Battle Your Fears

What are you scared of?
Everybody has some fears and worries – as humans, we’re programmed to
feel fear as a natural response to threats in order to protect and look after
ourselves.
But, what happens when your fears begin to take over? Fear can control
your life and keep you from following your dreams, prevent you from
taking risks, and stop you from living the life that you want and doing the
things which you desire.
But…
It doesn’t have to be this way! Fear can hold many people back, and one of
the biggest mistakes that you might be making right now is taking your fear
at face value.
What you need to understand is that fear can be both real or imagined, and
it’s hard for your body and brain to differentiate between the two. Let’s look
at two different situations to put this in perspective.
Imagine that there’s an angry bull racing towards you, and you’re wearing a
red t-shirt. This would be real fear. You have every reason to be scared if
you’re being charged at by a furious horned animal!
Now, imagine that you’ve just turned the lights off after watching a
particu-larly scary horror movie. You know that you’re absolutely safe in
your home, but you still can’t shift that nauseous feeling in your gut when
you think about some of the scenes from the movie. This fear is imagined.
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Fear can be a product of two different things – it’s either due to reality, or a
product of your imagination. In general, real fear will be felt by both you
and others around you, and imagined fear will be personal to you alone.
Imag-ined fear is generated by your beliefs and individual perspective of
the world, which is why some people have fears which are completely
incom-prehensible to others.
For example, a person who fell into a lake as a small child may have a fear
of water even into adulthood, whilst somebody who’s never had a scary
experience with water could be a professional swimmer with absolutely no
fear of scuba diving in the sea. This is because water in and of itself isn’t
something to be fearful of, but your personal experience could make it
scary for you.
In general, the fears which hold us back are these imagined fears which are
personal to each and every one of us. Just because they’re imagined,
however, doesn’t mean that they’re not real – they certainly feel very real to
the person who is feeling them.
Conquering the fears which are holding you back relies on you getting
down to the source. Discovering what causes your fears is key to facing
them head on and taking control of your own life and happiness. Figuring
out what you need to do to push your fears out of your life and no longer
allow them to hold you back will involve putting everything into
perspective and sifting out the irrational fears from the rational ones.
Once you know where it is that your fears come from and how to deal with
them, you’ll become a braver and stronger person. Fear and anxiety can
severely hold you back, and taking the steps to gain control over them and
no longer allow them to rule your life is a process which will take time,
effort and patience – but it will all be worth it in the end.
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In this book, you’ll learn how to:
Identify the causes of your fears;
Determine which fears are rational and which are not;
Swap your negative thoughts for positive ones;
Challenge yourself to take risks;
Use imagery to alleviate your fears;
Use talking therapy to help you control your emotions, and
Practice daily meditation to reduce stress