Have you ever really wanted to do something, but found that you were held back by your own fears?

• Everyone is scared of something at some point in their lives. The aim of this article is to give you a step-by-step guide on how to face your fears. Think about how great life could be if we were able to face every fear. The amount of things we could do and accomplish without fear is staggering. Please use this guide as a stepping stone in the right direction towards facing your fears.

​A Bit About Fear

• Fear is something we are all born with and some people are often more afraid than others of things. Some common fears might be heights, confined spaces, spiders, snakes, flying and many others. No-one is fearless, but you are capable of powering through. It is very possible to face your fears. You just have to be willing to take that first step towards facing your fears and be willing to take on every effort it takes to conquer your fears.

What is fear?

• According to collinsdictionary.com, fear is the unpleasant feeling you have when you think you are in danger. If you fear someone or something, you are frightened because you think that they will harm you. A fear is a thought that something unpleasant might happen or might have happened. Some similar emotions might be anxiety, concern, worry or doubt. These are all natural responses to different things that happen in every day life. We are all born with these emotions and we all experience them from time to time.

How do fears limit us and impact our lives?

• Fear is a natural response that is built into us to protect us from danger. However, sometimes we can associate fear with irrational things that are not a danger to our lives. Also, sometimes some people have a more heightened fear than other people. Fear can impact our lives when it stops us from doing things that others are doing or stops us from doing something that we would otherwise enjoy. For example, people who are afraid of flying might refuse to get on a plane, even though they know they would love to travel and see the world.

Why is it important to overcome fears?

• It is important to face your fears because fear can limit our life. Sometimes fear can get in the way of us achieving our dreams or achieving things that we really want to do. If we can tackle fear, then there really isn’t anything we can’t do. The only thing holding you back from doing things is your own mind. If you face your fears, that all goes away.

How to Face Your Fears to Improve Your Life

Following is our step-by-step guide on how to face your fears. This guide should give you an idea of the steps needed in order to begin the process of facing your fears.

Step 1 – Should You Face Your Fear?

Not every fear you have needs to be conquered. It’s worth having a think about what fears you have and the things that those fears are preventing you from doing. Consider which fears are holding you back the most and focus on conquering those. Which ones are stopping you from fulfilling your dreams or life goals? Those are the fears that need to be tackled head on first.

Think about it carefully. Consider the pros and cons of tackling each of your fears and narrow it down to the ones that would be worthwhile you trying to face. There’s no point trying to face a fear that’s going to be absolutely impossible to tackle. You need to focus on the ones that you really want to get over and that you truly believe you can get over.

It might be worth writing down your thoughts. Write a pros and cons list, write some information about why you want to face your fears and then read it back and see which would be the most logical fears to tackle first.

Some fears are not worth attempting to tackle as they would be impossible to ever conquer and attempting to conquer them may make the fear even worse than it was before.

Step 2 – Evaluate The Risk Level

Sometimes you can be afraid of something simple because you don’t know enough about it and scares you. Take some time to learn about the statistics associated with your fear. For example, if you’re afraid of spiders, it would be worth looking up how many people have actually been injured or affected by a spider bite in comparison to the amount of spiders that actually exist in the world. If you take some time to learn about the reality of your fear, it might make you realise that you’re actually staying scared for no reason.

Another method might be to read about people’s success associated with a particular fear. For example, if you’re afraid of public speaking, read some success stories about other people that have succeeded in public speaking as a way to help you feel more confident.

Take some simple steps towards conquering your fear. This can be in the form of any small steps in which you may believe would help towards facing your fear. Doing a little bit every single day is a great start to learning how to face your fears.

Step 3 – Create an Action Plan

This is the most important step in facing your fears. You need to create a plan on how you’re going to go about facing your fear. If you try to conquer something too scary before you’re ready it might backfire and result in your fear being worse. No matter when you choose to face your fear, there will always be some level of anxiety still present.

A good way to come up with a plan on how to face your fears is to check other success stories online and create an action plan based on what that person did. An example may be if you’re scared of public speaking you could begin by speaking in front of the mirror. Then you may record yourself speaking and watch it back. Then you may speak in front of a friend or a member of your family. The list would continue on as such.

By creating a list, you will have a solid start on conquering your fears. You will be able to easily take simple steps towards facing your fears by following the steps created in the list. Writing down the steps you’re going to take to conquer your fears will solidify that fact that you need to take each of those steps and will create a clear path for you to face your fears.

Step 4 – Seek Professional Help

If you have a specific phobia, you may find it hard to face your fears on your own. If you find that you’re struggling to face your fears alone, it might be worth seeking professional help.

A cognitive behavioural therapist will be able to offer you advice and can teach you tactics that will help you to face your fears. A professional will be willing to help through a number of different fears and will have experience in helping different people through different fears.

If you have a fear based on a previous traumatic experience, then it may be worth looking into getting professional help with someone who can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a disorder that can play a role in ongoing fears and can prevent you from ever getting over something that created that fear in the first place. This is when professional help would come in handy.

Treatment for your fears may involve talking about the thing that scares you, talking about why you think that thing scars you, practicing relaxation techniques and managing your anxiety so that you can face your fear head on. A therapist will work with you at your own pace and will help you to discover why you’re afraid and will give you plenty of advice on how to face your fears in a healthy and constructive way.

​What Will You Do Today to Face Your Fears?

We hope that this guide on how to face your fears was helpful to you. Have you ever gotten over a fear or are you currently battling a fear? We would love to hear your stories! Please leave us a comment in the comment box below.

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