My greatest fear in my life is the fear of losing someone special whom I love a lot. Everybody leaves me behind alone. Sometimes, I really feel irritated of myself for not being capable to satisfy that someone whom I used to give a lot importance in my life. Well, it is all over now. I had tried a lot to convince that person to come back in my life. I have moved on coping with my life’s adventures. It took me a lot of courage and effort though. Now I feel really good because I have already learnt to deal with my terrifying issues, and I am quite happy to become myself. I only want to progress in my life.

— Anonymous

I often fear to speak in public — my heart starts beating faster whenever I stand up to share something before the mass. Many times, I have been blamed for my dismal performance, be it in professional or other sectors whenever I express my ideas in public. Regardless of this, I try my best to stand firmly to speak in front of the mass. And I have realised that I am improving my presentation skills day-by-day. Courage conquers fear. And my courage to stand against fear, and my self-belief have really made a difference. Needless to say, you can never improve your status until and unless, you have positive mindset.

— Sanjog Karki, Tansen-6, Basantapur, Palpa

Everyone has fears and I have mine. When I stand in front of the mass, I perspire; I tremble and my mind stops working. To cross this hurdle, I must be confident. We can boost our confidence by striking an impressive pose.

— Nabin Joshi, Bright Future S School, Kathmandu

I had never thought exams would be the greatest fear of my life. Actually, it is not only exams that scare me but the results also give me fright. When you have a month-long exam with three-day-gap on each subject, exams not only become the medium to test your intelligence but they also test your emotional consistency. That duration is all about having patience and being hopeful without losing vitality, at least for me. I am trying to solve the problem by being optimistic and confident about it. If we overcome fear today, it can become the greatest strength later but if we let the fear grow inside us then the path ahead is a nightmare.

— Anonymous

Our life is a beautiful asset gifted by nature. I love to enjoy the simplicity and complexities of life. And I love to share my knowledge with everyone. But I can’t express my opinions to others — I have a fear of expressing myself. I don’t know the

reason behind it. However, I won’t stop moving ahead in my life and serving others.

— Anonymous

Whether I will manage in landing my family to the safety of the bank by crossing this turbulent river named life, this remains my greatest and constant fear. I try to deal with this fear by continuously reminding me that ultimate result is not in my hands. What I can do is, remain alert always and give my best while steering the boat across the rough waters.

— Kajal Chatterjee, d-2/403 Peerless Nagar, Kolkata, India

I fear of being called a cruel and immoral person by society because of my bad company. To overcome this fear, I try not to be involved in illegal activities. I also want to be responsible person. If my close friends ever compel me to choose their way — I will first ask myself whether it is right or wrong. Then I will act accordingly.

— Bishal Silwal, Tansen-7, Kailashnagar, Palpa

Fear is a great obstacle to achieve success and happiness. We can’t accept new changes in life due to the fear of the unknown. I fear about my future because it is unknown. Being a habitual pessimist by nature, I am afraid that life will be a big failure and that I can never find true love and happiness.

— Anonymous

My greatest worry has been to get up one morning and find the world that has lost its flavour and green hues. The alarming rate at which our planet is losing green in the form of rapid deforestation, loss of wildlife, extinction of biodiversity, water scarcity and global pollution — due to these factors we are moving towards removing green from the colour palette of life eventually. To cope with this fear, I advocate for clean and green environment at every possible forum that I can reach. I also try to update myself about the environmental issues to the best of my ability, to know in depth the future problems that we are going to face, while trying to maintain a green surrounding. I have been trying to transform my fear into my strength — to actively protest against attempts of destroying green and support those who are also trying to work for saving the green. I sincerely believe that my fear has given me a true purpose in my life. I will continue to support initiatives of preserving green.

— Saikat Kumar Basu, Lethbridge AB Canada T1J 4B3

I have fear of fate and fortune, faith in destiny, fear of fear and fear of dreams. I wonder what would happen if dream remains just a dream and turns into negative ambition. The same negative energy will guide me towards the bad fate. After reading the line, ‘Envy is one of the deadly sins because it is common and normal’, I have realised, I had a fear of fear, and envy was the main cause of it. Now, I prefer to confess about this fact, rather than hiding it. I try to see the positive energy that I possess, which others may not have.

