Fear Not!

     I hate being startled awake by a dream of falling. Like Wile E. Coyote scrambling for a non-existent Acme parachute, I am jolted awake in terror. I have spent a day on the dirt bike, and that night caught awesome air in my dreams just to have the bike disappear. As I plummet toward earth my whole body spasms, startling both myself and my wife awake. Buses, trains, and cars have also been flying through the air just to vanish. Leaving me in mid flight and falling into an abyss. What the heck? Why am I not buckling my seat belt?

     Psychologists believe that the fear of falling is the only fear we have that is not learned. This phenomena in infants is called the Moro reflex. I'm not sure what it is called when a middle aged guy is falling off of cliffs in his dreams. (Messed up would be a good term since this is a family show). According to Ernst Morrow- the Austrian pediatrician who originally began studying why infants experience sudden bouts of terror- the fear of falling is innate to us as human beings. In babies, it is characterized by a gasp and arms flung wide in an effort to grasp and hold on to something. Crying usually follows. Wow, just like my experiences. OK, not the crying. Usually.

     If the Moro reflex is the only fear that is not learned, where do we learn all of our other fears? Some fears are good, they may save us from certain destruction, but most fears are not good. They hold us back from experiencing much of what life on this rock offers. Past bad experiences can lead to the expectation of the same outcome or can cause us to develop a phobia. Though many of our fears were shared with us by our parents either through actions or words.

     What are your biggest fears? Do they have a name or is it just vague feelings of impending doom? What are they keeping you from experiencing? Are they good or bad? How did you learn these fears? Are they justifiable?

     If FDR was right in: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself", what could you do to get rid of this fear? List three things that you can do, then do them!