People are afraid to live when they are caught up in their past and are afraid to let go. One can look at a divorced person who refuses to go out and meet a new partner because she is caught in a web of anger and frustration. One can say say that is she is technically afraid of living a new life because her mind is still stuck on past events.One can also argue that the issue is not about fear as much as it it is about being stubborn to change or not knowing how to change. Then again the inability to change whether it is knowledge or emotionally related can be related to the fear of what change may bring.
Leading a different life away from home can be appealing for people, others live in their own shells away from their native countries . Perhaps their excuse is that they have already had children who were brought up and there is no need for change but it is a poor excuse if the person still has the faculties of learning new experiences and being able to see himself interact in the new environment. It is part of letting go of the past and not dwelling on their previous cultural locations.
The change that occurs may be for the better or it may be for the worse, it is up to the individual to know and be conscious if he is acting within the norms of the society that hosts him. Sometimes the consequences are unintentional such as the use of an aggressive act that is not accepted in the new society.
Currently there is a case of a woman who has aggressively attacked her teenage daughter with a knife; the issue was honor related, something that Canada has not recognized. One might argue that it should be related but then one will be dealing with hate crimes that do not occur in other families and never pass through the minds of the average Canadian. Could this be used as a way of describing a woman who was afraid of letting go of the cultural restraints she brought to the new country? Perhaps she was afraid to live as do the majority of others that have learned that applying physical punishment in this country has long been contested. Using a weapon against a loved one is a criminal offense.
Sometimes people use the excuse of waiting for tomorrow as a means of putting off what they can do for today. Thus they will never realize what it is what they wanted to do if there is always a delay in their actions or they will be too late in reaching their goals. The key here is to recognize the signs and act upon them. Ignoring them is just as bad as putting off a solution especially if you recognize that you are the author of your success and that can only happen by taking positive steps toward change. Negative action by delaying or ignoring the signs of stress means you are afraid to live as you should.
The problem of getting to that state of fulfillment (which does not mean eternal happiness because one always has to keep active in life) is by taking the problem of getting to the result and breaking it down to smaller issues in a step by step fashion. Once each individual issue has been solved than the means to get to the final answer is easier, each individual step having contributed to a state of satisfaction that shows that you are in better control of yourself. Being in control of yourself means being able to turn off the fear of wanting success, or the anxiety of change so that your obtaining future goals becomes something willingly accepted without fear.
Since obtaining those results is what we live for in goal oriented societies, being afraid of life is something that is contradictory and will act against your will to succeed. It helps to substitute the fear with another emotion so that you get positive change. You have then mastered a love for life.
