Fear.

Fear. It’s something that we all experience; at this time of year, during exams or even when riding on rollercoasters. It’s not always a bad thing; for example, nerves before an exam are good because it shows that you care.

The problem comes in when those jittery nerves begin to consume you, take over your body and stop you from being able to perform the task at hand.

If this happens, ask yourself why? What really causes fear?

False

Evidence

Appearing

Real

That’s it.

This all consuming fear that holds your being once in a while stems from those negative thoughts of, what if I’m not good enough? People are going to judge me. I’m going to fail.

Sit back and think about it, who told you these things and what evidence do you have that everything is going to go horribly? There is a difference of being scared or nervous and having a fear, for example, if a monster jumps out at you on Halloween you’re obviously going to be a little shaken unless you’re someone who just doesn’t react. A fear is something that threatens you, that your brain feels will harm you if you interact with that thing, that you can’t deal with, whether that be spiders, heights or small spaces like me.

There are healthy fears, for example, fear of getting burnt is beneficial as it will stop you from touching fire and cause you to be more careful, it’s rational.

What about those fears that hinder us instead of help us? How do we overcome them or learn to deal with them?

Breathe and stop to think.

Take a step back and look at it in perspective. Is that tiny spider really going to harm you? If the answer is no then think, why am I afraid?

Put yourself into a situation with that fear.

To get a feel for exactly what I mean, watch Divergent. To get into Dauntless you have to go into a simulation and face every fear that you have, force yourself to get past it. Baby steps are a start, just work at it.

Talk about it

As it goes for a lot of things, having a buddy to rant at about the situation will ease your mind, and you might get some extra advice while you’re at it.

Write it down

A personal favourite of mine, brain dumping onto a piece of paper or into a notebook will empty your brain of all the negative thoughts flying around your head.

You can overcome anything if you put your mind to it. Remember, rational fears are healthy and some nerves before events are good, but don’t let those irrational fears get to you and stop you achieving what you want to achieve in life.

What are you afraid of?

Love CoffeeeAndCream x