Fear - How To Take The Bull By The Horns?

Fear is a very crippling feeling (feeling of being handicapped), which you might have to go through at various situations of life. You might be scared of heights, darkness, public speaking and even scared of being lonely. Fear is very difficult to overcome as it can exhaust you and make you useless. Even if you cannot be superhuman, you can at least aim to be someone who can confront his/her fear and leave the fear useless.

Here are a few tips on how you can confront your fear:

1. Breathe - Breathing slowly and deeply actually helps. It calms your nerves and relaxes you. Short and shallow breaths can trigger panic and fear. If you breathe out longer than the time you take to breathe in, your body relaxes immediately. Try it; it actually works the best. Whenever you feel that you are panicking or that you are feeling afraid, take deep breaths. Concentrate on your breathing. Count till 7 when you breathe in and till 11 when you breathe out. You will be surprised to find out how quickly you have calmed down.
    
2. Identify the fear - This is a very important step as you need to figure out why you are scared or afraid. There has to be a specific reason behind every single fear that you have. Try to identify that reason. Dig deep into your memory and try figuring out what exactly arouse the fear. Once you know the reason, you will be able to understand the base of your fear, and you will find it easier to overcome.
    
3. Get ready to be peaceful - If you start feeling anxious, nervous or afraid, breathe in and out. Then think of how you will get positive outcomes from the particular act you are being anxious about. If you have to go into a dark room to get something and you are afraid of darkness, just think how you can get what you desire if only you step into the darkness for a fraction of second. This will help build your confidence and will slowly get you normal to moving on with your fear.
    
4. Control what you imagine - If you are afraid of something, whether tangible or not, your imaginations about it will run wild. You might start imagining stuff which are not even real or which might just ingrain your mind and establish the fear on solid ground. Hence it is high time you need to control your imagination. Imagination is a very unique gift if you want to create something beautiful, which will help encourage you. But if you start imagining how a spider will just grow in size and number; and will fly towards you, then you have to put a lid on it.

Being afraid is common. Even the bravest people are afraid. Don't be embarrassed about that. Just face it and try to let go of it.