GUIDE TO CONQUERING FEAR

I will be the one to admit that quite often I let fear control me and my attitude, I have never been mindful about that until this year when my oh so sweet partner made me aware of it.

Experiencing fear and being scared is great! It means you’re a human (congratulations!)

However, accepting fear and moving on with your life without any comprehension or reasoning can be seen by many people as you just being a ‘scaredy cat’.

Letting ridiculous fear paralyse you can be seen as you just living in your perfect bubble where nothing goes wrong but then again,  I mean, swimming in an open ocean surrounded by sharks is far different from telling your crush that you like them!

The point is, in this day and age most fears are irrational and senseless, don’t get me wrong – yes we have fears of losing a loved one, or fears of something important going wrong in our life, but that’s not the kind of fear i’m talking about.

I’m talking about the fear to approach your annoying manager, the fear follow your passion because you won’t have the security your 9-5 job gives you, the fear to start something new because you don’t know what the outcome will be, or the fear to go to the gym alone because you ‘think’ people will be staring at you. At the end of the day, most of us are just staying still because we are scared about what will happen or what won’t happen.

Trust me, I experienced this literally last week – I got offered an internship but I didn’t take it because I would have to take 2 days off my day job and i’m not financially secure enough to be able to do that – I have bills to pay and a house to save for!

I also experienced this in Greece – I was so scared to jump off this huge cliff into the ocean but then I thought “what the hell Elissa!! why are you letting this stupid rock control you” I took the jump and it was so much fun!!!

You tell me which one of those fears I just mentioned is reasonable and which one is unreasonable.

HERE ARE MY TOP TIPS TO CONQUERING YOUR FEAR!

1. Understand your fear: Is it a reasonable fear? or is it an unreasonable fear? If it is reasonable – then well, take appropriate action on that, but if it is unreasonable – get rid of it! it’s dragging you down!
2. Let it play out: you will (hopefully) realise that sometimes, your emotions stress you out and hype you up more than the fear itself, it’s easy to get attached to all your thoughts and feelings that you think exist! You are not your fear
3. Learn to control it: Change your physiology, start with your breathing then change your stance – Stand up confidently and follow through with positive thoughts, focus on excellent achievements and the ‘what if?’ question.
4. Visualise it: visualise the success of overcoming your fear. One thing I always grew up hearing was ‘visualisation’, when I was competing as a gymnast, I would visualise myself doing a perfect routine over and over and over again! Mental visualisation ensures positive body movement!
5. Turn fear conquering into a deep rooted habit until it becomes your instinct: Change the concept of your fear the second you feel it coming on! It won’t happen overnight but with practice makes perfect

 

It’s mind blowing that something so imaginary can control a persons life and have a real, long lasting impact. Unreasonable fear holds you back from growing and achieving success!