Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.

Fear spreads faster than most things, because everyone around you is already primed to receive it. Saying your dread out loud in a group rarely lightens it much and reliably adds to theirs. Courage works the other way, since somebody else’s steadiness is contagious and costs the person nothing to give.

None of that means carrying everything alone. Choose one or two people for the fear, give the group the steadiness, and notice how differently a room behaves when someone in it is calm.