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Make Fear Your Friend
By Kiara Lay | November 14, 2007
Make Fear Your Friend
Don’t Let Fear Handicapped Us
Being fearful can be overwhelming as we tend to naturally resist any changes to our lives and thought patterns to accommodate a new way of living and thinking. So we continue to engage in activities such as drinking, comfort eating and shopping which help temporarily distract us from the anxiety but do nothing to make it disappear.
Instead of confronting or moving away from fears, we hide ourselves away and let the fear stay and grow, taking away joy, confidence and hope from us. Or we deny our fears by pretending that they are imagined and not really happening to us, and sleeping away, hoping it will go away.
We all experience fear in varying degrees and are constantly confronted by it on a daily basis. Fear is a sneaky feller who conceals it behind other emotions; hence it’s confusing to try to identify if Fear as the root cause behind other feelings. Sometimes fear hides behind emotions like discomfort, stress, insecurity, worry, nervousness and anxiety.
Rather than ignoring it, we should listen to it is as a message from our subconscious mind, urging us to do something differently.
Letting Fear be our Friend
The only way to get rid of fear and make it your friend, is to identify the issue that is causing the feeling of “danger”/fear and confront it in small progressive steps. Get help from someone you trust if you think you need support. This help to reduce your anxiety gradually because you know you have someone you can rely on for support during those dark periods.
Questions to ask yourself when you start feeling anxious or nervous:<
“What am I really scared of? What is the worst thing that can happen?” If you can be honest with yourself, it will help to bring the hidden issues out to light, and help you to regain your confidence and sense of security.
“What is the best thing that would happen if I could deal with this, instead of avoiding it?” Courage is needed to face your fears, but once you do those problems which seem to be like a looming mountain in our minds gradually become more realistic and that will allow us to take some positive actions to deal with them.
Fear is inevitable in live, however, we can treat fear as an ally to identify root causes of our unhappiness, instead of hiding from them.
The more practice we have in facing fears, the easier it becomes a friend!
Topics: Self Improvement- Overcoming Hurdles |