Many customers of mine ask me “How to control fear“.
Fear is something we all experience from time to time in life. In fact, Fear is a natural emotional state. Since it is a natural emotional state, we cannot get rid of it. (Read more: How to stop feeling…)
When all is well with our physical self, our emotional self and our mental self, if we see ourselves in situations that we understand to be dangerous, there are two responses.
We either Fight or Flight.
These responses are unconscious and immediate, no time to think about, we just do it. Then, when we understand that we are not in danger anymore, the fear subsides. At this moment, we generally have a reaction to that fear: we scream, we cry, we take selfies, we use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, to tell the world what happened to us.
The part of the brain that controls our emotions is the amygdala, which is a very old part of our brain. It is so old that our ancestors had it.
So, I invite you to go back with me on a journey to the past, not very distant past, just a few millennia ago!
There, we see a caveman, proudly holding his spear, because he is going hunting. As he approaches his hunting grounds, he hears a thunder-like noise.
He stops a minute, he knows what it is and he knows that it is coming towards him. So he grabs hold of his spear and heroically …
Legs it! Because he’s there to hunt not to be hunted!
If we come back to now, we do the same. We have the same reaction.
So, imagine you are driving and someone crosses the road in front of you. You immediately step on the break.
You yell
“Ahhhh!”
And when the fear subsides, out come the swear words!
That fear is a natural fear. That fear is not a problem.
Fear becomes a problem when you can’t take action.
You need to understand how to get rid of fear when you freeze with it. When you feel you are stuck and there is nowhere to run.
In my next articles, we will focus on some of these fears, like the Fear of Public Speaking and the fear of taking action. We will try to find out how to stop procrastinating.
If you have any comments or any situation or any example for the Fight or Flight response and would like to share, please write me a comment or send me a message.
Please check how I can help you in treating phobias, overcoming anxiety, and learning how to control your emotions either from my practice in Richmond Upon Thames, or worldwide, via Skype.
Here’s the video version of this article:
