We all have many sides to ourselves. We present some sides to the world and others we keep hidden inside. This means that we might know a person for a long time but that we don't really know him or her completely. Perhaps a friendship is based on those few sides that we see. So all the hidden parts are left for us to deal with — we alone have to deal with them because we don't share them with the people we love. One of the things most people keep hidden from view is fear.

Fear is a very powerful emotion and, if left unchecked, it can rule us, control our behavior, our words, and how we live our lives — or don't live our lives. The problem here is twofold — fear is a problem for the people who experience it and it is also what stops them from receiving help because they are too afraid to ask for help and too afraid to talk about what's happening to them. They are too afraid of being rejected and too afraid to move forward and out of the comfort zone they made around themselves.

Some people run away from their fears. This means that they do not face up to them. In doing so, some people might even call their fears by different names or pretend they don't exist. There has to come a time when people draw up their courage to face their fears. They must look at them squarely and deal with them.

You might ask, how does a person get to be filled with fear? There is no one answer to this question. Some people are naturally shy and timid, and so if life deals them a hard blow, they keep their concerns inside themselves and their perception of the problem magnifies until it seems huge and insurmountable. Other people are victims of abuse or oppression and learn to be afraid of certain people or behavior. If they do not get the chance to talk about what is happening to them and get help to stop the abuse, the problem will spiral into a deeper and more intense problem.

Young people may be afraid of many things including violence, whether in the home or on the street; failure — there's so much competition in the job market these days; loneliness — if young people can't find a group where they feel comfortable, they are often destined to be outcast and lonely. Most people are also afraid of death and many others are afraid of living.

By "living" I do not mean eating, drinking, sleeping, and watching TV. I mean finding your direction in life and moving forward towards it. It is necessary to do this in order to feel satisfied and fulfilled in your life to reach a higher plane of happiness and motivation. But to do this, people must be willing to take a risk because success is not automatic and failure looms in the distance as a possible result. The fear of failure may induce people to stay where they are and not move forward towards success.

If you are one of the many people who keeps fear hidden inside, it may well be time to start thinking about where you are heading. While your fear is stopping you from moving forward in your life, it is also keeping you busy running away from it. This scenario often makes people feel helpless, depressed, unsure of what to do, introverted, and lonely.

So the idea is to take courage and face your fears. Try to share them with someone reliable and trustworthy. Make a plan of how you will move forward away from your fear toward self-fulfillment.

I know of a young man who was once afraid of the dark. He couldn't say when his fear began, but it started when he was very young and only went away when he was in his late teens. His friends used to laugh at him and his family told him he had to trust in Allah more. He used to shrug it off thinking it was no big deal. He went on like this until one day he was home alone at night and the electricity cut. This was his worst nightmare.

Out of habit, he didn't see anything wrong with keeping a few lights on in the house all night — it was something normal for him. But then on that fateful day he found himself alone. His family would not be home for a few hours and here he was in his room not knowing what on earth to do next.

A feeling of panic welled up inside him and he had this awful feeling that he might start screaming and acting like a fool, so he decided to make du`aa' and ask for Allah's help. He prayed and prayed, waiting for a miracle: Maybe the lights would just flick on again. However, there was to be no such miracle this time round.

He did, however, feel calmer and he took a deep breath and decided to look for some candles. He knew his mum kept the candles in the kitchen in the top cupboard on the right. He got up and started feeling his way through the house, ignoring the fancies his imagination put in front of his eyes of what might be lurking around the next corner. He kept remembering Allah with every step he took and stayed focused on his goal of finding some candles.

He was surprised to find that in his mind he knew exactly where to turn and where the chairs and things were even though it was pitch black. He started to feel more confident. He found the candles and the matches were beside the stove. By the time he lit the candle, there was a strange sense of power inside him. He had conquered an old enemy — fear!

You can't keep running forever, but you can keep running for many years of your life and thereby lose precious time and opportunity to become the best person you can be. Don't just keep your fears to yourself! Don't live your life pretending there is "nothing wrong."