We’ve all visited Planet Fear. Worry, stress and fear can be overcome if we begin to understand that when we worry about the future, our mind generates fear and our body feels anxiety and stress. When you become aware of this process you can begin to avoid regular visits to Planet Fear.
This teachable moment refers generally to the film.
About This Lesson
Milton created the expression “Planet Fear” due to his observation of his parents and his self observation. He realized that most humans live in a state of fear, and he called this place, Planet Fear. To live on Planet Fear is to live in the dysfunctional state of consciousness in which the stream of compulsive and incessant thinking manifests as worry, stress and fear. Fear is the emotional response to a certain type of thinking and it’s usually future oriented thinking such as worry. Most of us are familiar with waking up in the middle of the night and starting to think about our problems. When you are worrying and thinking fearful thoughts, your body believes that you are in a dangerous situation, and as a result, the body produces the emotion of fear and that is a very unpleasant feeling. People can be so identified with their minds and their thoughts that they don’t even realize that they have created an imaginary situation in their minds which is not reality here and now.
Discussion Questions
1Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and started worrying about something?
2What does worrying feel like in your body?
3Do you think that it is helpful or unhelpful to worry?
Family Activity
Helpful thoughts are those thoughts that in some way lead to a beneficial outcome for us and/or others around us. Unhelpful thoughts move us further away from where we would like to be.
When we are experiencing thoughts that evoke feelings of worry or fear it is helpful to ask ourselves the question: “Is this a helpful thought?”
Ask each family member to think of a time when he or she has been worried about something. (i.e., an upcoming test; getting homework done, etc). Ask each person to talk about the thoughts they were having and identify them as helpful or unhelpful. Make a list of unhelpful thoughts and as a family work together to reframe them into helpful thoughts for each scenario.
Remind everyone that when you’re worrying and thinking fearful thoughts, your body believes that you are in a dangerous situation when in fact you are not. Your thoughts are just your thoughts.
When you are aware of a dysfunctional situation, you can choose to respond to it in a way that helps alleviate the stress you feel.
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