We often talk about wanting to “get rid of fear” - especially if you live with anxiety or panic attacks.

But here’s something that changed everything for me: fear doesn’t exist in the present.

Fear only exists in our thinking about the future.

Think about it:

In any given moment, your body may feel sensations - a racing heart, tight chest, sweaty palms - but the fearful narrative comes from a thought about what might happen next.

What if this panic never stops?
What if I collapse?
What if something bad happens?

That “what if” thinking projects you out of the present and into an imagined future.

And the body responds as if that future were real. That’s why fear feels so powerful. Your nervous system doesn’t know you’re imagining a scenario, it reacts as though it’s happening now.

I once spoke with a woman whose family had been robbed at gunpoint. Everyone survived and was physically safe. But what stuck with her, and with her children, was not the moment of the robbery itself.

It was the thoughts about what might have happened next.
Would someone pull the trigger?
Would they survive?

That’s what fear does. Even in truly dangerous situations, the fear isn’t about the moment itself, it’s often about the unknown of what could follow.

When I went through cancer treatment, I saw this very clearly. The most fearful moments weren’t when I was actually at an appointment or even in the chemotherapy chair.

It was the waiting.
The “what ifs.”

What if it’s terminal?
What if I don’t survive?
What if I can’t handle this?

None of that was happening in the present moment. It was all made up in thought. And yet, my body reacted as though every possibility was real and immediate.

This is also why panic attacks can feel so frightening. The body floods with adrenaline, a natural response to a perceived threat.

But here’s the important part: that surge is not evidence that something terrible is happening. It’s simply the body reacting to the story the mind is telling.

The lizard brain can’t distinguish between an imagined future and reality.

If you think “I might die”, your body prepares as if you really are. That’s why the sensations of panic feel so convincing, but they’re not a sign of danger, they’re a sign of thinking.

This understanding doesn’t mean you’ll never feel fear again. It means you don’t have to be afraid of fear.

You can see it for what it is: a signal that your mind has wandered into the future, spinning a story. The more you notice this, the easier it becomes to come back into the present moment, where wisdom gently brings you back to calm, grounding, and peace.

Fear loses its grip when we stop treating it as a warning of catastrophe and start recognising it as a reminder: you’re just in the future again.

Progress may feel subtle - just like hair slowly growing back or the colour returning to your face after illness. But each time you see fear more clearly for what it is, you take another step toward freedom.

Take a look at my Eight Week Anxiety Course here to explore this further with me in your own time!