It’s an evolutionary survival tactic known as our fight-or-flight instinct. The purpose of fear is to use adrenaline to tell us to protect ourselves and move out of harm’s way.

You’ve probably felt different levels of fear throughout your life — in a dark theater watching a scary movie, dealing with an aggressive person, or driving in the dark in the middle of a storm.

You may even have anxieties that transform into fears. Our modern lives are full of fear of failure the uncertainty of our financial future amidst recessions and pandemics, or unexpectedly losing a loved one.

But what is fear, and why do people have fears? Let’s review the differences between fear, phobias, and anxieties and ways to confront our fears and come out safe on the other side.

Your fear response is your body’s natural warning system. When you feel physically or psychologically under threat, different areas of the brain immediately activate and communicate with one another.

The amygdala is the first responder, located just in front of the hippocampus. The amygdala activation is the first step of your fight-or-flight response by sending messages to the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that regulates your fear response based on previous experiences.

Dopamine emitted from the prefrontal cortex determines how you process learned information, including memory, attention, inhibition of impulses, and cognitive flexibility. In neuroscience, this is the part of the brain that dictates post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.

In this conversation between different parts of the brain, your nervous system releases stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline, telling your body to stick around and fight or run away from a dangerous situation.

Fear does not differentiate religion, race, or gender. It grips every one of us at some point in life. The only option we were given during those times was to go through it and come out of it.

we continue our life in an ever-changing world, we need an unchanging anchor that holds our life. Well, you can ask what can be that anchor that remains constant all through our life. It's no one but our dear Lord, who created you and me. Jesus said, "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." Jesus Christ is our anchor. You are not alone in the current situation. He will never let us down. Dark clouds can come over lives. The storm may surround us. But Jesus will hold our life-ship even though the waves rise over us.