Getting through fear is a skill that anyone can learn.
The problem is, most of us are scared to face our fears head on.
While that’s normal and understandable, the reality is if we want to get over our fears, then we need to face up to them.
The good news?
If you’re taking the step right now to read this article, I’m pretty sure you’re ready to take the next step forward.
So let’s have a look at how you can get over your fears, right here, right now!
When you take responsibility for your emotions, like fear and anger, you are giving yourself the power to change them. By resisting these feelings, you are only masking them. When you accept them, you can learn about them and learn where they come from and how to control them.
Osho explains why we need to embrace our emotions in this beautiful passage:
“…Through suppression, the mind becomes split. The part that you accept becomes the conscious, and the part that you deny becomes the unconscious. This division is not natural, the division happens because of repression. And into the unconscious you go on throwing all the rubbish that society rejects — but remember, whatsoever you throw in there becomes more and more part of you: it goes into your hands, into your bones, into your blood, into your heartbeat. Now psychologists say that so many diseases are caused by repressed emotions: so many heart failures means so much anger has been repressed in the heart, so much hatred that the heart is poisoned.”
When you wait for others to make you feel comfortable, you give off fearful energy. By feeling your own sense of power and unique abilities in situations, you can help to create the safe environment you seek to be part of.
Osho explains this feeling as not “coming home yet” in this beautiful, long quote:
“Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself…
Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem— then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you— it is irrelevant!
When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”
When we are afraid, we often judge others and isolate ourselves from them instead of actually learning about them and seeing them as humans. By giving others the benefit of the doubt and looking for the best in them, you may be able to go beyond the stereotypes and see the similarities.
Roy T. Bennett said it best with this famous quote:
“Life becomes easier and more beautiful when we can see the good in other people.”
By imagining the best way that things can be carried out, you will give yourself motivation and hope instead of the negativity and fear that imagining the worst case scenario would bring. Worst case scenario thoughts will also cause you stress, anxiety, and possibly to behave irrationally.
You can’t get much more inspirational than these words from Mahatma Gandhi:
“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
By staying connected to others you prevent yourself from isolation. Call or text a supportive friend who can help you to stay calm and to make clear-headed decisions. By having some support, you can mutually support each other in staying positive.
As Albert Einstein said:
“A human being is part of the whole, called by us “universe,” limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons close to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all humanity and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
By taking control of fear, and your thoughts, actions, and behaviors in fear-causing situations, you can promote better health and less stress, the spread of positivity, and helping to make your family, community, and world a better place to be.
Originally published on The Power of Ideas (Ideapod’s blog, a social network for sharing ideas).
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