EVENTS

https://facingfearfilm.com/

Bill Bennet, renowned australian movie director set out around the world to make a movie about fear. In this journey he interviewed a great variety of experts on fear, among them scientists, spiritualists, psychologists, trauma counselors and other medical professionals, as well as Milly Diericx, the only mexican to appear on the film. Some of the names are famous, others are people who faced real fear and came out the other side much wiser. Together they give us a wide perspective on fear and how to handle it.

How do emotions affect our health?

Health has a lot to do with our emotional states. Our emotions get triggered by events but interpreted by our personal stories. Our stories have many layers, but most of them are kept in the unconscious mind. Negative emotions are based on fear, and they affect the body by stressing it. Stress is the cause of the majority of illnesses, and what is stress if not fear—of not being enough, not getting the promotion, losing the job, being rejected, not being loved? 

Stress is long-held fear. The body's response to fear is one of three things: fight, flight, or freeze. The body gets flooded with stress hormones designed to be able to carry out these responses. But modern stress doesn't warrant these responses. We can't fight off our boss telling us off or run away from the traffic jam that made us late to work, so stress-induced chemicals stay in the body and the situation doesn't resolve itself. We will have to go to work again, race against the clock, probably get told off by the boss again, and so on. The body is exhausted from constantly readying itself to fight or flee, even though this never happens. When the body has invested all its resources into the immediate danger, it has very little left to do other vital functions, like keeping up the immune system, detoxing the organs, or repairing tissue. No wonder we get sick!