The OP has underneath it that we're trapped by fear of this or that. I'd rather focus on being how this poem by Rosemary Harris put it:
My companion is fear
Walking behind me like a shadow.
He sees obstacles where none are,
He knows death as disintegration,
He comes from hell to cherish me
Saying 'turn right,' 'turn left,'
'Look, there is a lion in the road
And no resurrection.'
Yet I will make my torturer
My dear companion.
For in acceptance he grows honest,
Showing that a skeleton is only bones
And one moment no longer than another
And pain only sensation
Like the color of the rose,
Less than the falling of a leaf.
See, I shall turn my head,
Diminish him with pity,
Kill him with understanding
Even love . . .
Looking him in the eye
I shall observe his dwindling
Because he is only a shadow
Lost between me and the sun.