How to Overcome Fear and Anxiety

Are you currently suffering with fear and anxiety? Do you want to remove it from your life? Well, you have come to the right place.

Like most of you, I once suffered from an immense amount of fear and anxiety to the point it became hard to function in my day-to-day life. But fortunately, there is a way out of it, and with what I am about to share with you, you can be PERMENANTLY FREE from fear and anxiety for the rest of your life.

Removing fear and anxiety from your life!

Before you start reading this blog, I would like you to ask yourself this question. When was the last time your fear and anxiety benefited a situation in your life? When was the last time you felt fear and anxiety leading up to a specific event? How many days were wasted in stress and worry leading up to that event? And how much of your fear and anxiety came true once you go to that event?

When we ask ourselves these questions, we often come to understand that we suffer far more in imagination than we do in reality, and fear and anxiety rarely have a purpose in our day-to-day life. So, when it comes to removing something like fear and anxiety from your life, it is essential to understand why you are experiencing it in the first place, and if it has a reasonable explanation to be in your life, for if it doesn't, then why do you keep believing it to be true? Once you have fully acknowledged this, you can then start the process of removing it, making you one step closer to mental freedom. Now, before you start reading this blog, something worth noting is that some cases of fear and anxiety can stem from chronic trauma, and therefore before we start the process of removing any fear and anxiety from our life that is related to that trauma, it is vital that we understand and heal from that initial event first. If you feel that you are experiencing the after effects of unhealed trauma please seek help from a professional. However, if you are not recovering from chronic trauma, please read on.

Fear!

Let’s start with fear first. What is fear? Fear is an emotional response to perceived threats or danger. It can be triggered by real or imagined situations and serves as a protective mechanism, helping us to react to potential harm. While it can be beneficial in keeping us safe, excessive or irrational fear can be harmful to us in various ways and have negative effects on our daily lives, and often does.

Unfortunately, If we find ourselves feeling frightened or anxious for prolonged amounts of time, we can eventually build an automatic response system inside of us that is triggered by simple things over and over again. Once this happens, we often find ourselves going into panic mode mentally, causing us to create more chaos in the nervous system as our breath becomes erratic, which often leads us on a downward spiral of fear and anxiety. However, once I turned my attention inwards and stopped allowing myself to react to these subtle changes within my body, I began to notice that the fear I was feeling rarely had a logical explanation to be in my life. It was simply caused by me believing the emotion without questioning it first. Once I started turning my attention inwards and asking questions like “Why am I scared” or “What is scared”, something quite remarkable happened. When I backed my fear into a corner by questioning it in a non-judgmental way, more often than not, it would vanish in a split second without even trying to explain itself. Amazing, right? Or the other thing it would do, which didn’t happen often, is come forward with a logical explanation as to why I was feeling afraid. Maybe, “I’m scared of stepping into the unknown”, or “I'm scared of what people will think of me” etc. This then gave me the opportunity to confront it deeply and get to the real WHY behind it, thus allowing me to remove it from my life as it was exposed. But the answer as to why I was scared was always significantly smaller than the fear I was feeling in my body or perceived it to be in my mind. But by becoming comfortable exposing the bluff of the mind, this then allowed me to begin the process of rewiring my brain to not go into panic mode every time I felt subtle changes in my nervous system, and the way this is done is by practicing the art of observing it and not reacting to it Meditation is a great way for us to become more mindful in these situations, by giving us the ability to observe our inner world without participating in it, therefore understanding that everything is powerless without our reaction. Yoga, Qi gong, and various other energy balancing exercises are also effective at regulating our nervous system and keeping us calm. However, If you have trouble confronting your fear and anxiety alone, talking to a professional or a friend can be useful for us to do this in a comfortable way to start with. But unfortunately, until you have questioned your fear and confronted it, you will continue to feed it with your energy and remain trapped in the cycle of fear-based thoughts.

Once you have understood that the fear you are feeling likely has a purpose in your life, you can then build the habit of questioning it before responding to it. Thus, allowing your nervous system to get the break it needs, preventing it from being so sensitive to things in the future. That being said, there are other effective methods that work in conjunction with what I have explained, like somatic breath work, cranial sacral therapy, Qi gong and guided release work. But these are usually only used when recovering from intense trauma or chronic stress. So, if you are recovering from trauma or chronic stress, and not just experiencing unnecessary fear and anxiety, these other services are well worth looking into.

