Showing posts with label Fear of flying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fear of flying. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 September 2014

The Thief Of Dreams

fear

fear (Photo credit: siette)



Fear – The Thief Of Dreams

by: Dr. Rita Louise


“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear.”

H.P. Lovecraft


Fear is defined as an emotional response to an unknown or impending danger or as an expectation of evil. Fear can create feelings of apprehension, anxiety, alarm, dread, fright or terror. When you are in fear, you are scared of someone, something or a potential outcome.


We all experience fear at one point in time or another. Actually fear is a great way to keep us from hurting ourselves. Fear has a limiting effect on our behaviors and ourselves. Fear keeps us from putting our hand on the hot burner of the stove. It keeps us from jumping from high place, or leaves us tentative when going into a darkened room. These types of fears are good. They keep us safe. They make us think before we do, knowing full well the potential outcome and repercussions of our actions. Even with activities such as fire walking, skydiving and bunji jumping, a major component or should I say thrill of these activities is saying hello to and overcoming fear.


Fear comes in all shapes and sizes. In extreme cases individuals find themselves afraid of closed in spaces such as elevators. They may be afraid of insects such as spiders or bees, they may be afraid of heights, afraid to fly in airplanes or even afraid of the water. Fear is elicited as a response or reaction to some previous life experience or trauma. It can be experienced when we look to venture into uncharted ground, especially when the outcome is unknown. We can also experience fear when we loose our jobs, look to end a relationship or even when we try to express our needs and desires.


Fear c


Scared child

Scared child (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



an impact us in many ways. It was once said “Fear is the thief of dreams”. The truth to that statement is unbelievable. Bottom line … fear takes away our choices. It can keep us from doing the things we want or need to do for ourselves. It limits us, constrains us and can end up ruling our lives. It consumes our energy and enjoyment of life, leaving us experiencing additional unexplainable stress, frustration or feeling just plain stuck.


When it comes to health, the role emotions, especially the emotion of fear is not something to be taken lightly. Fear causes the body to contract. Fear causes our life force energy, or chi’, that flows through our bodies to slow down creating distortions in its flow. The impact or sizes of these energetic distortions are dictated by repetition, intensity and our reaction to the negative/fear causing factor. These energetic distortions can be likened to an imaginary button within ourselves. The impact or size of these distortions being equated to how many times or how hard the button(s) gets pushed, multiplied by our unique reaction to the event or situation. It is like finding out that you owe the IRS money. Some people take it in stride, with little to no reaction. In others, it may evoke an intense reaction – one that will be remembered for years.


As these energetic distortions grow, our life force energy slows down proportionately, until it finally stops.


Once stopped, disease is only a step away. When we are in fear, we are hesitant to take steps forward. Our minds are filled with thoughts of a traumatic experience, a negative outcome or the potential repercussions of our choices and decisions. We manifest these fears as procrastination, where we choose to do nothing. Sometimes we go into resistance, digging our heals in and holding on tightly to our current position or situation. Some of us go into denial about our fears, choosing to blame others or the situation for their choices. Others just avoid putting themselves into scary situations thus eliminating any possible threat.


Being in or living in fear is all about choices…you can choose to move forward, or you can choose to stand still marking time. Again, while some fears are good and essential for our basic survival, many of the ones we face daily have nothing to do with any real threat or danger. For many of us, the only real peril we experience are the thoughts and ideas we conger up in our minds.


Fear can be thought of as a scary old-time black and white movie poster of the Werewolf or Dracula hanging on the back of a door in a darkened room. As we look ahead, the only thing we can see is this scary creature obstructing our passage and forward movement. What we don’t realize is that the threat isn’t real. Once we turn on the lights in the room, we can see that it is only a poster and no danger at all.


What’s more, as we sit in this darkened room, unable or unwilling to either turn on the lights or step through that door,


we will never know what is on the other side. We will be forever trapped by our own reservations, worries and uncertainties and will never come to know the freedom and sense of power that is experienced as you step through its limitation and into the light of a new day. Addressing fear, saying hello to it, is a major component in overcoming it. It is like turning on the light in that darkened room, the unknowns become known, what was once scary becomes mundane and may even seem trivial.


English: There is no fear, until we make it up.

