Download or read book The Nature of Fear written by Daniel T. Blumstein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading expert in animal behavior takes us into the wild to better understand and manage our fears. Fear, honed by millions of years of natural selection, kept our ancestors alive. Whether by slithering away, curling up in a ball, or standing still in the presence of a predator, humans and other animals have evolved complex behaviors in order to survive the hazards the world presents. But, despite our evolutionary endurance, we still have much to learn about how to manage our response to danger. For more than thirty years, Daniel Blumstein has been studying animals’ fear responses. His observations lead to a firm conclusion: fear preserves security, but at great cost. A foraging flock of birds expends valuable energy by quickly taking flight when a raptor appears. And though the birds might successfully escape, they leave their food source behind. Giant clams protect their valuable tissue by retracting their mantles and closing their shells when a shadow passes overhead, but then they are unable to photosynthesize, losing the capacity to grow. Among humans, fear is often an understandable and justifiable response to sources of threat, but it can exact a high toll on health and productivity. Delving into the evolutionary origins and ecological contexts of fear across species, The Nature of Fear considers what we can learn from our fellow animals—from successes and failures. By observing how animals leverage alarm to their advantage, we can develop new strategies for facing risks without panic.
Download or read book Why We Fear written by Henri Hypponen and published by . This book was released on 2018-08-03 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why We Fear gets to grips with the essence of fear in life and in business. Why We Fear uncovers the mechanisms of fear and the huge role this often misunderstood emotion plays in our daily lives. At the same time, it dismantles fear into understandable and actionable parts. When fear is divided into its constituent parts, the hidden workings of fear and fear based habits become visible. In this way, the book charts a road-map for how to deal with this often destructive emotion, and the heavy cost of fear in life and in business. Fear has always been at the very core of human experience, and yet people generally seem to believe that it is a force of nature outside their own control. Fear is often seen as a mystical, poorly understood influence that creeps up on us at the worst possible moment, wrecks our performance, dulls our wits, and makes our lives shrink. Why We Fear robs fear of this mystique. In addition, as Henkka Hyppönen points out, fear is not always a disastrous and destructive force. Sometimes, a little injection of fear helps us to perform better as individuals and as teams. "Henri Hypponen's writing is as lyrical as his name. Smart and entertaining, "Why We Fear" is part detective story, part handbook on how to understand, master and make use of this most basic of human emotions. Hypponen helps us turn the fear we fear into our secret power to bring to work, to play and to life. An extraordinary achievement." - Ira Chaleff, Author of the award winning books The Courageous Follower and Intelligent Disobedience
Download or read book Why we fear written by Henri Hyppönen and published by Tammi. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why We Fear gets to grips with the essence of fear in life and in business. Why We Fear uncovers the mechanisms of fear and the huge role this often misunderstood emotion plays in our daily lives. At the same time, it dismantles fear into understandable and actionable parts. When fear is divided into its constituent parts, the hidden workings of fear and fear based habits become visible. In this way, the book charts a road-map for how to deal with this often destructive emotion, and the heavy cost of fear in life and in business. Fear has always been at the very core of human experience, and yet people generally seem to believe that it is a force of nature outside their own control. Fear is often seen as a mystical, poorly understood influence that creeps up on us at the worst possible moment, wrecks our performance, dulls our wits, and makes our lives shrink. Why We Fear robs fear of this mystique. In addition, as Henkka Hyppönen points out, fear is not always a disastrous and destructive force. Sometimes, a little injection of fear helps us to perform better as individuals and as teams.
Download or read book Fear of Food written by Harvey Levenstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-03-08 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These include Nobel Prize-winner Eli Metchnikoff, who advised that yogurt would enable people to live to be 140, and Elmer McCollum, the "discoverer" of vitamins, who tailored his warnings about vitamin deficiencies to suit the food producers who funded him. Levenstein also highlights how large food companies have taken advantage of these concerns by marketing their products to combat the fear of the moment. Such examples include the co-opting of the "natural foods" movement, which grew out of the belief that inhabitants of a remote Himalayan Shangri-la enjoyed remarkable health by avoiding the very kinds of processed food these corporations produced, and the physiologist Ancel Keys, originator of the Mediterranean Diet, who provided the basis for a powerful coalition of scientists, doctors, food producers, and others to convince Americans that high-fat foods were deadly.
