Yes, fear is a mechanism meant to protect us from imminent danger. So fear has a purpose that it serves us. It is definitely a good thing. But most day-to-day fears tend to only pretend to be useful, and more times than not, they can be irrational or even unnecessary. So how do you learn to deal with + overcome the fear that serves no purpose other than getting in your own damn way of doing the things that get you outside of your comfort zone?
Keep reading to hear my top 6 tips for learning to trust yourself and overcome your fears.
Here are some of my top 6 tips:
1. First, acknowledge + identify your fears.
Many times when you are afraid to take a risk or do something outside of your comfort zone, you will make up excuses as to why you shouldn’t do the thing. You likely do this as a way to rationalize the fear without truly acknowledging it. You may just think your “gut” is telling you to avoid this situation, but have you taken the time to question “Why?” you are afraid? And “what are the thoughts that are creating the fear”?
2. Understand how your brain works when it comes to fear.
Fear is not caused by your circumstances, it’s caused by your THOUGHTS about said circumstances. It’s how one person can have crippling fear around skydiving, yet another person wants to jump out of planes every other week for fun. The circumstance of skydiving is the same, but two people can have two very separate thoughts about it. These thoughts then create your feelings of fear. (i.e., “My parachute won’t open and I’m going to crash to my death” is likely to cause your hands and feet to start tingling and sweating and the fear to ramp up in your body.)
3. You don’t have to be fearless to take action.
The way you truly overcome fear is not to try and ignore it, to resist it, or to try to avoid situations that cause it. The way to stop letting fear get in your way is to allow it to be there and to take action anyway. Taking action while acknowledging fear is one of the most powerful things that you can do.
4. Process your emotion of fear.
So how do you allow fear to be there and take action anyway? Emotions are simply vibrations in your body. The vibration is NOT going to kill you. Allow yourself to acknowledge that the feeling is there. Feel it in the body. Is it heavy? Where do you feel it in the body? Does it have a color? Does travel? Does it start to dissipate? When you try to resist it versus allowing it, you most likely will make it worse, increasing anxiety and possibly turning it into a panic attack.
5. Consciously change your thoughts that are creating fear into ones that create courage.
You can choose another emotion (such as courage) to feel by changing the thoughts that are creating the emotion. So with the skydiving example, you may choose to instead think, “I’m afraid of jumping from a plane, but I’m brave and I’m going to do it anyway.” Something to note, most of us think courage is a feeling we want to feel, but oftentimes, it doesn’t feel good. But courage is very useful as a stepping stone to allow us to push through fear.
6. Celebrate yourself when you do something that once scared you.
Once you start to take action while feeling fear (or courage) and you see you survived + that you are fine, those same fears will start to dissipate. You need + deserve to celebrate yourself for doing the hard things. The more you celebrate yourself, the more likely you are to continue to take risks that scare you. It will become a skill you develop – to take action in the presence of fear.
And on a final note, the day-to-day fears that most of us have about advancing our lives aren’t likely revolving around life + death. It’s your OWN feelings that you are afraid of. You are afraid to feel fear. But the good news is, as you’ve read above, that is something that is completely in your OWN control. You have the ability to reprogram your brain + change your mindset around your current fears so you can get out unstuck and live that extraordinary life you know you were made for!
Are you interested in learning more about how you can overcome your fears?
Sign up for a FREE phone consultation with me, your personal certified life coach, and we will chat more about how 1:1 coaching will help you to learn the steps to get out of your own damn way so you can achieve your big dreams and goals in your life.
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