English: There is no fear, until we make it up. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



Miraculous things happen to those who consciously choose to overcome their fears. As they begin to move forward in this new life jour


ney, many find deep, long lost, feelings of inner strength and renewed self-confidence. They gain certainty in their skills, abilities and even downfalls. They have the good fortune of learning more about themselves, their wants, needs and desires, thus opening new doors of


and enjoyment.


What do you fear? Perhaps it is time to turn on the light and step through the door of empowerment and behold a new and brilliant day.


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Saturday, 30 August 2014

Overcoming Your Fear

Scary Stuff

by: Gene Simmons


Life can be downright scary – sometimes more than others. Probably all of us are wandering through life afraid of something – maybe a situation, an event or other people. Because we’re individuals with differing backgrounds and experiences, our fears vary from person to person. Some people have no problem parachuting from an airplane while others of us think that’s a really dumb idea and our insides get all stirred up even thinking about it. Some of us rather enjoy standing in front of a group of people teaching or just BS’ing while others toss our cookies immediately at the idea.


So how did we learn to be skeer’d of all this different stuff? Even though there are likely some foundation survival, self-preservation instincts in all of us, most of the rest of our fears come from our life learning experiences – our programming. If your mother dove under the bed every time there was an electrical storm, there is an excellent chance that you’ll be tempted to do exactly the same thing. If your older sibling was deathly afraid of the monsters in the closet or under the bed, there’s a good chance that you will have absorbed at least some of this apprehension. We’ve learned what we’ve learned and dutifully filed it away in our subconscious. Then, unless we’ve been really aware of what has happened to start up these fears in the first place, we’ve probably put out a bunch of effort to make sure they’ve been solidly reinforced.


It’s not uncommon for us to get things twisted up, however. Here’s a quick example. Regress to childhood for just a minute. Since as early as you can remember, Uncle Harold has always showed up at your house at least once a week. Uncle Harold looks funny – he’s short, fat, balding and smokes super stinky cigars. Uncle Harold is a real pain in the rear. Every time he gets close to you, he either pinches you really hard – or gives you a painful swat. Uncle Harold is an obnoxious, aggravating butthead. You do everything you can to keep your distance from Uncle Harold, but he always finds you. Your life is miserable when he’s around.


Scared child

Scared child (Photo credit: Wikipedia)



So did our stupid subconscious simply file away the information that Uncle Harold is a bad person and that we hate to be around him? No way. In time, our wonderful, well-meaning memory bank extrapolated this basic concept to “Short, fat, balding men are dangerous! Keep away! Keep away! Do not trust them! And watch out for cigar smokers, too! Danger! Danger!” It would take more than a few positive interactions with a super nice, short, fat, bald guy before we decided it was OK to do some reprogramming.


Is it any wonder we’re screwed up? Think of all the misinformation we been subjected to over the years – and how easily we have been able to reinforce this BS. Some of our programming has led us now to firmly believe (and by doggies we can prove all this with examples) that Hispanics are lazy, you just can’t trust Blacks, folks with Polish ancestry are stupid, Catholics are idol worshippers, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a cult, all Middle Eastern people are dangerous, the inhabitants of Kentucky are all inbred idiots, all men with long hair smoke pot, tattoos are a sign of the devil, all New Yorkers are inconsiderate, pushy bastards, Nebraskans are all just dumb farmers, the Orientals are taking over the US, all Jewish folks are greedy, money-hungry tightwads, and on and on and on and…. Yucky programming (according to my programming, obviously…)


As a result, we fear (or are afraid of what they will or won’t do) Hispanics, Blacks, Polish folks, Catholics, etc.. We also have learned to fear such diverse things as failure, success, being alone, crowds, commitment, lack of commitment, death, life, heights, holes in the ground, not being liked, the future, dentists, flying, driving, walking, running, our government, other governments and a whole slew of other things probably including being afraid that other folks think may we’re afraid of something. Whew!


