When Fear met Data
When fear met Data
Aristotle believed that a genuinely happy life required the fulfilment of a broad range of conditions, including physical as well as mental well-being. A new field of knowledge, in the classical sense, was introduced, the science of happiness. But how far have been today in terms of ‘happiness’? How happy are we? Are we more stressed than relaxed?
Τhe primary source of stress for the human is probably fear and the subjective sense of uncertainty, so the satisfaction of the need for security is a precondition for the unfolding of all other requirements.
Darwin speculated that emotions must be critical to the survival of the fittest. This view, abandoned in philosophy and science for decades. Still, recently an ‘affective revolution’ in cognitive sciences has changed the perspective: “cognition refers to a language for describing all the brain operations, including emotions and reasoning.
We are programmed to resonate and define such act as the ‘right’ more than to ‘feel’ which recognise as ‘no reasonable act = wrong’. This behaviour is concluding with years of self-oppression avoiding social stigma and a misconception on the perception of the peers. Thinking and feeling are both necessary to be balanced (reach happiness), and we should embrace our feelings achieving emotional and intellectual balance.
What is happiness, and how can I reach it?
Happiness, as a total and lasting satisfaction with one’s own life. Happiness is more than the absence of unhappiness. Happiness is experienced both as fleeting sensations and emotions, and consciously appreciated as a permanent disposition of the mind. It encompasses two inseparable aspects: Hedonia (pleasure of the senses) and eudaimonia (pleasure of reason: living well and doing well).
With all the above questions in mind, ‘Killfears’ was born in 2012 in London, introducing an illustrated handbook of killing fears entitled ‘Kill it, or it will kill you’.
Kill it (your ‘negative’ fear) or it will kill you (stress will kill you). Contextually the book presents a step by step method to open a ‘dialogue’ with the ‘fear’, from the sufferer’s point of view. It allows the reader to become himself the writer of the book and to establish a communication channel between his abstract ‘fear’ and his conscious self through a series of simple exercises and the help of visualisation. The book has received numerous positive comments from psychotherapist practitioners, academics and scientists, among others.
In 2016 the project reached new heights with the involvement of the Dutch Human motion data company, Kinetic Analysis BV. Collaboratively created an entire ecosystem on how to manage fears and to achieve happiness.
A project with a tremendous impact on peoples lives if we consider that over 1 to 5 people globally suffer from stress.
We can measure ‘happiness’ or in more technical terms, your stress levels, using sensors that can allocate various parameters from the human body such as heart rate, skin reaction, among many others. On the other hand, an application that connects the wearable can send you messages real-time that can prevent a panic attack or an overload of stress. Also, additional features can deliver relief during a stressful situation and remove the unpleasant feeling of ‘panic’.
The project address to all ages and includes workshops to raise self-awareness and to prevent stress and social stigma phenomena. “Killfears” is about a methodology of improving the quality of life for people suffering from small and big fears and delivers hands-on tools to tackle them.
If you want to know more about the project and engage to the next actions, please feel free to contact us.