Download or read book Extreme Fear written by Jeff Wise and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2009-12-08 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the phrase "fight or flight" was coined in the 1920s, the common understanding has been that the mind respond to danger in one of two ways - either fleeing in blind panic, or fighting through it. But as scientists unlock the secrets of the human brain, a more complex understanding of the fear response has emerged. It turns out that the ancient brain circuitry wired to process fear is also intricately tied to our ability to master new skills, and that the icy sensation of terror can actually enhance both our physical and our mental performance. Veteran science journalist Jeff Wise, who writes the "I'll Try Anything" column for Popular Mechanics, journeys into the heart of the primal force to find its hidden roots: Where does panic come from? How is it that some people can perform masterfully under pressure? How can we live a more courageous life? Reporting from the front lines of science, Wise takes us into labs where scientists are learning how we make decisions when confronted with physical peril, how time is perceived when the mind is on high alert, and how willpower succeeds or fails in controlling fear. Along the way, he illuminates the science with riveting stories of true-life danger and survival. We watch a woman defend herself from a mountain lion attack in a remote canyon; we witness couple desperately fighting to beat back an encircling wildfire; we see a pilot struggle to maintain control of his plane as its wing begins to detach. Full of amazing characters and cutting-edge science, Extreme Fear is an original and absorbing look at how we can raise the limits of human potential.
Download or read book Fear Is Fuel written by Patrick Sweeney and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-03 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fear, the most powerful force in our life, is the least understood. Every one of us experiences it. Many arrange their lives to avoid it. Yet nearly every one of us needs to find more fear. Most of us know fear as the unwanted force that drives phobias, anxieties, unhappiness, and inhibits self-actualization. Ironically, fear is the underlying phenomenon that heightens awareness and optimizes physical performance, and can drive ambition, courage, and success. Harnessing fear can heighten emotional intelligence and bring success to every aspect of your life. Neuroscience and current research on how the brain processes and uses fear have torn the lid off the possibilities of human performance; yet most people are not reaching their complete potential because of a psychological roadblock Sweeney calls the Fear Frontier. Identifying your Fear Frontier and addressing it, Sweeney illustrates in these pages, is the path to success, happiness and fulfillment in almost all aspects of your life. He also provides the most effective steps toward rewiring your mind for a healthier longer life based on courage. Fear is Fuel is a practical guide that instructs readers on a unique path toward translating fear into optimal living. By facing fears, and challenging new ones, readers can harness the power of unique motivations to achieve more, experience more, and enjoy more. The path to a fulfilling life is not to avoid fear but to recognize it, understand it, harness it, and unleash its power.
Download or read book All We Have to Fear written by Allan V. Horwitz, PhD and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years ago, it was estimated that less than five percent of the population had an anxiety disorder. Today, some estimates are over fifty percent, a tenfold increase. Is this dramatic rise evidence of a real medical epidemic?In All We Have to Fear, Allan Horwitz and Jerome Wakefield argue that psychiatry itself has largely generated this "epidemic" by inflating many natural fears into psychiatric disorders, leading to the over-diagnosis of anxiety disorders and the over-prescription of anxiety-reducing drugs. American psychiatry currently identifies disordered anxiety as irrational anxiety disproportionate to a real threat. Horwitz and Wakefield argue, to the contrary, that it can be a perfectly normal part of our nature to fear things that are not at all dangerous--from heights to negative judgments by others to scenes that remind us of past threats (as in some forms of PTSD). Indeed, this book argues strongly against the tendency to call any distressing condition a "mental disorder." To counter this trend, the authors provide an innovative and nuanced way to distinguish between anxiety conditions that are psychiatric disorders and likely require medical treatment and those that are not--the latter including anxieties that seem irrational but are the natural products of evolution. The authors show that many commonly diagnosed "irrational" fears--such as a fear of snakes, strangers, or social evaluation--have evolved over time in response to situations that posed serious risks to humans in the past, but are no longer dangerous today.Drawing on a wide range of disciplines including psychiatry, evolutionary psychology, sociology, anthropology, and history, the book illuminates the nature of anxiety in America, making a major contribution to our understanding of mental health.
Download or read book Triumph Over Fear written by Jerilyn Ross and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2009-12-30 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Institute of Mental Health calls anxiety disorders the most common mental health problem in America. They are also among the most treatable. Yet tens of millions of people struggle with hidden fears and restricted lives because they have not received proper diagnosis and treatment. Triumph Over Fear combines Jerilyn Ross's firsthand account of overcoming her own disabling phobia with inspiring case histories of recovery from other forms of anxiety, including panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder; an post-traumatic stress disorder. State-of-the-art information is combined with powerful self-help techniques, together with clear indications of when to seek additional professional help and/or medication. Also included is the latest research on anxiety disorders in children, plus advice for dealing with family members and employers.
