What is greater than pain?

Fear of pain.  I used to be scared of bees, like deathly afraid.  This lasted for years until I was cured suddenly.  I was doing roofing work ... and there were bees.  I couldn't run so I just had to deal with it.  I learned that if you are cool, the bees are cool.  That's why I was able to stand within inches of the bees as they gathered pollen from these flowers and get this shot.

I now realize that the fear of being stung by a bee was more traumatizing than the bee sting itself.  You get stung and it hurts for maybe a few minutes or so. But the terror you feel when you see a bee is much more painful in its way.  What are you afraid of?  Are you causing yourself more pain via fear than actual pain that you would get from what you fear?
Once you conquer your fear, you can go places, have experiences, accomplish things that others can not.