Fear is an emotion induced by perceived danger or threat, which causes physiological changes and ultimately behavioral changes, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a certain stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to oneself. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to a confrontation with or escapes from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis.
In humans and animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus, fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia.
(The above definition is taken from Fear Wikipedia)
Fear of the unknown
Fear of the unknown or irrational fear is caused by negative thinking (worry) which arises from anxiety accompanied by a subjective sense of apprehension or dread.
Fear is simply because we are not living in the present, we are living in our mind. Our fear is always about what’s going to happen next. That means our fear is always about that which does not exist which means our fear is a hundred percent imaginary. People are always suffering either what happened yesterday or what may happen tomorrow.
If you look at it carefully, what is fear about? Your fear is never about what has happened. It is always about what may happen. It is always about the future. The future is yet to happen. It has not yet happened. That means, it is not in existence. So, being fearful means, you are suffering that which does not exist.
Fear is not a product of life. Fear is a product of a hallucinatory mind. You suffer that which does not exist because you are rooted not in reality but in your mind, which is constantly eating up on the past and excreting into the future. You don’t know anything about the future. You just take a piece of the past, apply make-up on it and think it is future.
So how can we overcome Fear or any such Negative emotion in an effective way?
The answer lies within yourself. I will share with you two practical techniques rather than tools to change your life.
Being a licensed NLP coach and practitioner, I can tell you that these techniques are very effective and if used properly and with intention, one can see results almost instantly.
Though there are various methods in this, I will share two most easy and widely used for various scenarios. So, they are safe and can be done by anyone himself or herself.
Before I begin let me start by giving you a little briefing about what really is NLP for those who are new to this term.
Neuro – Nervous system through which experience is received and processed through five senses.
Linguistic – Language and nonverbal communication systems through which neural representations are coded, ordered and given meaning.
Programming – The ability to organize our communication and neurological systems to achieve specific desired goals and results.
In a short and precise manner, NLP is the ability to change the process by which we experience reality.
So simply put, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”
Now that we know that we have the power within us to change whatever situation life throws at us or we create, gives us immense sense of control and drive. Right? How do we use it to practically get our own fears out of our system is explained bellow.
You can use any one method try it out consecutively for several days till you see results, like I said before it may happen with a snap of a finger or it might take long depending on the severity of the case and how deep imbedded the fear is.. sometimes its best to leave it to the experts so there is no harm in asking for help outside.
That said here are the two main methods I like to use to overcome any fear and negativity in my life.
Method 1 – Fast Phobia Cure
- First think about your greatest fear in life.
- Now close your eyes and walk into an “imaginary movie theatre” enter it and sit in the center of the front row.
- Imagine yourself float up out of your body and gently settle in a comfortable seat in the balcony, so you can watch yourself watching the screen.
- As soon as you are comfortably seated begin by putting your greatest fear on the screen in the form of a colored slide. Now run the movie all the way till the end, as you remain in the balcony watching yourself on the screen.
- At the end of the movie, freeze the frame into a slide. Change the picture to black n white and then reassociate fully into the picture on the screen (“walk into the movie”). Run the associated movie backwards at triple speed or faster, with circus or cartoon music playing, and again freeze the frame – image when you get to the beginning of the movie.
- Now walk out of the still picture and sit back down in the center of the front row of the theater and just white out the entire screen. Completely wash it off.
- Repeat the steps 3-6 as necessary. Till you are satisfied with the outcome yourself.
Now as you are doing this by yourself , you may want to use a lot of positive and assertive language as you go through the process such as “ I am watching this movie and I know this is all unreal “ you will have to actually do the entire process of wiping out what’s not needed completely without any doubts . as if it is happening in reality. Basically, what you are trying here is that you are wiping out the object of fear from your subconscious literally. It is like taking a duster and wiping the black board.
This exercise works really well with Visual Representational system.
Method 2 – Swish Pattern
A very useful technique to help get rid of unwanted tempting response to a specific stimulus by changing key sub- modalities such as size, brightness, and location as a function of distance.
This is more to change the unwanted compulsive behavior pattern that we have developed to certain situations or stimulus. You can also use it to help in certain addictions too.
- Identify the trigger of the unwanted behavior and /or state
“When and where doe this happen?”
“What do you see, and/or hear immediately before getting the feeling you don’t want?”
- Make a still picture of the trigger
After creating the trigger image keep it in front for few seconds don’t linger on and immediately move on to the next step leaving the pic behind.
- Create the outcome picture
“what do you want?”
“What qualities, abilities, feelings will you have when you are the person for whom this is no longer a problem?”
“What will you be thinking about when you’re no longer thinking about the problem?”
“Make it bigger and brighter until you are feeling great!”
- Set up the change
“Temporarily shrink the outcome picture until it is a little dot.”
“Place the dot in the left down corner of the trigger picture.
- SWISSSSHHHH!
“Now let the trigger picture be taken over by dot exploding into desired state bigger picture.”
“Now notice that dot can begin to change into desired state picture.”
“As it gets bigger all you see is the picture of how you feel natural pull to move towards achieving your outcome-
SWISSSSHHHH! (Say it aloud with the action of your hand imagine you are pushing the trigger picture away while the outcome picture explodes in its place.)
- Condition (3 to 5 times)
“Do this a number of times and you may notice how much faster your brain does this each time.”
“See the trigger picture with the dot that represents your outcome.”
“SWISSSHHHH replace the dot with the trigger picture.”
- Test
“Now, try to get the old picture back and notice what happens.”
So, these are the two methods that you can use to modify or change your unwanted behavior pattern or simply overcome any phobia or fear.
It might be a little challenging at first but once you understand the modality its quite simple, thoughts create reality so if we can just change or replace the thoughts in our minds, we could get the desired outcome easily.
Hope this article can provide some support and answer to any of your problems or issues you may be facing especially in these days of uncertainty and chaos.
If you need any further help pls do write to me at fitnessbysoma@gmail.com.
Thank you!
Stay Safe n God Bless!
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