HOW TO CONQUER FEAR

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I am one of the least fearful people I know. How did I become this way, and how can you become less fearful as well? Some of my thoughts:

Do you desire to conquer your fears?

My first thought:

We feel as if there is a moral or ethical obligation to be fearful.

For example, if my neighbor feels fearful and I don’t, my neighbor will guilt me for not being fearful. And as a consequence, I feel guilty for not being (as) fearful as him. Why? Social comparison. When my neighbor sees me as not being fearful as him, he feels small and belittled. He looks at me and says:

“How dare you not be as fearful as me! Do you think I am a wimp or stupid or something?”

Then my neighbor starts to educate me on why I should feel fearful and “educate” me on why I am a bad, evil, and unmoralistic person for not feeling fear. Because if I don’t feel fear, but my neighbor does … he feels like a coward. And nobody likes to feel like a coward (even when they are). Instead, they like to try to bring you down to their level, or even put you BENEATH their level in order to feel superior to you.

Let us not be fooled my friends — petty, small, and cowardly individuals want us to feel lesser than them. All humans desire ascendancy over one another.

Why I’m so privileged

The only real way to become Uber-fearless:

You must have experienced the school of the hard knocks.

I actually see my difficult upbringing as the ultimate privilege. Without my scars and trauma, I would have never become who I am today.

Hardness, difficulty strengthens you. The thought:

Could JAY Z have ever become JAY Z without all the insanity he experienced as a child and youth growing up in the projects?

I think not. If JAY Z grew up in a cozy middle-class (or rich) family, he would have probably become another complacent youth.

My prescriptions:

Essentially my suggestion is this:

Physiologically toughen yourself in order to mentally toughen yourself.

This includes (I do all of this myself)

  1. Cold showers
  2. Intermittent fasting [no breakfast or lunch]
  3. Abstinence from jerking off to porn [if you gotta blow your load, just rub one out without the external stimuli of porn]. I see no moral or ethical qualms with porn — the physiological problem is that pornography is too extreme, which de-sensitizes our serotonin receptors. Kind of like drinking too much Coca Cola; sugar hijacks our minds.
  4. Quit sugar. No more sugar for the rest of your life. I have not (consciously) consumed sugar for the last 7 years. I don’t like any sweet things (whether natural or fake). I prefer bitter foods and fatty meats. The only sweet foods I consume are bitter (light roast coffee black, matcha green tea 100% with no sugar or other crap added, 100% cocoa powder and cocoa nibs, almonds — which are quite sweet)
  5. Weight lifting and body weight exercises. Go to the park and do pull-ups, chin ups, throw around rocks, etc. Do pushups or other exercises at home. Grab some dumbbells and do some weight lifting too. I’ve found this to be true for myself: the more muscle I have, and the physically stronger and buffer I am, the less fearful I am.
  6. Quit the news and social media. If you ever need any real news, read the local website for your own city or county, or go to the White House government website. Or better yet, just talk to folks on the street. Also quit social media; that shit is fear-marketing at its worst.
  7. Lots of long, pointless walks outdoors and fresh air

Simple.

Harden yourself, and become the new hyper-stoic.

ERIC

STOICISM 101

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