The Depths of Our Fears

It’s already April, and at Experience Writing that means it’s time for NaPoWriMo (National (Global) Poetry Writing Month) and the A-Z Challenge. Continuing this year’s theme, I’m writing about the A to Z of Depth.

“we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.“—Seneca

Fear serves a very important role in our lives. It can be a physical response to help us react to life-threatening situations. Our sympathetic nervous system’s fight, flight, or freeze response to stimuli increases our heart rate and breathing providing oxygen to our limbs, dilates our eyes for better low-light vision, slows digestion, releases glucose for a burst of energy, stimulates sweat glands for temperature regulation, and more. All of this is helpful when facing a rational fear stimulus like a rattlesnake’s rattle, or the roar of a wild lion. But we also develop irrational fears which trigger the fear response when it is not helpful.

Irrational fears are fears directed at things with little or no opportunity to harm us. They may also be a disproportionate and debilitating response to common rational fears. These fears, often formed in childhood, can be subconscious and stop us from doing things we want to do. It’s important to identify and get to the depths of these fears to understand where they came from and confront them so our fear response is working for us and not against us.

Facing Fears

In my post for B, Deep-seated Belief, I offered up an exercise for identifying and changing our fears.

Let’s continue that exercise with “The Premeditation of Evils” (premeditatio malorum) a stoic practice from Seneca. This is a visualization exercise to prepare us for the unknown.

Take a look at one of your fears. List specific actions you are afraid to do because of that fear. Choose one of those actions and imagine doing it. What are the worst things that could happen? Let the serious to the silly come to mind and imagine them clearly. Now imagine what you can do to prevent or lessen the damage of those worst case scenarios. Next, imagine your recovery from those worst case scenarios. What will you learn from the experience? How will you grow stronger?

Now that you’re prepared, it’s not so frightening. Right?

This idea is presented as a writing exercise called Fear-setting in Tim Ferriss’s TED Talk
starting at five minutes & fifteen seconds.

Writober

Over the last few years, I’ve taken on hosting my favorite October blogging events after the hosts dropped away one by one. Every day in October I offer poetry prompts for OctPoWriMo, image prompts for Writober flash fiction, and one word prompts for a Halloween photography challenge. The Writober themes are around fear.

Last year we explored the five universal human fears: ego death, separation, loss of autonomy, mutilation, and extinction. I also offered activities to overcome fear of the blank page. Any time you would like to take a look at those posts, just scroll down to the bottom of the main page and select October 2024 from the Month box.

Oh, and speaking about Halloween, I was really happy to come across 15andmeowing where the A to Z Challenge theme this month is Halloween.

This year we’ll be exploring The Depths of Fear all month. Toward that end, I’ve already discovered some interesting resources.

Fran Krause’s Deep Dark Fears (Tumblr): Fran takes submissions from readers about their fears and draws them as comics. He has published two books of these comics: Deep Dark Fears and The Creeps _{(amazon associate links)}. After looking at the comics and knowing that they are based on people’s submitted fears, I found it really interesting that Fran said his books are on banned book lists. I think that speaks volumes about how humans, collectively, don’t want to face our fears.

Today’s Poem

Never an Opera

I wasn’t an opera
even in my hormone-fueled
blossoming days; I didn’t
literally visit hell
or lead a revolution
though there were crazed lust-filled arias
a banda of love triangles and jealousies
coloratura of raging arguments
and the curtain calls of so many endings
I didn’t plot revenge
no blood stained my hands

I am not an opera
I focus on harmony and calm ease
The overture has ended
I have learned how to breath
though the dynamics of life
are beyond my control
and my imagination presents
catastrophes so clearly
I reflect during intermissions
without plotting a kidnapping or entrapment
I don’t desire to test your faithfulness

I will never be an opera
even as a batty old broad
when I become supenumerary
I will still be a spinto alto
in the vibrato of my verismo
I may crash a chandelier or two
bring some shame to the family
or become disfigured, but
being deprived of my honor
I won’t take my own life
and I won’t haunt the theater

This poem was inspired by today’s prompts at NaPoWriMo and Writer’s Digest’s April Poem a Day (PAD) Challenge.

Thank you so much for coming by and reading my post. Any thoughts or questions about Fear? Did you try the exercise? How did it go? Come back tomorrow for more depth exploration and poetry. I hope you will put Writober on your calendar and join me in October for another month of daily prompts celebrating the Halloween season through poetry and art (and flash fiction).