So what can we do about it! First choice is obviously “nothing”. We can just continue through life being afraid of whatever it is we’re afraid of. Or – we can at least sort of understand how we started being afraid of this stuff in the first place and redirect this fear energy to doing something – anything – that will help us blast through this roadblock to fun living. If we are able to honestly recognize that we indeed do have a fear (and we do) and want to get over it (it’s not a requirement but it could be a good thing), then it will probably be easier if we can get some help with our little project. A helper – maybe professional help if we’re trying to address a life-limiting fear – will make the whole process easier. About the only way I know of to conquer a fear (or use it to our advantage to learn something) is to meet it – or even greet it – face to face.


To overcome the fear of heights for example, we just need to have the experience of being in places that are “high”. It might work out best to start low and work our way to high. Or maybe not. Take your pick. With a helper to encourage us – or maybe even hold us – we could walk to the edge of the second level of a parking garage and look down. Then the third level, then…OK, you get the idea. It won’t be long until we get reprogrammed, change the fear to excited enthusiasm and perch on the edge of the Grand Canyon to enjoy the sunrise. Cool!


To overcome a fear of public speaking, we need to speak in public. To overcome a fear of flying, we need to fly more. Pretty simple, huh? Yeah, right! Just taking the first step is a major obstacle to all of us. That’s why a helper is a pretty good idea. Helpers and research coupled with open-minded thinking – can also help us with our fears of, misconceptions of, and prejudices against – concepts or people. Yes, we will always have the right to hold our own opinions so this doesn’t mean that we have to “buy in” to the beliefs or values of others. But if we are able to understand how we have become programmed in our thinking and beliefs over the years, it’s a bunch easier to understand how the same thing happens to everyone else on the face of the earth. We gain an appreciation of other’s beliefs and ways of living and with our restructured thinking, grant them the “right” to live their lives any way they see fit (within generally accepted parameters – which might not be all that great either come to think of it).


One last thing. Overcoming one fear helps to develop a personal mental process and a feeling of success that can help us address the next one. The more we work on this, the easier it becomes. Even though it may sound a little strange, a few of us sometimes start to get such a surge out of conquering fears that we actually start to look for new exciting, adrenaline-pumping adventures. Now, that is scary!


Our fears provide a great opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the world we live in. That’s probably worth doing. I think I’ll go find a high place. I really need to work on that…


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Wednesday, 27 August 2014

Overcoming Fear to Reach Your Potential

Overcoming Fear to Reach Your Full Potential

by: Aurelia Williams


Have you ever started a project or set out to do something but stopped right in the middle of it or worse, quit before you even got started. Or have you ever envisioned yourself doing something, like speaking in public or owning your own business, but never even tried to go for it? What was stopping you? Why didn’t you just forge forward and begin taking the steps to reach your goal? The answer is fear.


Most people don’t even realize they have fear or that fear is the reason they don’t reach their goals and dreams. Some people think it’s their background or how they were raised or due to something that happened to them in the past. But the fact is there are hundreds of thousands of people in the world who come from worse backgrounds and situations than you, yet they are now highly successful or even famous. What was the difference? If they can do it why can’t you?


I’m here to tell you, “YOU CAN”! All you have to do is learn to work past fear to reach your full potential. Now, that may not sound easy, and it’s probably not going to be easy, at first. And there may be different situations that bring up different fears inside of you. However, you can learn to push past the fear and do it anyway.


The first step in learning how to push past the fear is recognizing when fear is present. Have you ever had an idea then quickly dismissed it? Or have you ever had a desire for something big but pushed the thought away? Learn to recognize what is going through your mind, how you’re feeling, and what you’re envisioning at that moment. If your immediate thought is something like “I could never have that” or “It must be nice”, stop yourself right then and there. Examine yourself, your feelings and your thoughts. The only thing holding you back is fear.


Fear comes in all different forms for different people. Some people are more fearful than others and then there are those who seem to have no fear at all. However, those who seem to have no fear at all, but actually, truthfully, they have fear. They’ve just learned to push past their fear. And so can you.


Whether your level of fear is enormous and seems to stop you no matter what you want to do in life, or whether your level of fear is on a smaller scale, you can learn to push past your fear to reach your goals and dreams. But, you most likely aren’t going to be able to do it on your own. If you could you’d be reaching your goals and dreams right now and wouldn’t be reading an article on learning how to work past your fears.


Find someone you trust and someone who won’t feed into your fears to help you learn to truly work through your fears so you can reach your full potential.


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