November 7, 2016
Interview with Jaimal Yogis, author of the book The Fear Project
Mike Carruthers: In human evolution fear has played an important role.
Jaimal Yogis: It was meant to react to a real threat; a tiger, a tree falling – to give us some extra energy in the moment.
Jaimal Yogis, author of the book The Fear Project, says today the things we fear come at us through our TV screens and our computer monitors.
And the primal brain, where fear comes from (it’s very near the brainstem), doesn’t differentiate between screens and the real world. So chronic stress and fear are common these days and its part of why 40 million Americans are suffering from anxiety disorders every year.
When you think about it fear is really all in your head it’s what you do with it that really matters.
The trick again is turning fear around and saying, “Ok this is normal; this heart rate, this sweat on the skin, this is a natural reaction.” And kind of turn it into excitement and say, “Ok I’m giving this speech right now, I might be a little nervous but I’m excited and that means I’m going to do well – that means this is going to be fun.” So this is what elite athletes do and this is what performers do and it’s what we everyday people have to learn to do too with fear.
Things in your future may seem fearful but it’s important to remember that many of the things we fear never happen. And Jaimal recalls an excellent quote…
I think it was Churchill who said, “We can’t know the future but the past should give us hope.” We’ve survived so many atrocities as humans where people thought the world would end and it didn’t.
