What are your fears

Are you avoiding them or analyzing them

I love Anatomy atlas like Netters. It satisfies my craving for beauty and curiosity.

Until I found out this one that I absolutely hated (please, there is no need to open the hyperlink, unless you want to :p).

That gives me goosebumps every time I see it. It is a drawing of half of a head, cut vertically so that you get a picture of what is beneath the face (aka coronal section of the head). The is probably primitive. If you were a caveman/woman and saw a body this badly damaged, you better run or risk becoming the next prey. Since our visual system has an especially strong bias for faces, the emotions that this image elicited is terribly strong.

So I marked the page and cautiously avoided seeing the painting again.

On Wednesday I had a problem. I had no idea how the sinuses (empty spaces) in our skull link to each other even after reading the textbook and the atlas for an hour. So I logged on to YouTube university, found my favourite anatomist and started watching one of his lecture on the topic.

There I saw my nemesis again. But instead of scaring me, it came to help me. To understand how the sinuses were linked, it was not helpful to just look at side view depictions. This front-view image completed the picture and I understood the whole arrangement at an instant.

Then I realised my biggest fear was also my biggest gain.

It may not always be the case. Sometimes we have to avoid risky activities to protect ourselves. The key distinction though is conscious decision-making. We must understand our fear, think through its pros and cons, and then act against them if necessary. If we don't, we will be paralyzed by our primitive selves or irrational imaginations.

What are your fears? Have you understood them and how will you act on them?

Let me know in the reply. I read and respond to every of them.

Tim