Are you afraid of the dark?

People fear what they don't understand, hate what they can't conquer, Guess it's just the fury of man...

Those are the slightly altered words from the lyrics of Rap Artist Nas in his song, "Hate me now". Rarely are truer words spoken.

I have come to realize that most of the things I have been afraid of were the things that I did not understand. Afraid to trust, afraid to love, afraid to get close to particular people, afraid of places, afraid of certain things, and the list can go on and on. But once I took the required time to learn about and understand the subject of my fear, I was able to face it and overcome it. The humorous thing is that once we overcome our fears, we often look back and wonder why we were in such bondage in the first place. As far as hate goes, we often hate those things that we can defeat. This transcends into some people hating us when they realize that they cannot break us and they find themselves powerless in our presence. I guess it's only fair to say that in hate there is fear.

But what if all fears are not meant to be faced. Perhaps fear is really just our natural instincts doing their job. Sometimes we are more protected by not overcoming these fears, the result of which is usually undergoing a difficult rebuilding exercise when our the reasons behind our fears are confirmed. Picking ourselves up from drastically traumatic relationships, recovering from excruciating physical injuries or the tender task of reconstructing self-esteem. Tragically, usually when we face our fears only to be left disappointed, we often become as bitter as a rancid lemon, thus giving birth to hate.

How do we handle this? We learn to pick our battles carefully. We learn not to chase our fears but rather to face only those that confront us. We learn to trust ourselves and listen with the correct dosage of heart and mind. We learn that sometimes the best way to face our fears, is to leave them where they are, that is at least until we first understand them.