Tuesday, June 20, 2017

How to Overcome our Fears and Really Start Living.

I have a love/hate relationship with my comfort zone. I love it because I feel secure and safe when I'm with it and I hate it because I am fearful to leave it and at times I want to leave it and have exciting adventures so badly, I think....

One of my goals is to see the world and have adventures and just have the courage to live life more fully. Ive started to do that and it really is exhilarating. A quote that I love is, Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone and I have found that to be true. I just don't like the anxiety and stress that comes with moving outside my comfort zone.

I do know however, that if I cower and give into my fears that I am only giving them more power. I know if I push through my fears then that's when I start truly living.

We are born with only two fears; the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling, all the others are learnt. If they are learnt, then they can be unlearnt.

 Here are some useful ways to help us overcome our fears:
  1. Use deep breathing exercises. When we focus on our breathing we are slowing our brain down, bringing ourselves back into the present and signalling to our brain that we are calm.
  2. Check our thought processes and use affirmations and visualizations to change our thinking. We often jump to worst case scenarios, to read more on this go here
  3. Take action. It was Eleanore Roosevelt who said, "You gain strength by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face..... You must do the thing you think you cannot do".
My biggest fear has been the fear of rejection. It stopped me from doing many things because I was too worried what people would say. Maybe it has something to do with turning 40 (a while ago), but I'm starting to worry less and less about what others think of me and just do the things I want to do. In the process I'm much happier. Ive realised the things I want to do are unique to me and they are what give my life more purpose and meaning. Trying to be like everyone else is boring and if we try to, our sense of self and what we are capable of gets smaller and smaller until we totally lose ourselves.

Nothing worthwhile comes easy. Overcoming our fears and getting outside our comfort zone is definitely worth doing. As we begin to push those boundaries we will feel alive and experience more joy than we ever have. So, take the plunge, make a bucket list and start living today.

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