Download or read book The Journey Beyond Fear Leverage the Three Pillars of Positivity to Build Your Success written by John Hagel III and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conquer your fear, achieve your potential, and make a positive difference in the lives of everyone around you Whether you’re running a business, building a career, raising a family, or attending school, uncertainty has been the name of the game for years—and the feeling reached an all-time high when COVID-19 hit. Even the savviest, smartest, toughest people are understandably feeling enormous pressure and often feeling paralyzed by fear. The Journey Beyond Fear provides everything you need to identify your fears, face your fears, move beyond your fears—and cultivate emotions that motivate you to pursue valuable business opportunities, realize your full potential, and create opportunities that benefit all. Business strategy guru John Hagel provides an effective, easy-to-grasp three-step approach: Develop an inspiring long-term view of the opportunities ahead Cultivate your personal passion to motivate you and those around you Harness the potential of platforms to bring people together and scale impact at an accelerating rate Never underestimate the power of fear—and never underestimate your ability to conquer it. With The Journey Beyond Fear, you’ll learn how to move forward in spite of fear, take your career and life to the next level, improve your organization and your broader environment, and achieve more of your true potential.
Download or read book The Truth About Love and Fear written by Rudolf Eckhardt and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2018-04-23 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live every day without being aware that fear controls many of our choices and decisions. The consequences our fear-based behavior has on our life and relationships also contributes to the collective fear and distrust in the world. When we recognize fear for what it really is, we can initiate an effort to deal with it. In The Truth About Love and Fear, author Rudolf Eckhardt shows how we can take individual responsibility for our issues by addressing our fears and insecurities. This will transform our lives and the lives of those around us. He provides answers to questions about consciousness, life, and relationships and discusses how life is about being and not about doing; you can be a powerful person, rather than just engaging in acts of power; true change is different from changing your feelings, perception, thoughts, and behaviors; it feels to experience unconditional love; fear and guilt have power; and love and fear influence your mind and control your behavior. The Truth About Love and Fear leads you to a new understanding of the nature of unconditional love, acceptance, and trust and explains the potential of your personal power and the lack of it in your life. It challenges your present way of thinking, makes you question your perception, ad changes your belief of who you are and the way you see your relationships and life. It alters your thoughts of your past, your present, and your future.
Download or read book Embracing Fear written by Thom Rutledge and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Take a wonderful journey through and beyond your fear with Thom Rutledge.” — Melody Beattie, author of Choices “An insightful, moving and gracious book!” — John Shelby Spong, author of A New Christianity For A New World “An insightful and clear guide that shows how to turn fear into a powerful resource in our lives.” — Gavin de Becker, best-selling author of THE GIFT OF FEAR and FEAR LESS
Download or read book The Fear Book written by Cheri Huber and published by Keep It Simple Books. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rather than explaining typical strategies for overcoming fear, this book examines how fear is an experience, how to recognize that experience as nothing more than conditioned reaction to circumstance, and how to mentor oneself into letting go of beliefs about "appropriate" responses to fear. The notion is debunked that fear is anything other than a label we have learned to put on a set of physical and emotional responses, which is a Buddhist view of emotion in general.The revised edition expands on many points and includes a series of exercises and new illustrations for recognizing fear for what it is and overcoming its devastating effects.
Download or read book Risk written by Dan Gardner and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell, Gardner explores a new way of thinking about the decisions we make. We are the safest and healthiest human beings who ever lived, and yet irrational fear is growing, with deadly consequences — such as the 1,595 Americans killed when they made the mistake of switching from planes to cars after September 11. In part, this irrationality is caused by those — politicians, activists, and the media — who promote fear for their own gain. Culture also matters. But a more fundamental cause is human psychology. Working with risk science pioneer Paul Slovic, author Dan Gardner sets out to explain in a compulsively readable fashion just what that statement above means as to how we make decisions and run our lives. We learn that the brain has not one but two systems to analyze risk. One is primitive, unconscious, and intuitive. The other is conscious and rational. The two systems often agree, but occasionally they come to very different conclusions. When that happens, we can find ourselves worrying about what the statistics tell us is a trivial threat — terrorism, child abduction, cancer caused by chemical pollution — or shrugging off serious risks like obesity and smoking. Gladwell told us about “the black box” of our brains; Gardner takes us inside, helping us to understand how to deconstruct the information we’re bombarded with and respond more logically and adaptively to our world. Risk is cutting-edge reading.
