Overcoming your own fear is not easy. However, learning how to control and manage your fears will help you feel more comfortable and confident. At the same time, you will have the opportunity to experience new things and enjoy life to the fullest.
8 Ways to Help You Overcome Your Fears
Fear is one of the natural human emotions. This emotion is understood as a state of anxiety, tension, insecurity when sensing a threat. When people are young, people will be afraid of many things and fear is also more difficult to control. As adults, life experiences and knowledge help us to be aware of everything around us. Since then, fear is reduced and the scope of fear is also significantly narrowed.
However, the knowledge of life also unintentionally causes us to form deep fears with some issues, such as fear of love, fear of abandonment, fear of failure, fear of change, etc. Adult fears are often more persistent than childhood fears. Feelings of fear prevent us from renewing ourselves and changing the old things in our lives.
In fact, many people who are capable but always afraid of failure and innovation have missed countless opportunities in life. Fear dominates one’s emotions and actions, thereby causing many troubles in work, daily life as well as social relationships.
If you are facing fear, the following ways will help you overcome your fear and enjoy life more fully:
1. Admit your fear
Acknowledging your fear is the first step in overcoming your fear and taking control of your own emotions. It is a common feature that people try to avoid their fears, worries, and insecurities and always hide their true feelings. However, this will “accidentally” provide more energy for the fear to grow.
By acknowledging your fear, you can master your emotions and learn to control fear in some situations. When you acknowledge your fears, you should acknowledge them instead of judging them. Any of us have hidden fears about problems and aspects of life. So fear is not unusual and you shouldn’t get too upset with your fear.
Acknowledging fear helps individuals become more aware of themselves, from which they can find solutions to learn to control emotions and overcome fear. However, admitting fear is not easy. To accept this will take a pretty long time.
2. Find out what causes fear
After admitting your fear, you need to find out what caused it. All of our fears are rooted in negative experiences (be it real experience or through stories, movies, etc.).
Identifying the cause of your fear will help you learn how to control your fears and negative emotions. For example, you are afraid of failure because you have received a humiliating failure while receiving a lot of expectations from your family and people around you. In this case, the cause of your fear of failure is the family’s expectations. If you don’t have too high expectations, you will easily face and accept failure yourself.
Finding the cause of your fear will help you learn how to overcome and control your own fear. As in the case above, you need to realize that failure is not the reason why you are afraid of failure, but the family’s expectations.
Failure is a part of life and everyone has to go through it even if they don’t want to. Failure is not such a bad thing. This will be your chance to slow down and see yourself and everything. The valuable experience from the failures will also help you to have more baggage in life and this will be the foundation for you to achieve success.
With other fears, you should also find out the specific cause. Many people have subconscious fears because of childhood experiences. However, they themselves always keep this fear instead of finding out the cause and overcoming it. In fact, when we think about our childhood experiences, sometimes we don’t have the same fear as before. In the long run, the fear will gradually subside and you can overcome your fear easily.
3. Understand the benefits of overcoming fear
Fear will still be present if you do not try to face it and overcome it. In fact, a lot of people are not motivated to overcome their fear. The negative emotions caused by fear will make you hesitate to move forward. To stay motivated, you should find out what benefits you can get from overcoming your fear.
The first benefit of overcoming your fears is comfort and freedom. You are completely free of fear, free to enjoy life and experience whatever you desire. When you overcome your fear, your emotions and behavior are not influenced. You are completely at ease with your own emotions, know how to love yourself and do the things you love.
Ideally, the benefits of overcoming fear should be written down on paper to remind yourself to overcome your own fear. Remember, while you are dominated by fear, the people around you are completely free to enjoy life. So don’t waste your time on things that aren’t worth it. Overcoming fear and accepting life with the most comfortable mind is what you should do.
4. Take a slow approach to fear
Once you have prepared the above steps, you should start approaching the fear. The approach should be taken step-by-step to avoid undue panic and fear. If you are afraid of failure, start talking about your failures in life with the people around you.
Conversations will help you understand that we all face failure, no matter our age. Talking about failure will help you realize that failure is not a big deal. Facing and approaching your fear will help you gradually reduce it.
In case you are afraid of insects, start by drawing pictures of insects or watching cartoons or documentaries about animals that cause you fear. At first, you may feel uncomfortable and insecure. Therefore, approach slowly with gradually increasing intensity so that you can adapt in time.
5. Learn relaxation techniques, relax when scared
When faced with fear, the body will show physical symptoms due to hormonal changes. Common symptoms are heart palpitations, restlessness, anxiety, nervousness, sweating, flushed face, etc. These symptoms dominate your emotions and make your fear stronger.
Learning relaxation techniques will help you manage these symptoms, thereby keeping your mind at ease in the face of fear. Gradually, the fear will decrease in intensity and you will be able to overcome the fear. Relaxation techniques also help a lot when you are faced with stressful situations like interviews, before surgery, etc.
6. Keep a positive mindset
One of the reasons for increased fear is negative thinking and taking things seriously. This will cause the fear to increase in magnitude and persist. Therefore, you should keep yourself positive, happy thinking to overcome your fears.
People who are optimistic will be less fearful than people who are always pessimistic and negative. This is also the reason why people with phobic anxiety disorder always have a negative personality, or worry, stress and insecurity when facing difficulties in life. Meanwhile, people with an optimistic spirit will know how to balance emotions and easily solve problems that arise.
7. Exercise regularly
Few people know that regular exercise is an effective way to control fear. Physical activity can regulate the function of the amygdala, which controls and governs fear in the brain. By regulating the functioning of this organ, exercise helps you to control fear and negative emotions.
Many studies show that physical activity increases courage, strength and bravery. This means that negative emotions such as fear, pessimism, negativity, etc. will gradually decrease. Therefore, in addition to approaching your fear, you should exercise regularly to be able to overcome your fear.
8. Psychotherapy – How to Overcome Your Fears
If you can’t control your own fear, you can attend psychotherapy. This method is effective for fear caused by negative life experiences and irrational fear due to psychological and mental disorders. In psychotherapy, a professional will help you recognize false beliefs and thoughts, learn to appreciate life’s dangers, and control unnecessary fear.
This method is carried out by means of communication, completely without drugs and without interfering with the body. After therapy, you will know how to control your fears, balance your emotions, and have the skills to deal with unfavorable situations in life.
Overcoming your fear is not easy. However, controlling your fear will give you the opportunity to experience life and enjoy everything to the fullest. On the other hand, getting rid of fear will also help you know how to seize opportunities and achieve success instead of excessive fear and anxiety as before.
