Do you ever feel like you’re held back by fear? That you could achieve so much more if only you could overcome your fears? You’re not alone. Fear is one of the most common emotions that people experience, and it can hold us back from achieving our goals. In this blog post, we will discuss tips and tricks to help you overcome fear and succeed despite it!.
Contents
What Is Fear?
Fear is one of the most intense emotions we as humans can experience. It is a feeling of dread and anxiety that comes from an awareness of danger, whether real or imagined. This emotion stems from your brains’ natural “fight-or-flight” response to dangerous situations in which you may need to defend yourself against predators or other threats. Fear causes you to feel uneasy about something, but it does not mean you will avoid the situation altogether – this would be called avoidance behavior instead.
Fear also has positive effects on learning and memory when it comes to new information; however, too much of this emotion can lead you into feeling overwhelmed with negative thoughts about something that isn’t even happening yet. I also want to mention that fear is usually specific to certain things, such as spiders, heights, or public speaking.
Negative Impacts of Fear
There are many negative impacts that fear can have on your life. Some of these are:
Feeling Tense
It also creates tension throughout your body, which makes it difficult to relax or let go. This can lead to feeling tired, irritable, and even depressed when you’re constantly worrying about what might happen if something goes wrong. Sometimes fears become so intense that they can cause physical symptoms like sweating, trembling or shortness of breath.
Negative Thoughts about the Future
Sometimes fear can make you feel like you’re not in control of your life, which leads to a lot of negative thoughts about the future. This can include worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet or constantly feeling like something bad is going to happen. These thoughts tend to be cyclical and can cause a lot of stress and anxiety.
Avoidance Behavior
When fear becomes too intense, it often causes people to avoid the thing they’re afraid of altogether. This avoidance behavior can keep you from experiencing new things or meeting new people, which can limit your life’s potential.
Performance Lags
Fear also has the potential to negatively affect your performance in various areas of life. For example, if you’re scared of public speaking, you may feel like you’re not able to do your best when speaking in front of a group. This can also be true for people who are scared of heights and have to climb up a ladder at work, or people who are afraid of spiders and have to deal with them as part of their job.
Health Issues
Many physical health issues can be caused by fear. For example, if you’re constantly feeling tense and anxious, it can lead to headaches, stomachaches, or even chest pain. Fear can also keep you from getting the sleep you need, which can cause further problems like fatigue and irritability.
How To Overcome Fear?
There are many ways to overcome fear. Some of these are:
Try Exposure Therapy
This is a type of treatment that involves exposing yourself to the thing you’re afraid of until it no longer causes anxiety or panic attacks. For example, if someone has a phobia for heights and wants to get rid of their fear, then they could try standing on top of tall buildings one at a time until there’s no more anxiety when doing so (this may take several sessions). It can be difficult at first but eventually, your body will become used to the height without feeling any negative emotions from being up high off the ground.
Give Yourself Challenge
Sometimes, the best way to get over your fears is to give yourself challenges. For instance, if you’re afraid of spiders and want to overcome this fear, why not try touching one with your bare hand? Once you’ve done it successfully once or twice without any negative emotions coming up for him/herself afterward then that’s when she knows she can move on from there.
Try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
This type of therapy involves changing how we think about things so they don’t seem as scary anymore. For example, someone who has a phobia of heights might tell himself before going out into public “I’m scared but I know I’ll be okay because in all my past experiences nothing bad has happened to me”. This will help him start to change the way he thinks about heights, and eventually, he won’t feel scared or anxious when around them anymore.
Talk About Your Fear
This is a great option if you don’t want to try any of the other methods listed above. Talking openly and honestly about your fear can help it feel less scary and more manageable. You can talk to friends, family members, or even therapists who can offer helpful advice and support. Sometimes, just knowing that you’re not alone in your fear can make it feel more manageable.
Manage Your Stress
Managing stress is an important part of overcoming fears and anxieties. This can be done through exercise, yoga, meditation, or other relaxation techniques like deep breathing exercises. You might also want to try journaling to help get rid of any negative thoughts that are causing your fear in the first place (this works best when used regularly). Sometimes getting enough sleep and eating healthy foods can make a big difference too.
