How can one overcome fear ?

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I think that at the base every fear of a "thing" or a person, is lack of knowledge and/or understanding. I don't mean fear of something like heights, or being mugged on the way to your car. Some fears are nature's way of urging caution in a potentially bad situation. 

I mean things like fear of spiders, or snakes or people who are different than you are. The only way to overcome those sorts of fears is to learn more about that culture or person or thing. As an example: I used to be frightened of spiders. I knew they weren't going to hunt me down in my sleep and bite me, but a part of me was still fearful that would happen. 

I moved to a part of the country that had Black Widow spiders - a spider most people are very afraid of. When I moved from an apartment to a house, I found a Black Widow living under my bed.Not only had she not come out to bite me in my sleep, but she was surrounded by the carcasses of small, rather deadly scorpions. She had killed them before they could hurt me!

This fall I had a Black Widow take up residence in a corner of one of my bathrooms. She was in a perfect place to study - out of the way, high up where nothing would accidentally come in contact with her. I began watching her and learned that she was actually rather timid. She ran away to the furthest corner of her very untidy web whenever I cautiously brought my hand close to that web. Yet she could move amazingly fast when an insect hit one of the strands. 

By observing her, I learned that most of what I had heard about her was not true, and I found I had lost my fear of spiders. I respect them, and will go out of my way to avoid causing them harm and giving them no alternative but to bite me to escape the situation I put them in. They are actually rather amazing creatures, and much more intelligent than I gave them credit for. 

By learning more about them, I was finally able to get rid of my life long fear of them and recognize them for the beneficial, and rather incredible little 8 legged creatures they are.