Embracing Discernment and Overcoming Generational Programming

Brandon Epstein talks about overcoming generational fear and programming.

We live in a society that’s addicted to fear. But here’s the truth: if we ever want to grow, both as individuals and as a species, we have to overcome it. Fear isn’t something adults need to live with; we should rely on our perception instead.

Take a simple example of walking into traffic. You don’t need to be afraid of the cars to understand it’s dangerous. Your judgment tells you to avoid it. An intrinsic understanding of what a 3-ton piece of metal moving at high velocity can do to a human body tells you to avoid it. The real achievement in life is learning to move beyond fear and make decisions not based on it.

Overcoming fear isn’t easy. The first step is realizing that fear has been programmed into us from the time we were born. It’s been passed down through generations like a bad penny. Our parents were conditioned by fear, their parents before them, and so on. We’re born into a world of fear, and we absorb it in all kinds of ways.

Maybe your parents stressed about money, so you grow up with financial anxiety. Maybe there’s a history of illness in your family, so you fear every cough or sneeze. If there’s been infidelity in relationships, you inherit the fear that someone is cheating on you.

This cycle of fear doesn’t just revolve around major things; it impacts everyday personal experiences. Let’s say a woman has been cheated on several times throughout her life. By the time she’s in her 20s, she might believe that all men cheat. That belief becomes her truth, and it drives her fear. It is the lens through which she views the world.

Here’s the thing about beliefs: they shape how we view the world, how we view ourselves, and how we view those around us. We distort things to fit with what we already believe. If you think the world is a fearful place, you’ll search for things that confirm that. If you believe someone is a liar, you’ll start looking for ways to catch them in a lie.

We can break this cycle. To overcome fear, we have to consciously challenge these deep-rooted beliefs that hold us back. It takes work and time to reprogram your mind. You can stop living in fear and start making decisions based on logic and discernment.

Fear freezes us. To move past it, you have to begin to trust your judgment and live life without being chained by generational fear.