Ah October–the month when ghosts and ghouls come out of hiding, spider webs are hung as decorations, witches cast their spooky spells and we visit haunted houses because we actually want to be scared. This is the one time of year when we enjoy and even celebrate feelings of fear.
What about the other eleven months of the year though? Isn’t fear a feeling that we normally try to avoid? Isn’t fear a feeling that we normally should try to avoid?
The answer to these questions is yes…and, no.
Yes, clearly we need to take the steps necessary to keep us out of certain kinds of scary situations. Don’t go walking alone at night down dark, scary alleys on the sketchy side of town. Don’t go skydiving from a plane without first making sure that your parachute is packed correctly and don’t poke a sleeping Grizzly Bear with a stick. These kinds of activities are bound to result in the kind of fear that should most definitely be avoided at all costs.
What about other kinds of fear though? What about the fear that many people have of public speaking or the suffocating fear of failure that most of us experience from time to time?