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7 Tips To Make Fear Your Friend
What scares you the most? Is it the loss of someone you care about? Is it having to go to the dentist? Perhaps you’re afraid of thunderstorms, heights, or elevators.
Fear is normal, no matter what it is. It’s how our bodies alert us that we’re in danger and that we should be cautious.
However, our concerns can sometimes become so overwhelming that they prevent us from reaching our greatest potential. They fill us with so much fear and uncertainty that we become continually concerned and anxious about the tiniest details.
Surprisingly, fear in its positive form might be beneficial to our health. It has the ability to spark fresh thoughts and encourage us to achieve new heights.
As a result, we’re here today to assist you in making fear your ally. If you follow the tips below, you’ll be able to change an enemy into an ally.
If you don’t understand the mechanisms of fear, learning how to conquer it can be a daunting task. Recognize that fear is a natural evolutionary response before you chastise yourself for feeling terrified.
Your body and brain are attempting to communicate with you, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. You can permanently overcome fear if you learn to read the signals.
Let’s get started.
Firstly, Let’s Explain What Fear Is
When we are confronted with a threat to our mental or physical well-being, our bodies go into survival mode, triggering the fight-flight-or-freeze reaction.
You’d be vulnerable to danger if you didn’t have the fear reaction. Despite this, our bodies react with dread in many instances where we are not physically threatened in the modern world.
A known external occurrence, such as a loud noise, peering over the edge of a cliff, or standing in front of a crowd, might cause fear.
When you’re scared, your heart will race, and your breathing will become more rapid. A “pit” in your stomach, dizziness, sweating, or a dry mouth are all possible symptoms. You can feel stiff or weak in your muscles. All of this is a result of your body sending signals to the outside world.
So, you need to…
Determine The Source
This is perhaps the most difficult phase, but it’s well worth it. However, in order to conquer your fear, you must first come to grips with the basis of your anxiety.
Being conscious of the root reason will be challenging at first, but it will strengthen you. You won’t have to live in the shadow of that huge, overpowering fear anymore.
Embrace Your Fear
You’ve confronted your apprehension. It’s now time to accept it.
But first and foremost, you must recognise that such-and-such terrifies you. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. To begin, speak it aloud, preferably to another person in a natural context.
You can also jot down your thoughts in a journal or diary. The idea is to get them out of your head and into the real world. That’s when your fear relinquishes control.
It also feels better to get it off your chest and tell the world about it. You’d be shocked at how many people are terrified of the same things you are.
Think Logically
Fear causes us to panic, and panic causes us to make poor decisions. Our prefrontal cortex, in fact, shuts down when we panic, according to various studies. This is the part of our brain that controls rational thought.
So, despite your anxiety and terror, you need to be able to learn to think rationally. Make terror your ally, and you’ll be able to do much more in life.
Take Stock
Fear, tension, and anxiety are all handled differently by people. Some people thrive under pressure and really enjoy being challenged. Others like to work at their own speed without the pressure of imminent deadlines.
Whatever method you choose, the most essential thing is to avoid allowing fear to overcome you. Let’s say you’re terrified of speaking in public. But then a colleague suddenly became ill and asked you to step in and deliver the presentation you’d been working on for weeks.
In this situation, you must choose whether to let your fear to overcome you or to rise to the occasion.
The latter will be difficult, but it will be well worth it in the end. Keep an objective mindset and remind yourself that others have given presentations before and survived to tell the tale. So, what exactly is the big deal?
Remember that your mind has a tendency to exaggerate things. So, find a strategy to cope with the tension and assess the situation. It’s the only way you’ll be able to control your anxiety and finish the work.
Get Help And Support
With a robust support system, no one has ever failed. Surround yourself with people who will motivate you to achieve your goals. These are the ones who choose to love you unconditionally despite listening to you scream about your concerns and anxiety.
A great deal of research has been done on the advantages of having a support system. It improves your self-esteem and overall well-being by giving you effective coping abilities.
Furthermore, having a strong support system can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
Remain Positive
When you’re afraid, you’re more likely to dwell on negative ideas and feelings. Then, in your mind, things fester and grow into this huge, hideous beast that you can’t control.
For a change, why not try some positivity? Remember that the mind is quite powerful; all it need is a gentle prod in the proper direction.
You can overcome your anxieties and live to tell the tale if you think positively. All you have to do now is believe it, and the rest will take care of itself.
