“I just found out I’m pregnant and have no idea what I’m going to do!” – Fear.
“I can’t walk outside by myself at night because someone will rob me.” – Fear.
“I need to agree with my boss or he’ll fire me.” -Fear.
“I close my ears to the morning news when I hear of someone getting robbed.” – Fear.
It loves to creep closely. It waits patiently for the moment it can encapture us, and take our breath away. And it doesn’t take much to feel it. We all feel it. That pit in our stomach. The heaviness of the air. The tingling of our bodies. The moment we stop reaching and give in. We are blinded by it daily. We stop acting
We live in a society where it is the norm. We are too afraid to reach further than we can dream. We are to afraid to be more than we have ever imagined. We are too afraid to FULLY live because our passions and dreams don’t carry 401K, medical benefits, or stock options. Many of us are living stagnant lives because of fear.
9 Ways to Make Fear Your Friend
Get The Adrenaline Pumping! Go and do something that makes your heart pump. This will wake you up and help you see that life should be exciting and fun. So go out and make it fun.
Meditate on this: Sit down and close your eyes. Imagine your fear sitting in front of you. Talk to it. Fear, just like any emotion, is a message, but too often we allow it to control us. As you sit with it, give yourself permission to feel it. All emotions are okay to feel. It’s what we do to cope with them that matters the most. After a few moments, ask the fear why it’s there. What is it protecting you from? It might be a childhood memory. It might be nothing in particular. Whatever comes up is your answer. Next, ask yourself if it is still serving you. If it isn’t, then imagine breathing out the fear and surrounding it with a pink cloud releasing it
Think differently. Change fear into excitement. It’s exciting to take chances. So next time you feel afraid, tell yourself it’s exciting instead. Those two emotions feel the same. It’s how we label them that determine our actions. A roller coaster, to some, is exciting. To others, it’s scary. The ones who see it as exciting take the ride. The ones who are afraid sit on the side missing out on all the fun.
Weigh the outcomes. When fear creeps in, ask yourself why you are fearful. If it’s because of rejection, failure, or the unknown, try it out anyway. If it is because you are afraid for your life in some way…like walking down a dark alley at night, maybe allow the fear to protect you and take a different road.
Turn off the news! While the news can be very informative, too much of it may, in fact, prevent us from going out and taking chances. Reporters and good stories primarily engage the strongest of all emotions- fear. Fear based stories are what brings more viewers. So just turn it off.
Do Something Scary Today- Pick one thing that seems a little more risky or scary for you. It might be something as simple as getting something different at your favorite restaurant, or maybe it’s something a little more risky like asking your boss for a raise. Whatever it is, make sure you feel nervous and a little excited when doing it.
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone– When you leave work for the day, turn the opposite way that takes you home and see where it takes you. Don’t follow any sort of direction. Just drive. You never know what might happen. Get out of your norm and purposely do something a little uncomfortable. This is the first step to doing something bigger.
Change Your Outlook- Most people feel afraid to fail or feel too afraid to be rejected in some way. Failure and rejection are both part of the growing process. All successful people fail first. The difference between them and you is that they do not give up just because they fail. They don’t take it personally. Instead they learn from it and keep going. If you are afraid of failure, do it anyway. Learn, and do it again better.
Stop Making Excuses- Excuses are only disguised fear. Think about something you would like to achieve but won’t simply because of all the good excuses you come up. You aren’t too old, you CAN come up with the money, and you can make the time!
So no more excuses! Just do it!
By: Amy “Aloha” Neal
From fear to laughter, you have the most wonderful posts. Thank you.