My new year’s resolution was to be a warrior against fear. I am going to take the French fashion designer Coco Chanel’s advice, “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” In this article, I am going to think for myself, aloud. I am going address the topic of fear and the consequences of it. Specifically, I am going write about manufactured fear or irrational fear, which can be manufactured internally, by our own thinking and our own insecurities without any external “nudging” or it can be manufactured externally and fed to us with the idea that we will take information fed to us and generate fear from it. When that external “nudging” is done deliberately by the business class, academia, media, and or the government, the consequences can have disastrous consequences as it can lead to mass hysteria and a loss of love, liberty, and life.

I have seen the impact of irrational fear for years. In schools, countless numbers of students manufacture irrational fear regularly. They fear failure, fear rejection, fear success, fear disappointment, fear the unknown, fear losing their identity, fear being hurt physically or emotionally, and many other fears. With fear in their hearts and mind, these students have experienced poor academic performance, troubled relationships, and emotional scarring. Sure, time heals. Humans have an incredible capacity to become resilient, but far too many never do. They don’t know how. Their irrational fears leave them emotionally scarred.

I have personally struggled at times with fear. Who hasn’t? Hard conversations haven’t happened. Apologies weren’t made. Questions weren’t asked. Specific actions weren’t taken. There were many times I can remember that if I knew then what I know now about how to starve fear and feed courage, I might have taken actions I wanted to take and even should have taken. I don’t beat myself up because I have learned lessons and moved on. I know how to practice emotional hygiene. I know how to care for my human spirit. Do you?

We are being bombarded with messages that prey on our irrational fears. Advertising does this regularly. It is incredibly effective. I am re-evaluating my own use of those tactics. There can be a subtle but an important distinction between using rational fear to persuade – antismoking adds – and irrational fear, which can occur by using deliberate deletions, distortions, or generalizations to create fear in order to get people to comply with some policy initiative. Tragically, there was a coordinated effort to do this with Covid-19.[1] It is also being done with the premise behind human caused climate change.

Let me quote Laura Dodsworth author of the bestseller A State of Fear: how the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic, “Mass hysteria, mental contagions and psychic epidemics happen when masses of people are caught up in delusion and fear – the sorts of situations which have been stirred up by evil leaders in our recent history. Fear during an epidemic is natural, but the amplification of fear (even if supposedly in our best interests) may have blown bellows on dry tinder. A vicious circle is created as fear makes people irrational and lean more heavily on government advice; irrational action leads to negative consequences; and negative consequences lead to more fear.” According to Karl Jung, “[psychic epidemics] are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes. The supreme danger which threatens individuals as well as whole nations is a psychic danger.”[2]

In Britain, the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) advisors were asked “What are the options for increasing adherence to the social distancing measures?” The response was, “the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging.” Furthermore, Laura Dodsworth reported that one of the advisors told her, “Without a vaccine, psychology is your main weapon. You have to restrict ways in which people mix and the virus can spread… You need to frighten people.” Let me repeat that last part, you need to frighten people.

The SPI-B uses psychological techniques to “nudge” people into compliance with governmental policy initiatives. According to Gary Sidley, “there are three ‘nudges’ which have evoked most alarm: the exploitation of fear (inflating perceived threat levels), shame (conflating compliance with virtue) and peer pressure (portraying non-compliers as a deviant minority) – or “affect,” “ego” and “norms,” to use the language of the MINDSPACE document.” Shame is a form of fear as you become fearful of being shamed and therefor comply. Same can be said of peer pressure. If you are afraid of being labeled a deviant, you will comply. Fear is often used as a tool to get people to act in a particular way. It can become a lethal weapon.

A more sinister fear is one we have to be wary of too. It is the rational fear for our physical safety. Terrorists and tyrants have used this fear for eons. It is the fear of death or potentially even worse, physical torture that keeps people from standing up for what is right. They will send messages of fear by destroying your property, threatening you or a loved one physically, or actually assaulting you or a loved one physically. Russia is currently using this type of fear in the Ukraine and China does it within its borders. The Taliban has used this as well. This type of fear has been practiced by warlords, gang leaders, tyrants and despots throughout history. We also saw it used with the riots that plagued the United States during the summer of 2020. This kind of fear is especially traumatizing and effective.

Whether it is irrational fear manufactured by business, academia, media, government, or out of own human insecurities or rational fear, there are techniques to feed courage and starve fear. The techniques involve discovering perfect love, faith, faithfulness, and feeding the spirit of a champion. First, I want to reiterate the idea that perfect love casts out fear.

