English 11 Overcoming Fear

Why do We Fear? 1.Your surroundings become unknown 2. There is anticipation (What will happen?) 3. There is the known (You’ve seen this happen before! It is going to be painful) 4. Past experiences (everyone’s different)

What happens? Flood of adrenaline into the body Heart rate and blood pressure increases Pupils dilate to take in as much light as possible Veins in skin constrict to send more blood to major muscle groups Muscles tense up Nonessential systems shut down

How to Overcome Fear 1. Analyze the Fear 2. Gradual Desensitization 3. Look at what others are doing (do by example 4. Fun method (lighten the mood) 5. Change your thinking and actions 6. Confront it directly (e.g. catch a spider) Analyze the fear. Can it harm you in any way? If it can't, then there is nothing to be afraid of (but still read the rest of the guide, just to be comfortable and completely wipe off the fear). If it can hurt you, keep reading the guide for a solution. For example, a garter snake cannot harm you, it just eats spiders and bugs. If you touch it, you will not die/get severely hurt (even if it bites you, which is not likely). But, rattle snakes, on the other hand, are dangerous and if you touch one, you might get bitten. Ads by Google 3-Minute Chakra Test Take the Free Chakra Test to Find Out Which of Your Chakras Are Weak www.ChakraHealing.com 2 Try gradual desensitization. If you're afraid of spiders, don't start by confronting a whole nest of real ones. Remind yourself it's an irrational phobia and look at a badly drawn doodle of a spider done in freaky colors. When you can look at that cartoon and control your reaction, move up to photos of spiders. Then try cleaning up dead spiders. As you gain confidence working through each stage of proving to yourself that you can control your phobia, it will diminish till you no longer feel it as anything but a twinge in the most extreme circumstances. 3 Look at what others are doing. For example, you are afraid to ride that totally extreme roller-coaster in the theme park. Look at the ages of people who are riding it (probably 9 to 50). If you are in that age range, examine your own health condition. Consult your doctor for medical advice. If you are healthy and in the correct age range, you can freely ride a coaster without worrying about getting hurt. 4 Confront whatever it is you're afraid of directly. If you are afraid of harmless spiders in your basement, catch one and hold it in your hand. Try the smallest one you can find first. This can be tough if you are arachnophobic, but try to hold it for a long time until the gross-out feeling is gone. Do that a couple times. If you are afraid of certain action, do steps 1 & 2 and if it's safe, do it. 5 If your fear is truly dangerous, find a way to destroy it. I wouldn't recommend doing previous step in this situation. Although, you can find some safety rules and put yourself in a condition where you can be safe even if the fear is in front of you. Other most important rule here is not to panic. Just act cool and assure yourself that as long as you follow the safety guidelines, your fear is harmless and nothing to be afraid of. 6 Change the way you think and you change the way you act. You can control your thoughts. Since you're only able to consciously think about one thing at a time, only allow positive thoughts to go through your mind. Whenever a negative thought or fear enters, simply choose to stop it right in its tracks and immediately change that thought to something positive. 7 Deliberately try to program right thoughts into your head every single day. This is the best way to change the picture of fear into one of victory. 8 Realize the best defense from fear is a good offense. What you imagine is almost always worse than the truth. So many times the "truth" you see in your mind is only the truth as you believe it to be. So sometimes the best thing is the very thing you fear, even if you have to do it afraid. 9 If you have some kind of phobia, like phobia of being in a crowded area, being alone, going to a place that you hate, a certain color, or anything that you know is harmless, just go to that place with a friend or go alone keeping in mind that nothing will happen(you know it). If it's some color or thing just touch it 'till you realize that nothing will happen. If it's a spider, go stand near it. You know that nothing will happen to you and its just the look that scares you. 10 Forget method: Tell all your friends your fear. Ask them not to talk about it. Get busy. 11 Confront method: This isn't as scary as it seems but keep doing the activity next to someone then alone. 12 Fun method: Print out a picture of it, punch it, kick it! Do anything that makes you feel better and tell the fear you're bigger than it.