Abstract: Fear, like any other emotion, first manifests in the body. The body is the first one it signals fear by simply blocking it because fear, in whatever form, would manifest itself, leads to non-action. In order to escape the fear, we do not need to oppose them, to fight, to fight we fight in some way. It is enough to make it aware, to accept it and then to act. Action means movement, movement unlocks the body so we take control and fear does not it influences more. The equation is very simple: fear = non-action, action= fear disappears.

Absolutely all emotions manifest in our body. We can easily tell if the person in front of us is angry, cheerful, sad, happy, dreaming or maybe just in love with his body. This is the indicator of our emotional states. If we are ashamed our cheeks are red, if we get angry our jaw is bent and if we are happy many times a smile appears on our face. There are, more recently, emoticons with emotional states and we use them daily in communication. We have emoticons for each emotion and each emoticon is actually a face that laughs, cries, fears, is happy, etc. Everything manifests in the body.

We could say that when we experience positive emotions our body tends to open up, to expand its scope of action, our movements are wider, more complex. In contrast, when we experience negative emotions our body tends to tighten, to become small, to narrow its area of action. For example, when we are in love we unwrap our arms to receive the hug of our loved one, we want to dance, to walk, to let our hair flutter on our backs, we move more than usual. On the other hand, when we are sad, we have a tendency to tighten, to sit squat, to bow our heads, to put our hands in a hug around us. In other words, positive emotions relax our muscles and negative emotions contract our muscles.

When fear manifests itself in our body, regardless of its intensity - whether it's an anxiety or a state of panic, the muscles - the muscles contract and the body tightens.

The effect is that we no longer move as if we were freezing. Hence the expression “froze fear”. If this emotion - fear (in whatever form it is) - settles for a longer period in our body and mind, our capacity for action will be significantly restricted. This is why anxious people do so little action and brave ones are constantly moving. We could say that it does not act because it avoids the danger but it is just a nice way to lie, the danger is often non-existent and in this case what do we avoid? Joseph LeDoux uses in his book “Anxious. How the brain helps us to understand and treat fear and anxiety “the concept of” habitual avoidance “to describe how fear prevents us from acting”. The anxious person also develops false beliefs, that the avoidance actions would have prevented the negative results and they provide negative support for the fear and the pathological anxiety it is no longer goal-oriented and has become a usual stimulus-automatic response.

When it comes to our desires, however strange or daring they may be, the first step in their realization is action. I want a new house - I act: I go to the bank to be interested in the most advantageous loans, I go to the real estate agent to see offers on the market. I look for the most advantageous locations for me. I want a career - I act: I choose a field of activity, merge training courses, draw up a curriculum vitae and so on. All the time I need to act when I have an intention and I want that intensity to become a reality. But what if I'm afraid? Fear blocks me, my muscles contract, my body becomes rigid, my field of action narrows. It's like I'm stuck in a body that doesn't react to my commands anymore. I want, I want a career, a house, a new car, but I do nothing to make my wish come true. I do not act because I am afraid: maybe I am afraid that I cannot get my money, or that I am not good enough, or that my time is not enough. Reasons to feed the fears can be found a lot.

How do I get rid of fear? Well, there is no need to get rid of fear. It is important to make it aware. It is enough to realize that I do not buy a new house because I am afraid that I will not be able to pay my rates to the bank. By becoming aware of my fear and knowing that it is precisely she who blocks me, I begin to act. I will look for the best bank offer, the best real estate agent, the best location. In this way I will find that I can find an advantageous banking offer that will help me to support my credit, I will find a real estate agency that will offer me a house at a good price in a location that I had not even thought about and here is how my fear is just beginning to disappear. What have I done? I acted.

Fears are generally born from previous experiences. We know that only two fears are born (fear of falling into the void and fear of loud noises) and the rest are learned. We can only learn by experimenting, therefore most fears come from previous experiences. “The brain can be effectively blocked because of the desire to feel pain or fear again. We can be afraid of people's actions. In relationships, deep, buried feelings, felt in previous rejections, can reveal in us the fear of being left by the partner, of being left alone so we can use protective behaviors that can be full of contradictions.” M. Yousry, p. 20 But what are the chances that an unpleasant experience will be repeated endlessly in our lives?

Each of us has different ways of living our fear. There are people who have an anxious, fearful structure, who live in a permanent state of doubt and people who frighten them a little from time to time, but rarely so that we call them “brave”. Their secret is not courage but rather action. By acting, their fear simply disappears.

Fear and anxious states are also determined by our way of relating to some situations, some people or events in our life. In the book “How to control your anxiety. Get the best of your worries, stress and fears. “B. Moore describes a situation where two mothers come home from work and both receive the same message on the phone from their children's teacher:” Please call me when you can. I would like to discuss your son. Although the message is the same, the reaction of the mothers is different: one thinks that her son is making progress and the teacher wants to inform her about these progresses, the other is convinced that the teacher wants to discuss some “trick” her son has made. they at school. And in this situation it is the action that solves the problem: by calling a teacher, the mother can find out what is happening to her son and will know what to do next.

Osho says that “fear itself is powerless, it has no power. Only the fact that you want to believe in it is the only thing that gives it power”. In other words, if we leave ourselves to our fears, we will not be able to achieve anything more than what we propose or what we want but if we act, even with a lot of fears in the back, which will be more frightening, we will notice that our desires begin to take shape and materialize.

Le Doux Joseph. (2018). Anxious, how not to create more intelligence and to deal with fear and anxiety. Publishing Association of Cognitive Sciences of Romania.

Moore, Bret A. (2016). How to control your anxiety? Get the best of worries, stress and fears. Bucharest: Trei Publishing House.

Osho. (2016). Fear. To understand and accept the uncertainty of life. Bucharest: Litera Publishing House.

1Psychotherapist, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati 800654, Romania, Tel.: +40372361102; Fax: +40372361290, Coresponding author: zzimona23@yahoo.com.

New Trends in Psychology, Vol. 1, no 2/2019, pp. 24-27