Page 1 - We Need To Learn To Overcome Fear, TOI, 13.09.16
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9/19/2016
        The Times of India
        Title : the speaking tree ­ We Need To Learn To Overcome Fear
        Author : Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
        Location :
        Article Date : 09/13/2016

        Fear is a common problem. What is fear? According to the dictionary, it is a feeling of distress, apprehension, or
        alarm caused by a sense of impending danger. To overcome fear, some counseling experts prescribe certain
        techniques which are physical in nature. Fear, however, being a problem of the mind, is unlikely to be allayed by
        physical solutions.

        As a rational animal, human beings can readily accept only that kind of answer which addresses reason. So, the
        right way to proceed is to identify the cause of fear and then eradicate it by reasoning. If one's mind can reason
        things out, it can surely succeed in overcoming fear.

        It is a common experience to arrive at the railway station and find that your train is late. If there is a rational
        cause for its lateness, you will have no anxiety about it. But if the reason for the train being late is not known,
        you will become apprehensive. This example illustrates that the only way to solve the problem of fear is to
        reason it out.


        I should like to share a personal experience which has some relevance here. I am a born perfectionist. That is
        why i have always wanted things to be in impeccable order. Whenever i have found things not to be in perfect
        order, i have become very troubled and distressed.This anxiety increased to such a great extent during my
        childhood that i wrote a poem on it. The following is one of its verses: `Zindagani hai ke ya khwab koi
        vehshatnaak'   Life seems to me to be a dreadful dream.


        I have read and thought a lot about this subject. It is obvious that this is a common problem for every man and
        woman. But, in this world, according to the law of nature, man has to live with contradictions. That is, man is
        himself a perfectionist, while the world itself is far from perfect. Things will frequently be seen not to be in
        perfect order. After this dis covery, i developed a realistic approach to life. `Maturity is the ability to live with
        things we cannot change.' Bearing this in mind, i was able to rationalise the issue and live with a tension­free
        mind.

        Although fear seems to be external, in reality it is within one's own mind. Often when people enter a dark room,
        they think that some deadly animal is crawling across the floor. But when they switch on the light, they realise
        that there was nothing of the sort in the room. It had only been a figment of their imagination. Therefore, the
        solution to the problem of fear cannot be found outside oneself, but has to be managed at the level of one's own
        mind.

        Fear is apparently a negative experience, but there is also a positive aspect to it. That is, fear is like an
        intellectual earthquake for our minds.It stimulates intellectual activity , which leads to creative thinking. In this
        sense, fear has an important role to play in our lives.


        Fear is an integral part of life. It keeps one's mind alive. Without fear, one risks descending into a state of
        intellectual stagnation. We have, therefore, only one option before us, and that is, to control our minds so that we
        may regard fear as a positive rather than a negative phenomenon.

        Follow Maulana Wahiduddin Khan at speakingtree.in and post your comments there.












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