About Fear: Fear Not Fear

In recent months, the pandemic situation and its consequences (especially regarding health measures and media coverage) have led many to exchange messages which deal with fear: some are afraid, others accuse some of being afraid, some try to ward off their fear, others urge them not to give in to fear, etc. For about two months, many of my contacts on social networks competed in inventiveness to denounce the presumed fear of the others or his presumed absence of fear, and this often with the finesse and cordiality that are typical of social media. “Fear” or its absence then became a binary moral judgment between a side of the good (represented by the presumed fearful or the presumed unfearful) and a side of the wicked (represented by the other). In the end, everyone seems afraid (of Covid-19 or of Bill Gates / WHO / vaccines / Deep State / Big Pharma, your choice) and accuses the other of being afraid (of Bill Gates / WHO / vaccines / State Profond / Big Pharma or of Covid-19, your choice).

But is fear necessarily bad? Couldn’t there be, like stress, a “good fear” and a “bad fear”? Does being afraid necessarily make someone a contemptible person? The Wim Hof ​​Method, but also rock climbing and mountaineering, taught me a couple of things about it.

One important thing that rock climbing has taught me is that fear can be of two types: rational or irrational. Fear manifests itself in unusual situations, where the break in routine comfort makes us feel in danger. It is a situation perceived as a risk to his health, his integrity and even his life. However, past the fear reflex, which is an unconscious reaction, the conscious and rational analysis makes it possible to assess whether this fear is rational or irrational.

The first time you are hanging on a rope, you think it will not go well, that you risk your life etc … Understand that you are attached to a rope and a belay system provided for this effect is the first step to integrate the fact that there is no reason to be afraid. Besides the material, one can argue that this activity has been practiced for a long time by many people and does not produce hecatombs. Over the course of the practice, the fear reflex diminishes and, very quickly, we find ourselves falling by several meters, simply to attempt a movement. We realized that this fear was irrational.

In other cases, the fear is indeed rational: imagine the section of a climbing route where it is not possible to be adequately belayed, and where a fall is synonymous with injury or worse. In this case, we must assess the risks and decide to go ahead or turn back. If you decide to move forward, to face a real danger, then it is better to leave fear aside and follow an adapted strategy by remaining calm and focused. But the fear does not disappear, it is simply silenced for the time to act. In both cases, the feeling of fear is a warning. One can easily conclude by an obviousness, namely that it is not reasonable to maintain an irrational fear; but that it’s reasonable to acknowledge rational fear. Fear, an emotional reaction, becomes counselor as soon as it summons reason.

What happens when you show up for the first time in front of an ice bath? What emotion invades us the first time that, almost naked, we are facing all these ice cubes and it is difficult to project ourselves among them? Well, even if we certainly have feelings of excitement, motivation and self-confidence (especially thanks to the work of the certified Wim Hof ​​Method instructor who prepared you 😉 ), it is classic to experience a dose of fear . More or less important. And that’s normal. Even after repeating the experiment quite a few times, and this is one of the beauties of this method but it is another story.

Still, the mental process of experiencing the ice bath is quite similar to what has been described above. An emotional reaction of fear to a situation of extreme discomfort, which is in dissonance with the fact that this practice, even if it is not common, does not produce hecatombs every year. After the first ice bath, we understand that staying 2 minutes in this bath did not kill us. The fear of the following baths is then clearly an irrational fear. During the following baths, we are better equipped to carry out the work necessary to see fear disintegrate. As far as I am concerned, I found the Wim Hof Method to be a very effective tool, not for “never being afraid again, being limitless, etc.”, but precisely for identifying irrational fears and making them silent.

This brings me to another important point that the Wim Hof ​​Method taught me about fear: this method is precisely a work on fear. The practice of the second and third pillars in particular (exposure to cold, and mental work) is work on discomfort, perceived limits and vulnerability. On discomfort because we voluntarily put ourselves in a situation of stress, in this case extreme cold. On the perceived limits because it is a mental work allowing to manage a situation that one would have imagined impossible before starting to practice. On vulnerability because, even when “going beyond perceived limits”, we project ourselves into a situation so uncomfortable that the only way out is to accept our own vulnerability and to give way to a certain letting go, in order to manage situation appropriately. Accepting one’s own vulnerability and fear are associated feelings. Indeed, if I never feel fear, then I must think I am absolutely invulnerable, which is an illusion. On the other hand, if I am aware of my vulnerability, I am right to be afraid. And from there, I can wonder if it is a rational or irrational fear.

To conclude, rather to tell stories by thinking that fear is for the weak, it seems to me more judicious to recognize fear as a normal human experience and, not only to accept it, but to learn from it . Getting stuck in irrational fear is harmful. Recognizing a rational fear allows you to put in place a strategy of escape from danger, and allows you to move forward.

Fear not fear, learn from it.

🔥❄️🧠✌️

Sébastien.

P.S.: Obviously, deciphering between rational and irrational fear is not always trivial… but that’s another story.