Build Faith In Yourself
You can increase your comfort zone and confidence by celebrating tiny victories when confronted with fear, switching to positive self-talk, and imagining positive outcomes. People handle worst-case events significantly better than they expect, according to fear research.
Dedication to a greater cause, whether it’s a spiritual conviction, altruism, or personal ambitions, can help us overcome fear and stay on track when we’re feeling down.
Rather than fighting, avoiding, attempting to control, or feeling horrible about fear, learn to approach it as a friendly companion, anticipating it to show up and welcoming it when it does.
It isn’t a problem if you stop thinking of it as one.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
5 Things You Probably Never Knew About Fear
5 Things You Probably Never Knew About Fear
Before we start, if you want an explanation of what fear is, then read this post.
For you to learn how to conquer your fear and turn your fear into courage, you must understand the science of fear, and this is what leads us to the 5 things you probably never knew about fear.
Have you ever wondered why some people avoid fear while horror movie buffs and roller-coaster fans thrive on fear for pleasure?
Here are a few things to keep in your mind about fear.
Fear Is Physical
Well, you’ll already have understood this by now since it was already mentioned earlier that fear can be a biochemical reaction. Triggering a strong physical reaction in your body, fear is as well experienced in your mind.
Once you recognize fear, your body starts reacting — there will be changes in your blood flow, you’ll start breathing faster, your heart rate and blood pressure will increase, stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol will be released, and your nervous system will get alerted as your amygdala goes to work.
Your body as well prepares for fight-or-flight as you’ll find it easy to run for your life or start throwing punches due to the changes in blood flow.
Fear Can Make You Foggy
Yes, fear can make you foggy. In case you’re not so sure about what the word “foggy” means, this simply means to be “befuddled” or “confused”. If you’re a movie buff, you’d have a clear idea of what this is about.
For example, let’s say a guy is getting “cozy” with his girlfriend and three armed persons forced their way in. If that guy is captivated by fear, you’d see how confused or perplexed he would be.
At that point, he won’t be able to think clearly and he’ll be so melted that his decision-making skills will suffer. When fear happens, there are some parts of the brain that stop working and there are also some parts that become very active. When fear sets in your body, the brain’s area that’s responsible for judgement and reasoning, the cerebral cortex, suffers an impairment.
Fear Can Become Pleasure
Do you ever wonder why many love it when they get caught up in stressful, fearful, moments?
People who are a great fan of horror movies, haunted houses, and rollercoasters thrive on fear to derive pleasure, and for them, the excitement doesn’t come just during the activity but when it has ended because their brain and body stay aroused as the excitation transfer process occurs.
Pleasure is elicited as more of a chemical called dopamine gets produced during a staged fear experience.
Fear Is Not Phobia
Many tend to misconstrue fear with phobia not knowing that these two are clearly different. For instance, you may be experiencing more than just fear if the thought of basking on the beach makes you powerless, traumatized, and terrorized. On the other hand, you may just want to avoid swimming in the ocean because of a movie you just watched.
Simply put, phobia is a more complex version of fear. Fear is milder than a phobia. You may have a phobia if you see yourself taking serious measures to avoid rats, roaches, people, spiders, elevators, or water.
When you find it herculean to maintain a consistent quality of life and your ability to function is being interfered with, this is when fear becomes a phobia. Fears are how you commonly react to objects or events.
Fear Keeps you Safe
Yeah, that was clearly written; fear does keep you safe. Unlike what you may have thought, heard, or believed, fear keeps us safe and it’s very vital that we experience fear.
We all experience this natural and biological condition, fear, and even though it can have its negative consequences, it can also be positive and healthy because it’s a complex human emotion.
Common And Unique Fears
Meaning fear or horror, the Greek word “phobos” is where the word phobia comes from. Phobia is unlikely to cause harm and it’s simply an irrational fear of something. Fears associated with specific situations, medical issues, natural environments, or animals are some of what phobias typically involve.
There are certain situations and objects attributed to specific phobias and phobias can be further explicitly described to be an unrealistic, intense, and persistent fear of a particular situation or an object.
Phobias can interfere with one’s schooling, performance at the workplace, and life at home. They can as well cause significant distress and they’re quite distinct from regular fears.
People who are phobic about something tend to manage to endure it with so much anxiety or fear or perhaps, strive to avoid whatever it is they have a phobia for.
