Erasing Fear

Fear

‍
Is a powerful and necessary emotion used to protect and react immediately to threat.
Fear can also be a debilitating emotion, stopping us from doing what we are designed to do, this type we should be able to control.

Primary response to fear is;
Fight, Flight or Freeze.
At this point there is no rational thought.

What you do next is the important part
This is your secondary response and where you can control what you do with the fear you are feeling.

It is important to be able to identify and separate all of our emotions as they merge and shift. Not always possible but try to identify fear by what it feels like physically.

Because emotions are chemical reactions they are linked with physiological changes.

Here are some examples

Sweaty palms
Churning stomach
Prickly back
Hot
Cold
Sick
Shaky
Elevated heart rate

All of this is natural response to fear. There will also be an unwillingness to take action

You could ignore it by distracting yourself with your phone or food for example

You could blame something external or get angry or withdrawn.

OR you could engage with the feeling. This is the most healthy, here is what you should do:
You recognise that the feeling is fear by paying attention to how it feels
You say out loud, ‘I am feeling fear.’
Once you have labelled your feeling this takes the potency out of it and means that you have regained your thinking and will have come out of your fight, flight or freeze mode.
Then you in a rational frame of mind, able to take control and make reasoned decisions.

‍