Areas of food shortages in East Africa, January 2012. 12 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. OCHA / Fews Net / hotnewsevents.com

By Bill Blakemore
6 May 2012 A Metaphor to Change Fear Into Action and Extinguish the Panic and Despair so Deadly in a Great Crisis Nature’s Edge Notebook #27 Observation, Analysis, Reflection, New Questions Sometimes, the right metaphor can save your life. “Hug the monster” is a metaphor taught by U.S. Air Force trainers to those headed into harm’s way. The monster is your fear in a sudden crisis — as when you find yourself trapped in a downed plane or a burning house. If you freeze or panic — if you go into merely reactive “brainlock” — you’re lost. But if your mind has been prepared in advance to recognize the psychological grip of fear, focus on it, and then transform its intense energy into action — sometimes even by changing it into anger — and by also engaging the thinking part of your brain to work the problem, your chances of survival go way up. Around the world, a growing number of people are showing signs of hugging the monster of what the world’s experts have plainly shown to be a great crisis facing us all. Established scientists, community and government leaders and journalists, as they describe the disruptions, suffering and destruction that manmade global warming is already producing, with far worse in the offing if humanity doesn’t somehow control it, are starting to allow themselves publicly to use terms like “calamity,” “catastrophe”, and “risk to the collective civilization.” Sooner or later, everyone who learns about the rapid advance of manmade global warming must deal with the question of fear. […]

‘Hug the Monster’ for Realistic Hope in Global Warming (or How to Transform Your Fearful Inner Climate)