However, note that the list of specific phobias is quite long because there’s an endless number of situations and objects. Phobias come in all sizes and shapes and there are five general categories where specific phobias typically fall within, as stated by some experts:
- Fears associated with specific situations (driving, riding an elevator, flying)
- Fears associated with medical issues, injury, or blood (falls, broken bones, injection)
- Fears associated with the natural environment (darkness, sun, mountains, thunder, heights)
- Fears associated with animals (insects, cats, dogs, rabbits, spiders)
- Others (drowning, loud noises, choking)
Common Phobias
When one speaks of phobias, the list is endless. The five general ones and the list of many others have already been outlined. However, it seems that phobias never end as there are usually different phobias discovered by researchers and clinicians.
These medical experts have found it necessary to rise to the occasion of naming different phobias as they are identified. For this, they use the -phobia suffix and a relatable Latin or Greek prefix relating to the phobia to make up a name.
For instance, hydro (water) and phobia (fear) are combined to make hydrophobia which means the fear of water. We also have phobophobia which means the fear of fears.
Nevertheless, speaking of common phobias, there’s a source that outlined some of the most common phobias and this was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, in accordance with a 1998 survey that included more than 8,000 respondents.
Here they are:
- zoophobia, fear of animals
- ophidiophobia, fear of snakes
- hydrophobia, fear of water
- hemophobia, fear of blood
- claustrophobia, fear of confined or crowded spaces
- autophobia, fear of being alone
- astraphobia, fear of thunder and lightning
- arachnophobia, fear of spiders
- aerophobia, fear of flying
- acrophobia, fear of heights
Unique Phobias
Just as we have common phobias, you shouldn’t find it surprising that we also have unique phobias. We call these phobias unique because most people who have them tend not to report these unusual fears to their doctors and this makes them difficult to identify plus some of these phobias may only affect a handful of people at a time.
Since you now know that certain phobias tend to be incredibly specific and unusual, here are some of them:
- Cryophobia, fear of ice or cold
- Nephophobia, fear of clouds
- Pogonophobia, fear of beards
- Onomatophobia, fear of names
- Alektorophobia, fear of chickens
Treating A Phobia
A qualified mental health professional or a psychologist is the best person to speak to if you seek treatment for your phobia and this is simply because a combination of medications and therapy is what’s used to treat phobias.
Howbeit, exposure therapy is a type of psychotherapy that’s noted to be very effective in treating specific phobias. You’ll get to learn how to become less sensitive to whatever makes you fearful as you work with your psychologist during exposure therapy.
You’ll be able to learn to control your reactions and get to change how you feel or think about the situation or object with the aid of this treatment. Benzodiazepines and beta-blockers are some of the medications that can be recommended to you to help reduce your panic, fear, anxiety, and uncomfortable feelings you may have.
These medications do a lot of good in making exposure therapy less distressing but take note that they aren’t exactly a treatment for phobias for they are only to help you through the exposure therapy.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
What Is Fear And What To Do About It?
What Is Fear And What To Do About It?
No one is born courageous. However, we can’t afford to live in fear forever. One of the best ways to find success in our lives and businesses is by living a courageous life because we can’t sit back and watch fear dictate what we should do, when we should do them, and how we should do them.
Fear will always deprive us of the opportunity to get what we deserve and what we want, and we must not let that happen.
You may probably be thinking that “hmm, it’s easier said than done” but the fact remains that it’s very possible to live a courageous life and live a life that’s void of fear.
Of course, it’s human to be fearful but with fear also comes a decision to be calm and courageous. For us to live the life we want, we must learn to banish fear from our lives.
Whether a danger is psychological or physical, fear helps to notify us of the threat of harm or presence of danger. Fear involves a high individual emotional response and a universal biochemical response. Fear is a primitive, powerful, and natural human emotion.
While fear can be an indication of mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder, it can as well originate from imagined dangers, but it often stems from real threats.
However, take note that fear that’s highly personalized is stemming from an emotional response and on the other hand, our body as well responds in specific ways when we face a perceived threat — this is a biochemical reaction.
Fear is a survival mechanism and a natural emotion and, high adrenaline levels, increased heart rate, and sweating are some of the physical reactions to fear.
Symptoms Of Fear
As earlier mentioned, you can react emotionally or physically, or even both, to fear. While it’s possible that we all may react to fear in different ways, here are some common symptoms of fear:
- Upset stomach
- Trembling
- Sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Rapid heartbeat
- Nausea
- Dry mouth
- Chills
- Chest pain
Some people also have the tendency of experiencing psychological symptoms of having a sense of impending death, feeling out of control, being upset, or being overwhelmed
Causes Of Fear
Fear is more complex than how most people see it. While some people may trivialize fear and say it’s for the weak, even the strongest person on the planet has his or her own fear.
