In fact, there were two breakthroughs.  But the Oxford Uni boffins only realised they’d made one.

Here’s why:

In 2018, Oxford University ran a study to see if Virtual Reality headsets could be used to help cure acrophobia.

(that's a fear of heights to you & me)

100 participants were chosen at random from people who had, on average, lived with a fear of heights for 30 years.

High story short, the study was a great success.

This is breakthrough number one.

But what the professors running the trials seemed to miss was a discovery of dizzying heights.

See, at the start of the trials the participants would don a VR headset and experience the same psychological & physiological reactions as if standing on top of the Golden Gate Bridge or London’s very own Erotic Gherkin.

To my mind, this is curiously intriguing.

If participants can experience a fear of heights as they’re standing on the ground floor of a building in Oxford, there’s something strange going on.

You see that right?

Sure – the participants might think they’re on the top of a tall building.

But they’re not.

Put simply:

People with a fear of heights aren’t afraid of what they think they’re afraid of.

Instead, they’re afraid of what they think.

This is the breakthrough the Oxford Uni boffins missed when they ran these trials.  And this is a breakthrough with huge implications.

By the way, this isn’t me singling out people with a fear of heights.  I’m not a heights-hater hater.

I think this idea applies across the board to all fears, worries, doubts and anxieties.

What if we can only be afraid of our thoughts?

What if fear isn’t a reflection of whatever’s going on in our lives or in the world, but instead was simply a sign that we’ve innocently & inadvertently jumped on a train of thought which is heading in an unhelpful direction?

And what if fear was our body being kind to us by letting us know this is what’s happening and thus evidence that our human system is working 100% perfectly, just as intended?

This way, fear wouldn’t be a problem or something to fear itself (levels upon levels – hold on tight, acrophobes!).

Instead, fear would be our friend rather than our foe.

Something to chew on perhaps.

Before I sign off:

If you feel trapped by your own thoughts, if you have fears you’d like to break free from or if you’re simply curious about how this understanding of fear can change your life, head on over here:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

That’s all for today.

 - Tom