#wisemash

I remember, at a young age, telling my cousin Chioma I was afraid of the dark when we went outside to get laundry at night. She told me to walk up to the cast shadow scaring me in the corner and see that there was nothing to be afraid of. As I walked close enough to the corner, I saw that truly, it was just a shadow, nothing more.

That idea slowly changed my attitude towards fear; of the dark, of my future, of challenges in my life and of things I don't yet understand.

I realized with time, that the source of most of our fears are conjured by baseless thoughts and imaginations, yet their effects were so real; so tangible.

We should seek to face and understand our fears and the roots of them. When we enter a dark room, we switch on the lights right? That way, we can see what's really in the room.

It's important, because fear encourages a lot of the problems we see today;  ignorance, anger, discrimination, jealousy, self-doubt, apathy, depression, stagnation and a lot of wrong-doing. It also makes it easier for a person to be manipulated. Someone can't convince you that there's a thief in the room with you if you have the lights on and can see everything inside the room right?

That said, fear can also be good. In it's right form, it can motivate you and induce caution when necessary.

So let's face our fears and conquer them with understanding. Let's rise above our fears and make fear work for us. We owe it to ourselves to make the most out of life.