Think of the strongest wrestler or boxer in the world. Would you think such a person would have fears? Apparently, what we fear is different, and what makes someone fearful can be more complex or less complex, compared to another person.
Nevertheless, here are some of the common fear triggers:
- The unknown/uncertainty
- Real environmental dangers
- Imagined events
- Future events
- Situations or some specific objects (flying, heights, crowd, roaches, snakes, spiders, etc.)
Take note that certain fears can be related to associations or traumatic experiences. Others that aid in survival can be evolutionarily influenced because they tend to be innate.
Characterized by fear, here are some of the distinct kinds of anxiety disorders:
- Social anxiety disorder
- Specific phobia
- Social anxiety disorder
- Separation anxiety disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Agoraphobia
Why You Must Overcome Fear
The kinds of fear most people have only existed in their head and some of these fears include fear of being hurt, fear of being alone, fear of growing old, fear of humiliation, fear of rejection, fear of judgment, fear of changes, fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of losing out, fear of authority, fear of strangers, fear of people, fear of public speaking, and the list goes on and on!
Do you look at your future and you feel feverish immediately because you’re not sure of what tomorrow holds? Do you get intimated easily or you’re often filled with fear?
If you feel you’re less of a courageous person, here are some reasons why you must brace up yourself to overcome your fears.
Fear limits your full potential. Fear makes it difficult for you to grow and progress in life. When you’re driven by fear, living your best life, and becoming a better person becomes very herculean and you’ll find it very challenging to believe in personal growth.
Reaching the higher levels of consciousness is impossible if we keep entrenching ourselves off in the land of fear. For us to rise to the higher levels of enlightenment, peace, joy, love, and acceptance, we must not be mired in fear.
Most of us have the propensity of constantly vibrating at the level of fear and this is one of the major problems in our today’s society.
For us to reach our full potential, we must not let our life become a by-product of fear because we’ll be reduced to a slave of fear if fear is the only thing that drives our decisions, feelings, and thoughts. Understand that reaching your fullest potential is impossible if you keep on reacting to fear.
You can never fully run away from fear. How long can you run away from your fear? Think of it yourself. Since you’ve been running, what has it done to you? Has it helped you get rid of the fear completely or does it complicate it more?
Running will only make you feel secure, but you’ll always be haunted by your fear in everything you do if you refuse to deal with it and let it permeate. Mental fear is pervasive. It’s impossible for you to fully run away from fear, even though it may not be obvious.
Know that fear will always try to catch up with you more when you keep running and there comes a time when it will corner you and you’ll have no means to escape.
And when this eventually happens, you’ll have two options alone; brace up yourself to face your fear or shiver thoroughly. Thus, you would see that it’s quite pertinent that you learn to overcome fear now because avoidance is not the best solution, and it can never be.
Regardless of whatever your fear is, tell yourself that now is the time to deal with it.
Fear is a waste of your energy. When you succumb to fear, you’re investing your energy into something non-constructive. Instead of you brainstorming, identifying solutions, mapping out a way forward, and calmly processing the situation, fear consumes your physical and mental energy, and it draws you back.
Although fear, in some cases, can be a motivating factor to do more and perform better, especially for adrenaline seekers, it can as well be a waste of emotional and mental energy.
Fear is all in your mind. It’s funny that fear is harmless, even though it often seems scary and looks frightful. The danger made up in your mind is what mental fear is based on. A good example of this is the fear of speaking in public and this is something a lot of people suffer from.
Do you even ever think of why people are so scared of public speaking? In the real sense, you’ll not experience any harm in your physical body when you speak publicly.
However, you’ll get to realize that this fear is stemming from you thinking that you may be embarrassed, you may mess up, you may be judged, or you may slip up.
You see, all these fears, they’re all in your mind. Whether you think the audience will not be interested to hear your speech, you feel the presentation will go wrong, you may forget your speech, or whatever it is you may be thinking of, it’s all made up because they’re yet to happen.
There’s even no guarantee that any of these things will happen in the future even if they’ve already happened at a time before now. Whatever outcome you desire, it’s up to you to make it happen. The future is yet to happen. You’re in the present. Relax and do well to make it count.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