Title:- Courage: The remedy of fear and fatigue.

 

This is part of a more general technique for the avoidance of fear. Worry is a form of fear, and all forms of fear produce fatigue. A man who has learnt not to feel fear will find the fatigue of daily life enormously diminished. Now fear, in its most harmful form, arises where there is some danger which we are unwilling to face. At odd moments horrible thoughts dart into our minds; what they are depends upon the person, but almost everybody had some kind of lurking fear. With one man it is cancer, with another financial ruin, with a third the discovery of some disgraceful secret, a fourth is tormented by jealous suspicions, a fifth is haunted at night by the thought that perhaps the tales of hellfire told him when he was young may be true. Probably all these people employ the wrong technique for dealing with their fear; whenever it comes into their mind, they try to think of something else; they distract their thoughts with amusement or work, or what not. Now every kind of fears grows worse by not being looked at. The effort of turning away one’s thoughts is a tribute to the horribleness of the spectre from which one is averting one’s gaze; the proper course with every kind of fear is to think about it rationally and calmly, but with great concentration, until it has become completely familiar. In the end familiarity will blunt its terrors; the whole subject will become boring, and our thoughts will turn away from it, not, as formerly, by an effort of will, but through mere lack of interest in the topic. When you find yourself inclined to brood on anything, no matter what, the best plan always is to think about it even more than you naturally would, until at last its morbid fascination is worn off.

 

Précised passage:

By being courageous, one can greatly decrease fatigue caused by various forms of fear. Thoughts of fatal diseases, economic losses, misconceptions, or stories of the agony of hellfire all cause fear, as these are dangers that one never wants to face. When dealing with these fearful thoughts, people employ the wrong technique of diverting their attention from fear by engaging in some exciting activity. However, the right approach to tackling fear is to rationally contemplate the matter until it becomes familiar, as this eventually leads to a lack of interest in the idea itself.

Total words: 311

Required: 100 to 105

Attempted: 95 words

Title: Courage: The remedy of fear and fatigue.