— Bandana KC

I have come across a number of fears — the one I can recall from my childhood is the fear of ghosts. The imagination of a soul clad in all whites and gliding from one tree to another, gave me goosebumps. Gradually, and I guess rightfully, as I embraced science, the fear of ghost subsided with time. I started believing that the laws of science govern every process in this world. Now I believe that ghosts simply do not exist.

Lately a different kind of fear has started to affect me — the fear of losing my close ones. Science came to my rescue when ghosts attacked my subconsciousness, but this new fear is not getting away from me. When people, who I love leave for no reason, I am scared. I am unable to cope with this fear.

— Vikash Khanal, Kathmandu

My greatest fear is fear of failure in my studies. I am a student of Bachelor’s level and I feel studying is not an easy task. I will be handicapped in this competitive world without education. To get success in life, I need to hold some degrees in my hand. My education matters a lot to me. I deal with this fear by studying very hard. My fear forces me to make extra effort in my studies.

— Marina Sharma, St Xavier’s College, Maitighar

Like everyone, I am scared about my career and future. I should have started my career but it has not gone as I have planned. By this time I should have settled down with wife and children but I am still single. And nowadays my parents have started to pressure me to get married. I am too confused, and it keeps me haunting day and night — I want to focus on my career and life now. So, I try to convince my parents to let me make my career first, and they understand and support my opinions.

— Kes Bahadur Pun, Simpani, Pokhara

I am afraid of negativity. I fear all the negatives around me like negative thoughts, negative mind, negative behaviours et cetera. They are harmful to us. They are the obstacles to our success and happiness. They are the cause of debates and wars. When we let them enter into our mind, thought and behaviour, they ruin us and the people around us.

Recently, I met some people with negative thinking and behaviour. In their company, I too became a negative person. Later I realised that negativity only gives stress and sorrows. It leads to no good and happy ending. So, I fear all the negative things around me. Hence, we must think and act positively to everything surrounding us.

— Sulochana Panta, Kavre

Fear is one of the closest emotions of human life. Being a human, I too have a couple of fears within me. One of my greatest fears is to be alone in the dark and I have chosen to deal with it by facing it again and again. When the room is dark and I am asked to fetch something, I won’t refuse, or ask someone else to accompany me. Rather I prefer to go alone, trusting in god and assuring myself to be courageous. Therefore, I have started to look at my fears as an opportunity to be challenged and to grow. There is nothing that can stop you from becoming who you are.

— Dreamtwriter, Kalimpong

Recently I had two nightmares which made me scream. I shouted and called my father. I was in my sleep, and I couldn’t control my emotions. It’s a well-known fact that every individual in this world fears someone or something. Nightmares have bothered me at times. For this fact, I have kept a religious scripture Hanuman Chalisa which is known for keeping away ghosts. Ever since I have the book in my pocket, I have got rid of nightmares.

— Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar, Baneshwor

My greatest fear in life is failure. I am afraid to fail, and that failure sometimes prevents me from trying new things. I have fear not living up to expectations too. In order to overcome this fear, I hold myself accountable for my failure. I remain consistent, be prepared, and focus on getting solutions. I strengthen my beliefs by reflecting on my past and

every success that I have achieved. I am now an innovative person, and take initiatives by going an extra mile. Why? Because if I don’t take action despite my fear, may be opportunity will pass by. I close my eyes and feel the celebratory emotion which again brings the same drive, persistence and allows me to aspire more.

— Vinod C Dixit, B-15 Jyotikalash Society, Jodhpur Tekra, SM Road, Ahmedabad

Height is my greatest fear. Usually when I am on tallest buildings or places, I get nervous. When I had visited Dharahara for the first time, I was scared. Looking down from that height scared me. But today I don’t have fear of height. I faced my fear and got over my fear.

— Anonymous

Fear is an internal feeling which affects our daily activities. I am afraid when I see a dead body. Once, a person who I knew, was killed by his wife because of her affair with another guy. I used to call him ‘uncle’ and he loved me as a daughter. After his death, I often see that uncle in my dream — he tries to kill me, cries and says that he wants to live more. And so I can’t sleep at night frequently. I don’t have a strong heart. I can’t control myself but I deal with it by not giving any attention toward those horrific things. Instead I pray to god and say mantras. I engage my mind by listening to music and watching romantic movies. And these things have helped me become stronger.