Download or read book Fear Itself written by Christopher D. Bader and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An antidote to the culture of fear that dominates modern life From moral panics about immigration and gun control to anxiety about terrorism and natural disasters, Americans live in a culture of fear. While fear is typically discussed in emotional or poetic terms—as the opposite of courage, or as an obstacle to be overcome—it nevertheless has very real consequences in everyday life. Persistent fear negatively effects individuals’ decision-making abilities and causes anxiety, depression, and poor physical health. Further, fear harms communities and society by corroding social trust and civic engagement. Yet politicians often effectively leverage fears to garner votes and companies routinely market unnecessary products that promise protection from imagined or exaggerated harms. Drawing on five years of data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears—which canvasses a random, national sample of adults about a broad range of fears—Fear Itself offers new insights into what people are afraid of and how fear affects their lives. The authors also draw on participant observation with Doomsday preppers and conspiracy theorists to provide fascinating narratives about subcultures of fear. Fear Itself is a novel, wide-ranging study of the social consequences of fear, ultimately suggesting that there is good reason to be afraid of fear itself.
Download or read book The Art of Fear written by Kristen Ulmer and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revolutionary guide to acknowledging fear and developing the tools we need to build a healthy relationship with this confusing emotion—and use it as a positive force in our lives. We all feel fear. Yet we are often taught to ignore it, overcome it, push past it. But to what benefit? This is the essential question that guides Kristen Ulmer’s remarkable exploration of our most misunderstood emotion in The Art of Fear. Once recognized as the best extreme skier in the world (an honor she held for twelve years), Ulmer knows fear well. In this conversation-changing book, she argues that fear is not here to cause us problems—and that in fact, the only true issue we face with fear is our misguided reaction to it (not the fear itself). Rebuilding our experience with fear from the ground up, Ulmer starts by exploring why we’ve come to view it as a negative. From here, she unpacks fear and shows it to be just one of 10,000 voices that make up our reality, here to help us come alive alongside joy, love, and gratitude. Introducing a mindfulness tool called “Shift,” Ulmer teaches readers how to experience fear in a simpler, more authentic way, transforming our relationship with this emotion from that of a draining battle into one that’s in line with our true nature. Influenced by Ulmer’s own complicated relationship with fear and her over 15 years as a mindset facilitator, The Art of Fear will reconstruct the way we react to and experience fear—empowering us to easily and permanently address the underlying cause of our fear-based problems, and setting us on course to live a happier, more expansive future.
Download or read book Fear written by Jan Plamper and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A broad survey of the psychological, biological, and philosophical basis of fear in historical and contemporary contexts. Leading figures in clinical psychology, neuroscience, the social sciences, and the humanities consider categories of intentionality, temporality, admixture, spectacle, and politics in evaluating conceptions of fear. The book opens a dialogue between science and the humanities to afford a more complete view of an emotion that has shaped human behavior since time immemorial.
Download or read book AARP Still Procrastinating written by Joseph R. Ferrari and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-12-19 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AARP Digital Editions offer you practical tips, proven solutions, and expert guidance. In Still Procrastinating?, Joseph Ferrari will help you find out why you put things off and learn how to conquer procrastination for good. Do you ever say to yourself "What if I make a bad decision?," "What if I fail?," or "I'm better under pressure"? There are all sorts of reasons people procrastinate. What are yours? This book draws on scientific research on procrastination conducted over more than twenty years by the author and his colleagues, to help you learn what stops you from getting things done so that you can find the solutions that will really work. Contrary to conventional wisdom, chronic procrastination is not about poor time management, but about self-sabotaging tendencies that can prevent you from reaching your full potential. This book gives you the knowledge and tools you need to understand and overcome these tendencies so you can start achieving your goals--not next week, next month, or next year, but today! Exposes the hidden causes of procrastination, including fear of failure, fear of success, and thrill-seeking Identifies types of procrastinators and helps determine which type describes you Shares surprising information on how factors such as technology and the time of day affect procrastination Examines specific issues related to putting things off in school and at work Shares more than twenty years of research on the causes and consequences of chronic procrastination Written by a psychologist who is an international expert on the subject of procrastination Are you still procrastinating? This take-charge guide will help you stop making excuses and start transforming your life--right now.
