Part 1: Do you want to transform? 3 tips to overcome fear starting today
What does a tiger plus music have to do with fear?
If the answer to that question is “yes you want to change/transform” the first step is looking at fear. What’s that hiding down there in the recesses of your mind? Fear! The feeling of fear conjures up senses, images and thoughts that ultimately either slow you down or completely stop you in your tracks. Did you know? In fact the majority of the time, it’s just our amygdala (tiny almond set of neurons in the brain) responsible for the fight, flight or freeze and emotional responses that is in over drive. This part of the brain was tremendously helpful back in the cave days when we had real life and death threats such as a tiger coming into the cave, and hoping it would get you into its belly, but it is less helpful in navigating our modern day. If you want to learn more about the amygdala, go here.
Now you shouldn’t get angry or beat yourself up if you’ve let the amygdala take charge of your brain or for letting your fears hold you back. We should actually take a gentler approach and embrace our fear and say “thanks for protecting me but I’m ok and I’m going to continue down this path.”
The first tip to claim your power back from fear and turn down its volume (as we can’t remove the amygdala from the brain as that would mean we wouldn’t fear anything!) is to use a highly effective tool called Emotional Freedom Technique (commonly referred to as tapping). I recommend learning from Nick Ortner at The Tapping Solution to turn down the fear response and turn up your rational thought processes that can support you with making more sound decisions.
FEAR means false evidence appearing real, it simply is an illusion. There are times in our life when fear is important when it is linked with our survival and this shouldn’t be dismissed or trivialised and it will support us in those instances. Generally though what I have found in life is it is unnecessary for us to have these fearful thoughts in majority of situations. Here’s the second tip: to embrace and confront your fears, write them down. Brainstorm everything that you fear, get it out from rattling around in your head and onto paper. Now look at that list and ask yourself if those fears are real? If you answer know to any fears then strike them off the list. If you still have some sticky ones, then apply the technique of tapping to those. What you are looking to achieve here is to bring down the charge associated with those fears so that you are rating them low and you can move forward with life feeling empowered and confident.
What you are afraid to do is a clear indication of the next thing you need to do. Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph really was on the money when he made that statement. What is becoming clearer is the one thing that a person is scared of is ultimately the thing blocking them from their success. For example, I hear people are worried about being seen/heard with their business or art and often this is because of an underlying fear either the fear of success or the fear of failure. Also, our brains are hardwired to stop us from standing out as it can impact our sense of belonging. The third tip is this is the exact time when you need to take Ralph’s advice and take an action to start being seen/heard it could be as simple as joining a Facebook group and introducing yourself or start writing a blog. Keeping things simple and small at first, gives you more courage and confidence to take action again and over time you’ll look back and realise that all these small actions achieved a lot.
To recap, the three tips for being free of fear are:
1. Learn tapping to switch off your amygdala (fight, flight or freeze response).
2. Write down your fears to embrace them and ask yourself if your fears are real?
3. Take action towards your fear now as behind it lies a treasure.
Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Don’t die with your music still inside you.
Only you can play your unique instrument in this orchestra of life, is fear a factor on your world stage? If you want to live your best life filled with abundance, love and joy and you have fear to overcome, please join my Future You Programme where I share more simple techniques with you to create deep transformation in your life and you can kick fear to the kerb. Create change now!
Here's to you living your best life,
Melissa Taylor
Future Transcendence Leadership Mentor