Paramount among the characteristics of love that are particularly pertinent to casting out fear is hope. Hope comes from love, but it is also connected to faith. Hope leads to another of the love character traits that is relevant – perseverance. Love also protects, which would mean you would protect not only the people you love but presumably the ideas you hold dear and that often requires courage. Courage is the behavior that emanates from the emotion of love (and at times the emotion of righteous anger). The last trait of love that is particularly important is that love rejoices in the truth. Truth is a great weapon against fear especially irrational fear.

Faith, particularly faith as it pertains to religious thinking, is incredibly powerful in fighting fear. Martyrdom comes from love and faith. Faith’s twin is faithfulness which is akin to your being so in love with a set of principles that guide you, you would rather die than violate those ideals. That may be an old fashioned idea, but it is important in defeating fear. It has been what has allowed men and women to survive brutal imprisonment and come out the other side unbroken spiritually. Truth connects love to faith and faithfulness. Truth is essential. Seeking truth and recognizing truth then becomes essential. Faith built on truth is arguably impossible to defeat.

Religion can be indispensable in defeating psychological epidemics or fear epidemics. Jung suggested that religion can immunize a society against psychic epidemics through its moral values and leadership. Religion, however, is not a replacement for a “transpersonal relationship” with God which can be described as an “inner, transcendent experience which alone can protect him from the otherwise inevitable submersion in the mass”. Faith by itself can provide meaning and arm society against mass hysteria. When religion becomes too connected to government, it can become counter-productive. According to Jung, “The disadvantage of a creed as a public institution is that it serves two masters: on the one hand, it derives its existence from the relationship of man to God, and on the other hand, it owes a duty to the State.” It is not surprising then that most tyrannical governments try to either nationalize religion or abolish it all together. They certainly try to control it.

Arguably, Christianity was an indispensable component to Jung’s theories of self-individuation. Christian moral structure and stories are deeply ingrained into western society but have been under attack for many decades. Western culture today has divested itself of these great stories and are living in a society where scientism or secular humanism has seemingly replaced the Christian religion as the dominant worldview. Does that make society more susceptible to psychic epidemics and fear? Given that churches throughout the western world closed their doors and complied with the dictates of governments during the Covid pandemic, it seems that religion may have become too close to the government to be a buffer against mass hysteria. It will be telling to see what happens to church attendance after the pandemic is finally declared over. Will congregants see a need to return?

Managing fear requires a mindset that is built on a foundation of love, has the twin piers of faith and faithfulness which support at the very least the spirit of a champion, but more ideally the mindset of a champion arch which includes family, friends, mind, body, and the human spirit acting as the keystone. Creating daily rituals, morning and evening, become the means of building and maintaining the mindset that will conquer fear. Components of the rituals may include breath work, mediation and or prayer, movement, planning, growing in truth, wisdom and knowledge, and personal reflection and journaling. The rituals become the habitual emotional hygiene practice and greatest tool in controlling fear. The value of each component cannot be overstated.

The apostle Paul wrote these words that are particularly applicable to this article:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Make no mistake about it, when he talks about the “day of evil”, fear will be front and center. To prepare for that battle against fear, you need the armor of God. I want to connect what that armor consists of and the ritual components. Truth is mentioned first. We need to know what it is. We need to regularly be seeking it.

We need to have our heart right – breastplate of righteousness – which I interpret as needing to know what we stand for. We need to have complete integrity in what we stand for. Obviously, in the context of the Christian religion from which this comes, the presupposition is what you stand for is based on God’s laws not the laws of men.

We need to have our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Understanding the imagery of the footwear of the Roman soldier is helpful. The footwear was especially comfortable and helped them sustain long marches over rugged terrain. They had spiked soles that had multiple purposes including aiding them to stand their ground firmly and get good foothold in rugged terrain. A Roman soldier needed to be ready at a moment’s notice to move over long distances to maintain the peace. In the context of the Christian imagery, you would need to be ready to spread the gospel of peace where ever you are sent.

The shield of faith is the next part of the armor. It is this faith in a power above you that allows you to “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” or all the manufactured fear that is being flung at you. While I am not arguing you must have faith in a higher power to emotionally handle “the flaming arrows of the evil one”, I am arguing that faith in powers outside of you seems to have more credence in our ability to be resilient and conquer fear.

The helmet of salvation is vitally important. Protecting the head implies protecting the part of you that is the rational side. Knowing that there is evidence to support your beliefs that lead to your salvation protects you against the lies – false fears – that aim to destroy you. The more secular take would be you use your mind to reason, so the helmet is symbolic of protecting your head and mind from irrational fear.

