It stands in your way. It shuts you down. It feels
downright crappy. Here are five surefire methods to stop fear in its sinister,
creeping tracks.
1. Breathe like Darth Vader. My yoga teacher reminds
us to feel our breath and engage in
ujjayi breathing
as we drag the inhale and exhale
powerfully across the back of our throats. In other words, super deep
breathing. It sounds great. It feels great. It’ll mellow you out and connect
you back to yourself. Sometimes, taking a breath and centering is all you need
to face down fear. If that doesn’t work…
2 Imagine it’s happening to someone else. If your
best friend was afraid to jump out of an airplane but you knew the adventure
was totally aligned with her adventure-seekin’ self, you’d encourage her,
right? What if she wanted to kick her loser boyfriend to the curb? You’d want
her to dump the jerk. Well…step out of yourself. What would you say to “you” if
you weren’t “you”? Okay. Do that.
3. Apply the “Jerry Springer Effect.” Someone always has it worse than you. Recently,
I had a filling in my molar randomly fall out. As much as I told it not to, my
tongue fished around in the back of my mouth, feeling for the big ‘ol hole,
freaking me the heck out. I tried yogic breathing (see #1), but I still couldn’t
chill. Then I reminded myself that lots of people don’t have access to a
dentist. I recalled that in the old days people had to get their teeth yanked
out without painkillers. Then I felt a little bad about being such a sissy
about my silly filling when my appointment the following day would fix me right
up. Perspective usually helps.
4. Remember that you are going to die. It’s true. I
hate to be the one to break it to you, but this is the only moment and life you
can be sure of. As frightening as that may be, it is also liberating. What if
you could put this “thing you are afraid of” in your eulogy? Would you rather
be known as “the person who died trying” or “the person who gave up?” Yeah. I thought
so.
5. Do it anyways. Whatever it is. If a thought or
idea has taken up residence in your mind so that it nags and grows inside you,
do it anyway. “Courage
is resistance to fear, mastery of fear---not absence of fear,” said Mark Twain.
And he should know. If anyone stood down the aristocracy and generated a new
voice for the rebellion, it was Twain.
Own it. Close your eyes. Hold your breath. Then jump in the deep end and learn
to swim.
Fear never
stood a chance.
Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice , and a wonderful, healthy new year to you and Katie. This was very good..I agree and need to put into practice several of your strategies.
ReplyDeleteDebra