The One Way to Overcome Your Fear

If it acts as any sort of consolation to you, everyone has some or the other fear in their lives. In most people, this fear culminates into a phobia, an extreme paranoia about something. And, in most cases, such fears and phobias are unjustified. Whatever it is that you are afraid of, it is highly likely that that particular thing does not deserve the fear.

Fear is a highly subjective thing. You may be fearful of something to a very extreme degree, but there will always be several other people who do not have any fear of that thing. Maybe you are frightened of swimming. But, just look around you… there are people who are setting records in swimming. Maybe you are frightened of making a commitment to someone; but there are so many people who are doing it all the time and leading highly successful lives.

Keep this thing in mind; it will help you a lot. You can seek inspiration from the many people around you and you will get some motivation, or at least some courage that such a thing is possible.

So, what is the way to overcome your fear? The best way for that is to take action. Most people who stay frightened do so because they refuse to accept their fear and work their way around it. They refuse to accept that they can take action if they want.

If you are afraid of swimming, you should not run away from it, but make an effort to understand it. Watch as many swimming competitions on ESPN as you can. Check out how those people move gracefully. What’s stopping you? Analyze your fear. Read books on swimming. See that the techniques are not all that difficult. If other people can do that, why can’t you?

But the most important thing is to go out there and take action. Get to the swimming pool. Take yourself there; muster the courage. Take a friend along. The very fact that you went up to the swimming pool means that you have a motivation to swim. Then, with the help of trustworthy people, let yourself go.

You will find that it is only this initial stage at which fear is at its paramount. When you actually step into the pool and make those initial strokes, you will find that the fear dissipates slowly. Concentrate on what you have to do, and do not think about the hindrances. When your focus is in the right place, things begin to happen in wonderful ways.

So, get up and take action. Take stock of the situation. Do not worry about letting yourself go. This is the way in which your fear can take a backseat and you can move along in a more sure-footed manner.

Your Fear Is in Your Mind

When you are thinking about fear-management, the one thing you have to steadily keep in mind is that fear is something that is universal. You aren’t the only one who fears something, however inconsequential the fear might seem. If you are frightened of butterflies, you should know that you aren’t the only one who does so. But, at the same time, the vast multitude of people aren’t frightened of butterflies at all. They, in fact, think of them as beautiful. They hold them, touch them and play with them too.

And the same applies for any kind of fear. Are you frightened of snakes? Or bungee jumping? Why are these things scaring you? Don’t you see so many nature experts dauntlessly allowing snakes to slither on their shoulders? Or don’t you see so many seemingly frail people just letting themselves go off a cliff?

Fear, though it is universal and claims a lot of people’s way of living, is, after all, an individual thing. It is a state of mind. It is your state of mind. When you were born, you did not have any fear. Look at infants. They would readily and playfully go near a snake if they were allowed to. There is no fear at that stage. Where does it come in then? It develops later in life. We condition ourselves to think that a cockroach is dirty and fearsome and hence we have to be frightened of it. We deem that driving is difficult and people die on account of that, and we become paranoid of driving. Every fear stems in the way we condition ourselves to think.

If that weren’t the case, all of us would have been frightened of the same things. Now, that does not happen, does it? Someone is frightened of corpses but then there are people who would live with them very easily and without the slightest shred of fear in them. Or, there are people who are frightened of fire and then there are firefighters who do anything to overcome it and save people.

Fear resides in our minds. And, it is possible for us to condition our minds in such a way that we can overcome that fear. It is possible to go around our fear and even remove it from our mind completely so that we can live a fuller, more balanced life. But, we all to all make a beginning. The beginning is through taking action and improving the way in which we lead our lives.