Lastly, you are to carry the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. From the perspective of Christianity, knowing the truth that comes from knowing the word of God gives you power over false ideology. It is a double edge sword. From a more secular view the sword of the spirit might be imagined as the unshakeable belief (truth) in the human capacity to overcome. It is the ultimate ability to outlast and conquer fear.

Okay, whether you are Christian or not, we can take this apart and apply the principles in creating rituals that enable us to feed the courage wolf and starve the fear wolf that live inside us. Truth. Part of our daily ritual should be staying abreast of events around us and seeking the truth. Polls tell us that in America we have lost trust in two crucial institutions we rely on for helping determine the truth – government and the media. We need to be more vigilant in trying to find the truth.

We need to have faith building practices beyond seeking the truth such as prayer or meditation, journaling, and even breath work built into our routine. Breath work is multifaceted. It can be linked to getting “in the Spirit”. It also has profound implications for our physical and emotional health.

We need to take care of our bodies, so we are ready to march and move like a soldier. We need to have endurance, balance, strength, and flexibility. This means literally working our bodies.

We need to keep our minds sharp and regularly seek wisdom, truth, and knowledge. We need to be prepared to use our knowledge of the truth to help others fight the irrational fear that comes from deletions, distortions, and generalizations that are either done internally or both internally and externally. We cannot prevent it from happening, but we can be prepared to overcome it. Part of our ritual then includes learning. In particular, you spend time every day seeking wisdom, truth, and knowledge.

My rituals include ten minutes of box breathing morning and evening, bible reading daily along with quiet prayer/meditation morning and evening. I have a stretching routine in the evening and a morning workout routine 5 or 6 days a week. I look at my planner in the morning and in the evening I plan out the next day. I reflect on my personal stand and mission statement and journal every evening. I do weekly goals at the end of each week. I try to read the basic headlines from a variety of sources to help flush out what is being reported from each side of the political spectrum daily.

Weekly, I spend time trying to read pertinent articles and books or by watching interviews, documentaries, news specials, or other reports. I read for pleasure and or take classes which I try to spend several minutes each day pursuing. I budget weekly time to relax and spend time with my wife and or children or friends and extended family. All I can say is since incorporating these ritual components into my life, I have no intention to ever allow myself to fall out of the habit. They are essential to my success and well-being. Even when I was sick with covid and some of these rituals fell by the wayside, as soon as I was healthy, I immediately added them back into my life; I couldn’t wait to do so. I missed them. They are my warrior’s armor against fear.

Success Institute’s Growth Mindset Training Academy is dedicated to helping those who are committed to personal growth and excellence. Our signature coaching program is the Peak Performance Training. It is an essential part in preparing the mind for the building of a mindset of a champion which is what is at the heart of the emotional hygiene and caring for the human spirit essential for conquering fear.

A difference maker in this program is leading people in the discovery of limiting decisions and beliefs that linger in their unconscious and help feed fear and limit peak performance. Furthermore, it helps people eliminate the unresolved negative emotions, particularly fear but including anger, sadness, guilt, and hurt among others, that hide in the background and create a magnetic attraction for the negative emotions that will come up in the future. Lastly, it is designed to force the creation of the habits that allow you continually work to master the mindsets of love, faith, faithfulness, family, friendships, learning, well-being, and the mindset behind the spirit of a champion – all the mindsets that create the mindset of a champion arch.

Enrollment is limited and only for those who want to be warriors against fear and love themselves and particularly their children enough to invest in their success. Can you imagine a greater gift than to help them (and you) put into place all that is essential for conquering fear, feeding courage, and living the life God intended you to live?

[1] The British government in particular but you can look at Canada and the United States as well and the data is coming for as to how they used three “’nudges’ which have evoked most alarm: the exploitation of fear (inflating perceived threat levels), shame (conflating compliance with virtue) and peer pressure (portraying non-compliers as a deviant minority) – or “affect,” “ego” and “norms,” to use the language of the MINDSPACE document.”

https://www.coronababble.com/post/how-the-mean-psychologists-induced-us-to-comply-with-coronavirus-restrictions

Click to access MINDSPACE.pdf

http://bi.team/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/BIT-Behavioural-Government-Report-2018.pdf

Click to access Loan-Charge-APPG-Report-into-the-Morse-Review-FINAL.pdf

https://unherd.com/thepost/lockdowns-are-killers-in-the-global-south/