Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. ~ Marie Curie

The world’s a big and crazy place, no doubt about it. And things happen from time to time that seep into your consciousness (media is, for the most part, everywhere) and if the event occurred in a place you’ll soon be traveling, the knee jerk reaction is of course to fear it, to have a fear of travel, to worry about it and plan around it so you can skirt any potential financial or physical trauma. Don’t worry, it’s natural.

Unfortunately, this natural human tendency also keeps us from doing some of the most rewarding things in life for rather nonsensical reasons. Going out of your way to avoid a danger that comes to you slanted and sensationalized without much realistic context is, we’re sad to say, a little absurd.

Fortunately, it’s possible to overcome the knee-jerk safety response if you approach it with perspective and not reaction.

First we must distinguish between the two types of fear: as a favorite yoga teacher put it – the fear that keeps you alive and the fear that keeps you from living.

The first kind generally saves you from horrible things – the results of going down shadowy alleyways, interacting with unsavory characters and jumping into taxis that don’t have the word “taxi” on them anywhere. This is the common sense, red flag stuff that lies behind the eyes of every veteran traveler – easy to learn and easy to put into practice, summed up in the immortal words of Michael Jackson: “remember my strong advice, just remember to always think twice.”

The other kind of fear is the simple fear of the unknown. This is the bad kind of fear because it’s ultimately unproductive and limits your potential for wonderful things.

The first way to overcome a fear of the unknown is to put it in perspective – understand the circumstances surrounding it. Read from several sources about an event or place with a bad reputation and decide for yourself. Remember that international news is like a kid’s game of telephone, by the time it gets to you it’s almost hilariously mangled. It rarely starts with your own news agency but long before and censored down to fit the politics of the region and the day. Not to mention it’s the media’s jobto stain it with the greatest possible horror so it can travel the globe with a speed and ease a bloodless coup could never get. For this reason the tiniest molehill will be exaggerated to its proverbial mountain, retold dozens of times to be irresistible to those listening from far away. As much as we despise the fact, it’s inescapable. As such, there’s no sense trying to change it. What you can change is your reaction.

After the swine flu virus story broke in April 2009, thousands of people canceled their plans to go to Mexico without even being officially cautioned to go there. We remember the panic in the travel industry very well. An associate decided to suck it up and went to Cancun a few weeks after the first reports rolled in. She had a fantastic time, came back healthy and the only thing she missed were high prices and other tourists. She put the fear of death by flu behind her and was rewarded for it.

Another way to overcome fear is to accept it, understand it, and move on. This of course is easier said than done. Fear is a normal part of the human condition, like being happy. But once you get a chance to process the news of a shocking world event for example, you’ll realize you have two choices: to let the news imprison you or to put it in your mouth and eat it, so to speak. It really is as simple as that. What you’re fearing is the unknown. And like any scary basement, a little light can change the whole situation.

For the most part, the world is no more dangerous than your hometown. Just less usual, and isn’t that why you travel in the first place? To better understand the unusual? The confidence you’ll gain by turning lions in to lambs is more valuable than if you never confronted the lions to begin with. So grab your whip and chair start taming. The world (beyond your perception of it) awaits you.