Afraid to lose

Often when i go to live chess, i feel... afraid to lose. And so i play lower rated players. I hardly ever play a 1500+ although i would probably learn a lot more from those games.

It's weird, because.. i like a challenge and i feel i am not afraid to lose, yet i am .. afraid to lose. I feel i should study some more chess first. Or I should play with more time control, because i am not really good in blitz games.