So to bring this chapter to a conclusion. Question your fear before you believe in it, try and locate where it is residing in your body, turn your attention inwards and ask yourself who or what part of you is feeling afraid, and allow yourself to confront it head on. If you do this, more often than not, the illogical reason behind your fear will often be exposed and your fear will slowly begin to make its way out of your life. Sometimes however, our fear is much more deeply rooted than just responses in the nervous system, going back to childhood trauma or even limited fear based beliefs, however, no matter what the origin of your fear is, there is a way out of it, and on the other side of confronting it is the freedom you are seeking.

Anxiety

When it comes to anxiety, we have to again understand what is causing it, and whether or not it has a logical explanation to be in our life, which more often than not, it doesn’t.

So what is anxiety? Anxiety is often caused by repetitive thoughts and feelings of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. To put it quite simply, it is fear of the unknown. Anxiety can come in many forms of intensity, and if you are still functioning perfectly fine with minor anxiety I wouldn’t worry. However, if it is impeding into your life and preventing you from functioning or causing other mental and emotional health issues, then keep reading.

Now, when I had my anxiety attacks years ago, I again got trapped in the cycle of fear and anxiety, or anxiety and fear, because they both have the power to create each other. Therefore, because of this, it is essential to conquer both of them simultaneously to remove them from your life. And again, mindfulness and meditation are a great way for us to do this. Qi gong and other energy balancing practices have also proven to be effective as mentioned previously.

Why are you feeling anxious?

When I was feeling anxious, it was usually because my focus was on a future event, or because I was trying to move faster than life was unfolding, thus, leading me to feel restless, worried, and consequently anxious. This often then lead my breath to become erratic, causing biochemistry shifts within my body, triggering my nervous system to go into panic mode, and therefore giving birth to fear. Creating the whole cycle of anxious and fearful thoughts and emotions again and again. Now, the good thing about the breath, is although it usually changes with each of our emotions unconsciously, we can also consciously take control of it to change the biochemistry activity in our body, and therefore bring tranquility back to our nervous system and peace back into our minds. The easiest way for us to do this is by focusing our attention on our lower Tan Tien (the space behind your navel) and breath in through the nose for 4 seconds, hold for 2 seconds, and breath out through the mouth for 8 seconds. If you repeat this 3, 6, or 9 times, This will stimulate your vagus nerve and allow your mind and body to return to a state of peace and harmony. Once you create this stable environment inside of you, you can then start the process of questioning your fear and anxiety in a non-judgmental way without going into panic mode. Again, by questioning your anxiety you are also backing it into a corner where it has to come forward with a logical explanation as to why it is there. Now, when you confront your fear and anxiety with the question as to why it is there as mentioned previously, don't just allow your fear to kick in with an automatic response, like, "I'm worried about x,y,z," or something similar, and be happy with that initial response. Really allow yourself to dive into it, to question it without letting fear give you the answer. Then, continue to ask WHY again and again, like turning over all of the stones in a non judgmental way until eventually something inside of you shifts or you have that big Aha moment. Once you do this exercise, and really allow yourself to dive into it deeply, you will likely understand that it was all an illusion and trick of the mind, like a shadow puppet on the wall, a misuse of imagination and thought, and once you have that realization you will break free from its grip once and for all. The other thing you can do is set up a string of alarms on your phone to remind you to be present and check in on your emotions throughout the day. This is called snacking out on mindfulness. If you notice you are anxious or stressed at all during the alarms, you can then repeat the mindfulness/breathing exercises and build on the habit of cultivating inner peace. Gradually, if you repeat this exercise enough, you will begin to build a stable foundation of contentment, which will then become the place in which you reside throughout the day. Often known in meditation as your “center”. 

 Conclusion!

The main aim of the game here is mindfulness! It is about being conscious or your breath and your thoughts throughout the day so you stop repetitively believing in your fear and anxiety and reacting to your emotions before questioning them. Once you create this mental discipline and awareness through practice, and understand that it all starts and ends in the mind, you can then move about your day without being carried away by the fluctuation of your thoughts and emotions. Eventually, with enough practice, you can operate in this state of being in even the most stressful situations.

So, now you know the way in which to confront your emotions and remove fear and anxiety from your life, it is up to you to take the next step. Unfortunately, no one else can do this for you. We all have the power within us to change and redirect our lives, but this all starts with YOU! "You are the master of your reality. Learn to take back control and regain your true power!" Want to book a 1 on 1 session with Happy Souls and start your journey towards a more happy and peaceful life? Get in touch today and use BLOG10 to claim your 10% discount.

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How to overcome fear and anxiety - Harry Shelswell - Life coach in Bournemouth - Dorset and Hampshire - UK.