
Have you ever really wanted to do something, but found that you were held back by your own fears?
A Bit About Fear
What is fear?
How do fears limit us and impact our lives?
Why is it important to overcome fears?
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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