FACING THOSE SMALL FEARS

Too often we allow our fears to prevent us from achieving our goals or living the life we truly want to live. Fears have no boundaries and differ from person to person. We can be fearful of anything ranging from relationships to rabbits! In this newsletter I am going to focus on facing our ‘ small’ fears, the one’s which may not have a huge impact on our life but in their own way, can make our life less enjoyable and somewhat ‘ smaller’.

What is a fear?

Putting it simply, a fear is a belief that something ‘bad’ may happen. It is the irrational thought about how a event, person, circumstance or feeling will result in negative, disturbing, or unsettling consequences for you.

Readers of my blog http://spiritualandirritable.blogspot.com/ may have discovered how I recently overcome a fear of showering in my local gym. Now, this fear was not having a huge impact on my life, but it was having negative consequences. The result of not facing this fear was that I would end up walking ten minutes out of my way to use the showers in my office. This fear was actually losing me 20 minutes a day of my precious time. In addition to time, I was also spending this twenty minutes beating myself up for being so ridiculous!
So, in the end I decided to face this fear head on and JUST DO IT! Ok, I felt a bit nervous at first but the benefits of facing this fear, far outweighed not doing it. Not only have I claimed back those twenty minutes of time, but I felt so good about myself for doing it! Now, one week on, my gym visits are far more enjoyable and relaxed!

What are some negative consequences of fear?

Fear can:

• Prevent you from taking a risk and trying new things
• Prevent you from letting go of old habits and beliefs
• Keep you locked in self destructive behaviour
• Keep you stuck in old ways of behaving
• Make you go out of you way to avoid situations
Where are you allowing FEAR to rule your life?
• Do you fear taking a risk or doing something different due to the fear of failure, rejection, not being liked or being made fun of?
• Do you fear trying new things such as technology, a new food, a new gym class?
• Do you fear speaking up or telling someone how you really feel?
If so, this is the week to face that fear head on!

My challenge to you this week is to face one small little fear that has been holding you back in life! You may wish to write a list of these fears and identify some of the reasons you are holding onto these fears. Ask yourself what are the consequences of holding onto these fears.

Start with your smallest fears and then this will give you the confidence to face any larger fears on your list. The key is to support yourself through this process – tell yourself that you are going to feel fearful or nervous whenever you face a fear but you can do it! Remind yourself how fabulous you will feel when you have done it! In the words of Susan Jeffers ‘ Feel the Fear and do it anyway’.

Get honest with yourself ‘ What is the worse that could REALLY happen’.