Facing Fear #2When facing fear, remember that fear always grows from a thought. It always, always, always stems from a belief that you have cultivated. It starts with something that you have thought about in detail and imagined a vivid, negative outcome. It then goes a step farther, in that fear winds its roots around this make believe outcome and tells you that the outcome is real.
Fear extinguishes possibilities. It hampers hopeful creativity. Fear only allows for a threatening, damaging outcome. When there is fear, there is no hope and therefore no action. After facing fear and abolishing it, there is quick, decisive momentum towards happiness and fulfillment.
Fear is always very specific. It can be traced back to a specific thought such as, "I will lose everything", "people will think I am crazy or stupid" or to a crisp and detailed imaginary outcome such as becoming homeless, left alone, and walking the streets in your bathrobe. These thoughts are feul for fear's wildfire. The more fearful thoughts you have, the more the fire rapidly spreads. When your thoughts about the situation are different, then your feelings are different. When you change your perception about what the situations means, then you have become an expert at facing fear. Shifting your perception shifts your beliefs and your attitude.
Shift from fear to courage. And, when your beliefs are different, then your expectations about outcomes are different. Two people can look at the same situation, such as starting a home business, and have very different expectations about how hard it could be. One may expect that would be very difficult to work at home, and thus be afraid. Another may believe that self-employment is lucrative and therefore expect a prosperous outcome. Because their thoughts are different about what it means to be self-employed, one is afraid and one is not. It all comes down to perception. Perceive a situation one way and you are hopeful, perceive it another way and you are afraid. So the way to overcome fear is to flip your thoughts so that you can turn over your fear.
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Exhausted? Stressed-out? Overwhelmed?
Hi,Courtney here, author of this site. When I developed anxiety and depression, I went to a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a physician, and to be truthful, in my experience, these people couldn't really help.Therapy sessions, yoga and getting more exercise lessened my anxiety symptoms, but did not stop them for good.
In fact, I later learned that because I was living in a constant state of low-level stress and anxiety, the chemicals in my brain had changed, making me more anxious and depressed. Clearly, merely managing my symptoms was not enough - in fact, following "the doctor's orders" made things worse....
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