Facing Fears

Are your fears holding you back from living the life you desire? Do you wish you could show more courage in your day-to-day choices?

Some fear is healthy. It gives you survival instincts that keep you safe.

But fear can often be unhealthy and negative - keeping us from taking actions consistent with our values and desires. It is irrational and can be thought of with this acronym:
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Where do we get the ability to take action in the face of fear?

Get Trained

People who perform courageously in dangerous situations are lauded for their courage and bravery. But usually, you’ll hear the person respond with “Well, I was just doing my job.” or “My training just kicked in.”

In some parts of the US, Rosa Parks Day is observed on her birthday, February 4. It is a day to remember this civil rights activist, who refused to give up her seat on a bus.

What may be less known is the training in non-violent civil disobedience Rosa Parks had that prepared her for action when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. In spite of any fear she may have experienced about being arrested or abused, she refused to move, but not because she was physically tired. As she wrote in her autobiography,

“People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

She had a powerful “why.” She was tired of being treated as less than human and tired of giving in to those who so treated here.

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear: Knowing what must be done does away with fear. - Rosa Parks

And remember: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”(Friedrich Nietzsche)

Define & Culltivate Courage Correctly

Being courageous does not involve being fearless. Courage is the ability to continue moving forward with the appropriate action even in the face of fear, challenges and adversity.

Acting courageously in the face of fear is similar to lifting weights. The more you participate, the easier it becomes. Alternatively, the more you're willing to use and accept fear as an excuse not to move forward, the easier that path becomes. You get good at the things you practice regularly.

Tactics for Facing Fears

1. Identify and Embrace your fear. Is your fear is the unhealthy, irrational, “False Evidence Appearing Real” kind? Then find a way to intentionally focus on it – not avoid it. This is the technique Viktor Frankl called "Paradoxical Intention."

2. Admit that fear isn't a good excuse to avoid doing something. Unless you're going to fall off a cliff, being afraid is an ineffective way of making choices for your life.

3. Discover and use available tools when facing fears.

• Faith
• Meditation
• Hypnosis
• Therapy
• Knowing your WHY, your values and principles
• Prayer

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. - Marie Curie

Remember that being courageous is all about taking action in the face of fear, not the absence of fear. There's no time like the present to face your fears, and experience them losing their grip on you by getting trained and prepared, knowing your "why," gaining greater understanding, and taking action.

Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Frankl
Viktor Frankl’s Method to Overcome Fear – Paradoxical Intention (video)

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay