What are you afraid of?

I hate scary movies.

The only way I can watch scary movies is if I look up the entire plot in advance. Reading it doesn't scare me, but seeing it does — unless I know what's coming. I think this applies to a lot of fears we may have. It's not scary on paper, only when you're face-to-face with it.

Halloween is tomorrow, though people have been taking the last five days to dress up and celebrate. The entire month of October has really come to be known as a spooky month, emblematic of fall. As soon as October 1st hits, social media floods with videos of cheesy skeletons dancing and everything pumpkin. But as the month comes to a close, I can't help but think about the scary things in life that don't wear a costume.

None of us are immune to fear, though we're all afraid of different things. We might be afraid of financial insecurity, being alone, not meeting our goals, or any number of other things. We might have very superficial fears, like spiders, or very real and serious fears like security and safety. Regardless, these fears aren't necessarily fun to dress up as, and you likely won't see a child dressed up like a 401K at your door tomorrow evening.

It's okay to have these fears, even if they feel irrational at times. Many of them creep up when we least expect it, not just on a candy-filled holiday. But — while easier said than done — it's good to step back from these fears every once and a while and think about why you get absorbed by these fears in the first place.

Recently, someone suggested I listen to Dax Shepard's podcast, Armchair Expert. In one of the episodes (I believe it was his interview with Ellen DeGeneres) he takes time to talk about one of the steps in a 12-step program he participated in. In it, you list everyone you resent, why you resent them and what fear it roots back to, he says. Hearing this made me think about just how much we can let fear control our lives. Our fears impact the risks we take, the people we trust and so on. While it's okay to have fears, it's good to take a minute to think about how they infiltrate daily life.

As the season of spooks peaks then comes to a quick close, enjoy the thrill of that scary movie or the joy of seeing a well-executed costume. These surface-level thrills are good for adrenaline rushes and a hair-raising chill, and perfect for the holiday. Don't forget, though, that you are more than what you're afraid of.