staying to fight or leaving to escape danger.
These words are often used interchangeably, but they are not synonyms.
Fear is an intense biological response to immediate danger, while anxiety is an emotion regarding things we think may happen (but probably will not).
Anxious and frightening emotions can feel the same and be easily confused, but when comparing fear vs anxiety, there are several important differences between the two.
When one feels fear, the body undergoes several near-instantaneous physical reactions designed to help us escape from danger. The heart starts to race, breathing becomes shallower and faster, and one might jump or flinch. All the physical changes that fear causes help us respond rapidly to danger.
This instantaneous physical response is one important difference when it comes to fear vs anxiety. If you are walking down a dark street, for example, and someone points a gun at you and says, “This is a robbery,” then you would likely experience a fear response. The danger is real, definite, and immediate.
Anxiety is a word we use for some types of fear that are usually to do with the thought of a threat or something going wrong in the future, rather than right now. While anxiety and fear feel similar, anxiety is a reaction to emotions instead of danger in the environment.
Suppose you are walking down a street at night. Any sounds are coming from the bushes, and the only people you see are a family walking with their dog ahead of you. Even so, you start to worry that something bad might happen. You experience a similar reaction: Your heart starts racing, your breathing becomes short and shallow, and your muscles tense up.
You are experiencing anxiety. Nothing has happened that would signal any danger; your reaction is from the possibility of danger.
First:
You are not your thoughts.
By resisting thoughts or emotions, they are getting louder. You are making them more important than they need to be, and therefore you become their biggest fan, like it is K-pop or Beatlesmania. Repression = obsession.
It is simply impossible to resist or suppress your energy. Become friends with it.
When having obsessive fears of your expression, you truly put yourself in a very low state. You blind yourself and make yourself vulnerable simply because IT CANNOT BE THE WAY. You are meant to “shine” and therefore express and radiate your energy, it cannot be retained.
You see: put things in perspective, relativize. Are you your thoughts or your emotions? No, of course not. They are your tools, they are ways of expression and are the building blocks of your life.
Note: You have your natural protection.
I strongly suggest you remind yourself of that fact often. I repeat: that is a fact of what you are, regardless of what you think, fear or believe. No thought or emotion or belief can erase that. Because it is built in your soul, just like your creative nature is. You “came” to this dimension with those two. One cannot exist without the other.
A thought, mental image or an emotion is not reality even if they participate in making reality. But because you cannot isolate one thought or emotion from your complete self (the whole), you will not manifest something horrible simply because you torture yourself with anxiety and fears. Like I said, you have your natural protection, it is something you should remind yourself of often.
So, you understand that it is perfectly safe for you to let your thoughts and feelings “flow” without needing to repress or block energy, you can start “releasing”/”being friends” with whatever comes up. KNOWING A THOUGHT IS A THOUGHT AND A FEELING IS A FEELING. This is why I recommend Buddhist meditations so often: they teach you to observe your mind and let it flow, knowing you are not it.
With time and practice, you truly build that detached attitude and become able to watch the flow of thoughts, images and emotions the same way you would observe passing clouds. Because THAT IS THE TRUTH.
You have responsibility over your mind. You should always strive to make your mind better and fear-free.
INSIGHT: Know that soon or late, the mind goes back to peace. It is part of your so-called “protection”. It is built into its nature. Some people can be in great distress one week and find perfect peace the next one. So be open to that. When you have challenging days, simply remind yourself that no struggles or emotions are forever. THEY SHALL PASS. That belief and attitude alone can help you. This is yet another benefit of not blocking the natural flow of the mind.
PS: THERE IS NO FEAR WHEN YOUR FOCUS IS ON WHAT YOU LOVE AND WHAT YOU WANT.
