Fear is a natural human emotion. However, some of us are competent at overcoming our fears, while others develop intense, irrational fears, called phobias. These fears and phobias can truly prevent us from having the life we deserve and want to live.
Living in constant fear takes away our opportunity to achieve inner peace, as these fears constantly distract our thoughts. We need to be able to overcome our fears and phobias for us to experience inner peace.
However, many of us do not know how to overcome our crippling fears and phobias. It’s not a matter of simply ‘getting over them,’ and for those who don’t experience the same fears, it can be difficult for them to understand why another person can’t.
You can become stuck living with these negative emotions because you get used to feeling that way. When any set of feelings and emotions becomes normalized, your subconscious mind works against you. Its job is to keep you safe, and ‘safe’ to your subconscious mind is sticking to whatever is ‘normal’ to you.
When you try to move to a more rational and healthy plane of thought, your subconscious mind will throw up all manner of emotional pain and excuses to keep you in the state were in. This means that unknowingly you become a prisoner of your fears and phobias.
Here’s what you can do to overcome them and achieve inner peace:
Face Your Fears
We often hear this phrase when people talk about their fears and phobias. In reality, this is not easy. However, there is great truth behind the saying.
For you to overcome your fears, you need to be exposed to them. While staying away from them may seem to be the appropriate answer, doing so will not help you overcome them. If you don’t face them you will continue to live in fear of them. Desensitization is confronting and emotionally painful, but applied in a manner that does not cause a person to be overwhelmed, is an incredibly powerful tool.
Facing your fears doesn’t have to be intimidating. You can do it gradually and repeatedly until you take the edge off your fear and become more confident within yourself. Inner peace is not found within the comfort zone. Overcoming your fears slowly may take time, but achieving inner peace is worth all the effort you put in.
Also, remember to reward yourself when you do! Facing your fears and overcoming them takes time and great emotional effort, so set yourself a reward that you can’t wait to receive. That will make all the effort very worthwhile. The more committed you are, the faster you will overcome your fear.
Learn the Techniques That Help You Calm Yourself
Another tip is to learn how to keep yourself calm when faced with your fears. Physiological triggers of fear can aggravate the feeling of fear itself and turn anxiety into feelings of panic. Deep breathing, taking a walk, drinking a cup of warm tea, or lighting a scented candle are just some of the ways in which you can help yourself to calm down.
Aside from calming your physical senses, you can also learn how to calm your mind. You can do this by challenging your negative thoughts. Your phobias can trigger irrational and profoundly negative thoughts. When you challenge these irrational thoughts, you can think more realistically and not allow yourself to become bogged down by your fears, especially those that have no relevant place at the time.
Challenge these negative thoughts by asking yourself rational questions and looking for evidence that will disprove your irrational thoughts.
Overcoming our fears and phobias is an important step in taking control of our lives. When we can confront and overcome negative distractions, we can achieve a more tranquil and balanced mindset. Having the patience and commitment to overcome our fears and phobias are big first steps to becoming more confident in ourselves.
Learning to overcome our fears and phobias can help us experience inner peace and we can finally start living life to its fullest, with much less worry and anxiety.