— Anonymous

Usually we all have a very long list of ‘fears of losing what we already have at present’, like our lives, our near and dear ones, jobs, savings, properties, health, youth, beauty, fame, reputation and so on. There is another list of ‘fears of not being able to achieve in future’. There are also phobias — from claustrophobia to agoraphobia, aquaphobia, pyrophobia, astrophobia to nyctophobia. It is difficult for me to select just one thing as my greatest fear. Yet, I think my greatest fear is the fear itself because it only makes the matter worse at the time of crisis. We must remember what the Mother (Mirra Alfassa) said about fear, “Fear is always a very bad adviser”.

— Sujit De, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Everyone in the world fears something. I lose confidence when I have to be on a stage and speak in front of people. After a lot of hard work, I get selected to perform on the stage at my school. But I get nervous and cannot perform comfortably.

Now, I can comfortably say that it is a temporary problem and this weakness can be converted into strength by building up confidence. The confidence can be built up by believing in oneself. Once one starts to believe in herself/himself, s/he can speak comfortably in front of others without any hesitation.

And I proved it just two weeks ago. There was an annual programme at my school where I was selected as a Master of Ceremony and I performed well, which was appreciated by all. This was possible after I built up confidence under

the guidance of my parents, as well as practice.

— Smarika Gharti, Class X, I J Pioneer School, Lalitpur

We all have fears; some in the form of phobias, while others are in emotional forms. My greatest fear is the fear of the unknown and of uncertainty. The fear arises because I am not aware of the outcome of certain situations, if not every situation, and also because the unknown isn’t my cup of tea. Many a times my friends and well wishers have asked me to stop thinking of situations that aren’t under my control, but the fear is of such immense magnitude that I heed not to their words. In my perfect world, the outcome of situations could be predicted and, the unknown would no more pester the likes of me and be known.

— Suyog Upadhaya, The Skylark English School, Dhapasi

Social phobia — the fear of being judged by society is what I have. I have always had discomfort addressing crowds. While speaking to them, I came across ‘what ifs’, ‘What if I am wrong?’, ‘What if I offend the mass?’ et cetera. All I ever wished was the ground to open up, eat me whole and repudiate the hovering eyes around me. But then, the ground opening up is possible only in fantasy while here, I had to stick to reality. With passing time, I have realised that the only solution to my agitation is to face them. I started voicing out my opinions and did not listen to those who talked behind my back. Well, they are behind for a reason. This slowly boosted my confidence and eventually helped me overcome

my trepidation.

— Samagya Pradhan

The life till now has taught me, no matter how big our problems are, they are not bigger than our abilities to solve them. And one thing I fear the most in my life is not my problems, it’s my attitude. The only way I feel redeemed is when I am some sort of helping in overcoming someone else’s problem. It’s the only thing that keeps me happy, makes me feel good about myself and helps me keep my attitude stay positive. And when my attitude is positive, I feel good about life and everything seems like falling back to normal again. So, all I want to say is, “Happiness, sadness, problems, responsibilities exist lifelong, but life doesn’t exist long”. So manage these issues, choose what to live with, and live big.

— Anonymous

I have always been conscious about the fact that academics supplements career, since the time I was able to think rationally. And when I was a child too, my intuition led me to think consciously towards my studies. So, whenever academics and career comes into my mind, I fear — fear of not being able to do my best in them. For an example, after I take an exam or I attend an interview, I fear of the result. Similarly, as I go through the newspaper, I hover around the job-section, to find if I may fit into any of them. Deep within me, I fear about my career and future. To deal with them, I try doing my best in my studies with the resources I have. Apart from this, mostly I speak about these concerns with my peers, or sometimes with my family. They always guide me and calm down my fear to some extent.

— Sujan Subedi, Biratnagar

Greatest fears in life are temporary. One such fear that surrounds me is the fear of speaking up. This fear in me comes as an obstacle that I just can’t avoid. There is no way I can express myself. I hope I would definitely win this fear of mine and move ahead with a peace of mind.

— Sulochana Rai Shakya, Ranibari, Lazimpat