Overcome Your Fears In 8 Steps
They unleash an intense emotion that paralyzes or blocks some aspects of your life. But you can learn to deal with them with these exercises.
We propose you a guide to face fear and remove it from your life. Remember that we have all been through this situation more than once and that when we can see things from a distance, we can begin to overcome it.
How to overcome your most ingrained fears?
In today’s article we are going to review some psychological strategies that can help you face your fears.
1. Assume the fear is there
Acknowledge that you are feeling it and that it may have its role. Feeling fear is something natural and, if that emotion has arisen in you, surely there must be a reason for it to have occurred.
Could you know what it is serving you for? How is fear helping you? What role is it fulfilling within your system? Finding information about the positive function of fear will help you.
2. Focus on the worst fantasy
For the fearful, Seneca proposed the technique of “the premeditation of all evils. ” You can do it more systematically by writing down for half an hour every day all the catastrophic thoughts about how bad it can happen to you. Once you accept all your evils, the fear disappears.
3. Admit that you are not in control
We all have to assume that life has a certain degree of uncertainty. It is important that you realize that within you there are mechanisms that are activated unconsciously and that you do not control them. If you have panic attacks, they appear without you deciding.
There is something bigger than you and many things happen without the person or humanity having any control over it.
4. Try not to depend on your environment
Every time someone helps you do something because you are afraid, your ability to cope with those situations on your own diminishes.
5. Avoid avoiding and confront your fears
Imagination is worse than reality, so try to relativize your fears. “I bear the wounds of all the battles in which I have not participated,” wrote Fernando Pessoa. “Avoided situation, enlarged fear”, keep it in mind.
6. Expand your perception
Fear reduces your view of reality. Try to expand it by looking at how the people around you act and live. Are they afraid? Do they have problems? What do they do in difficult and adverse situations? How do you solve them? Maintain a curious attitude towards others and be interested in how they are and how they react.
7. Distinguish fear from anxiety
Sometimes we can confuse fear with anxiety and not all anxiety is fear. Anxiety can be the expression of other silenced emotions. In addition, it usually occurs in the body in a more generalized way.
8. Remember: fear is just fear
It is not a death threat, far from it. With the passage of time you will realize that nothing happens and that one does not die of a panic attack. You will also notice that while you are having a panic attack nothing happens outside.
When you can accept this reality, you will have overcome fear and you will be able to put it by your side, differentiating yourself from it, you will be able to be with it, see what it is like … and not stop doing anything for its cause.