Do What You Can To Feel More Confident
This is one of the tips on how to overcome fear. Feeling confident is one of the best ways to overcome fears and anxieties because it gives you power over them instead of letting them control your life! Many things help with confidence: exercising regularly, dressing well for work or school, having good posture while walking around town (stand tall), smiling at strangers when passing by on sidewalks/in shops, etc., talking yourself up before going into a public place where there might be lots of people who might judge you based off what they see first (this includes social media).
Give Yourself Time
Sometimes giving time also helps fears and anxieties to dissipate over time. This is especially true if the fear in question isn’t a major life event, like heights or spiders, but something more minor that you can just wait out without any real consequence. For example, someone who’s afraid of public speaking might feel very anxious about giving a presentation at work but will eventually get over it after doing a few presentations successfully.
Make Sure That You’re Healthy
Your body needs to be healthy for your mind to function properly. If something is causing physical pain or discomfort then it can affect how you feel emotionally too, so make sure that you’re eating well, getting enough sleep each night, and exercising regularly. Try journaling about any changes in moods/emotions throughout the day as well as what triggers them (such as stress from work) if necessary; this will help identify patterns that may lead towards more effective coping strategies later on down the road.
Benefits of Overcoming Fear
There are many benefits of overcoming fear including:
Increases Confidence
Overcoming fear helps to boost your confidence as you can face your fears and deal with them. This increased sense of self-confidence will help you in all areas of your life. It also encourages you to challenge yourself, which is a great way to learn and grow.
Helps You Succeed
Overcoming your fears can help you achieve your goals as it will help you get back on track if life throws an obstacle at you or when things don’t go quite to plan. It also helps with career growth as well as personal growth.
Opens Up New Opportunities
By overcoming fear, new opportunities are opened up for us that we may not have otherwise considered. For example, taking on a new challenge such as public speaking when previously this was something that filled us with dread (and thus avoided) could open doors for our career and allow us to progress in ways we had never thought possible before tackling our fear of public speaking.
Creates Version of Yourself
When you overcome your fears, this often creates a new and better version of yourself. You become more courageous, determined, and resilient individuals who are not afraid to take on new challenges. This can be empowering and help you to live a fuller life.
Helps You Grow
Facing and overcoming your fears allows you to grow as a person. You learn more about yourself, what you are capable of and how to handle difficult situations. It also allows you to develop new skills and strengths which can be beneficial in all areas of your life.
Makes You Stronger
Dealing with fear makes you stronger both emotionally and mentally. It shows that you are capable of handling whatever comes your way and helps build resilience which is very important in life.
Reduces Stress
When faced with fearful situations, our body releases cortisol which is a stress hormone. Overcoming fear can help reduce the amount of cortisol released, leading to less stress and better health. Sometimes, all it takes is one victory over fear to start seeing a change in your overall stress levels.
Conclusion
Fear is an emotion that is felt by everyone at some point in their lives. It can be paralyzing and overwhelming, making it difficult to take action. However, fear does not have to control you. Fear is always one of two things: it can be a sign that something is wrong and you should take action to fix the problem, or it could simply mean that there is an opportunity for growth. In either case, don’t let fear stop you from taking action; instead, use it as motivation to do what needs to be done.
There are ways to overcome fear and achieve your goals. Sometimes these methods require a bit of courage and effort, but they are worth it in the end. Be sure to remember that fear is only a feeling, and it doesn’t have any power over your life unless you let it. The best way to overcome fear is by taking action.
A Word From Therapy Mantra
Your mental health — Your psychological, emotional, and social well-being — has an impact on every aspect of your life. Positive mental health essentially allows you to effectively deal with life’s everyday challenges.
At TherapyMantra, we have a team of therapists who provide affordable online therapy to assist you with issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, workplace Issues, addiction, relationship, OCD, LGBTQ, and PTSD. You can book a free therapy or download our free Android or iOS app.
