1. Understand what fear is and how it appears in your life. Fear is an illusion created by your own mind to keep you safe from pain. If you find that your thoughts are not coming from a place of love, they are coming from a place of fear.
2. Identify your personal fear. Exactly what is it you are afraid of? If you are afraid of walking into your boss’s office, is it because you are afraid of your boss? Or, is it because you are afraid of feeling powerless? Asking these questions will help identify the specific fear that is being harbored.
3. Analyze your fear. Is your fear rational? What is it exactly that will happen when you face your fear? Is there evidence that it will happen? Fear is a good thing if it keeps you safe and prevents you from physically getting hurt or injured. However, most things that we are afraid of are not actions but rather emotions. These emotions although intense and unpredictable will not harm you to truly feel. For example, thank your fear for trying to protect you from feeling powerless, then tell the fear that it is now time to go and that feeling powerless is an emotion you must now feel in order to move past the situation at hand. In addition, most things that we are afraid of never happen.
4. Take care of yourself. The more you take care of yourself by exercising, eating right and showing self love the more your fear will disappear. There are many forms of exercise. Find what challenges you and builds your confidence. Each of the 10 Components of Wellness must be valued and respected in order to establish self love.
5. Do what scares you. Start small: take baby steps to gradually melt the fear away. If your dream is to speak in front of a room but the thought overwhelms you with fear, start by speaking alone in a room.
6. Change the way you look at things. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”. You CAN control your thoughts. When fearful thoughts flood your conscious it is most likely out of habit. Habits cannot be broken over night. Stay mindful and acknowledge the fear for no more than what it really is: a thought. Make the choice and allow love to fill the vacant space where the fear had previously been.
7. Practice affirmations. Standing in a mirror and looking yourself in the eye and repeating an affirmation is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself. A good affirmation for becoming fearless is repeating “I am fearless in all areas of my life”.
8. Use meditation and prayer to drown the negative thoughts.
This can be done in any moment and can be extremely powerful. Research the many types of meditation and find what works best for you.
9. Send love to your fear.
Fear disappears when confronted with love. Remember, love is fearless. Send love to past relationships, situations you are afraid of or people who have hurt you.
10. Go public about your fear. Somehow there is power in letting it out. Talking about a fear takes away power. Now you are in control and have allowed yourself to be vulnerable. The fear is no longer the tyrant dictating what you can and can’t do. That fear has it’s place and has been a self preservation mechanism. But now, you no longer need protecting- you are strong and capable of protecting yourself with love.
Let It Go!
“Fear works hard everyday to keep us from pain: However; there is no greater pain than fear itself.”~Kerissa Kuis
To learn more about Kerissa and her Straight Up Fearless coaching visit www.straightupfearless.com
Originally published at medium.com