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Fear is something that’s ingrained within our minds and we experience little to big doses of it every single day. For the most part, we try and avoid doing things because we are afraid. That is how the world works. But, giving in to the confines of fear is what keeps us from fulfilling our growth, success, and fulfillment.
But, in the modern world that we live in, fear is much unfounded. With the impending stress of life and career, being afraid of the inopportune things has become very common.
Fear within our mind arises from events, psychological situations or even because of the constant thinking patterns that we have created and then become adjusted to.
But, how do we overcome fear? This is one of those questions that consistently haunt our mind and for the most part, we are not even aware of it.
Best Ways to Cope With Fear
When it comes to tackling the impacts of fear, there are a number of ways in which you can overcome it. It is important that you find constructive ways to beat and overcome the constant looming fear.
In order to attain the comfort and the safety of our mental confinement, it is necessary to find constructive ways to cope with the fear and we have listed out some of the effective ways.
1. Be Open to the Possibilities
We are often faced with situations where we have to make choices. And, we often choose things that we are comfortable with. This is where change needs to be made.
It is easier for us to stick to our comfort zones and not explore new opportunities but that is where things need to change.
If you find that life is asking you to take the direction that your fear is stopping you from going forward with, it is best that you conquer your fear and go ahead with it instead.
The more you allow your fear and discomfort to take away the opportunities from you, the worse it impacts your growth.
2. Assess Your Life
It might not seem like much but it plays a very crucial role in your happiness and your mental well being. If you are not happy with your life, it is likely that the same will end up affecting your growth and performance in life.
Find the areas in life that is making you unhappy and work on it.
Instill positivity in your life because that is exactly what triggers your doldrums and helps bring a wave of positivity in your life.
If there is more than one phase of life that you are fearful of, it is necessary that you choose the phase that can foster more positivity in your life and let that take over.
3. Foster Changes in Your Life
If you are a fearful person in general, it is likely that you will experience issues when it comes to your life’s growth. Addressing the fact that change is constant is one of the best steps to overcoming your fear.
If you are afraid of change, it is important that you find ways to tackle it better. There is no point in fighting the constant changes in your life.
Instead, follow the lead and see how changes affect your life.
4. Define the Causes or Triggers
If you are afraid or fearful of something, it is likely that you have done something that led to this. That is exactly what you need to find and get rid of.
Assess what led to the drastic cut of the behaviors that you have been experiencing. Find out what is making you afraid of things that are happening. Find out the reason behind your unhappiness.
Once you know the cause and what has led you to experience the downside, it does become a lot easier for you to analyze and reform the choices that you have been making.
This is one of the reasons why things do change for the better, especially when you are trying to let go of your fears.
5. Shape Your Vision
Another common conflict that people generally have is a lack of vision. You might not get this but if you have a vision, it is likely that you will have a plan to make that happen. This is exactly what you need to prosper.
Having a vision prevents you from leaving everything for the last minute and actually makes things happen the way you want it to look like.
So, if you want to become fearless and not let the small obstacles block your growth, it is extremely necessary that you do shape the vision in your mind.
If possible, make a vision board because those tend to come a lot in handy. Write down the ideas that pop up in your head and incorporate the same into your life for a better outcome.
6. Broaden Your Inspiration Resources
If you want to overcome your fears, you need to broaden your horizons. Gaining inspiration from multiple sources helps you get a better assessment of the situation and help enhance your sources of inspiration too.
So, in case you have been struggling to keep a check on things, one of the best ways to achieve that is by going through magazines, articles and blogs and get insights on how people are doing things.
As bland as it sounds, it is one of the best ways to prepare your mind to overcome the constant lingering fear that you have been struggling with.
When you have inspiration and you have the correct resources, you are prepared for proper execution, letting you take over the underlying fear in your mind.
7. Embrace flexibility
It is true that the more you try to stretch a rubber band, the faster it’ll break. The same goes for human mind too.
When you have goals in life and you are working towards them, it is extremely important that you leave behind some room for flexibility too. This is where the things play out in your favour.
Always remember that you are working towards achieving your goals but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you push yourself beyond your capacity. If you overdo things, it will come back and make it difficult for you to achieve what you have always aimed for.
It is important to be passionate but have some time to relax in between because too much pressure is often one of the biggest reasons behind the ingrained fear.
8. Challenge Yourself
This might come off as a contradiction to the previous point but when we are talking about challenging yourself, we are asking you to challenge your fears and not your limits.
All of us have some kind of ingrained fears within our mind that we are too afraid to challenge and overcome.
Doing something for this is a necessity. It is not important that you do it all at once. You can take one day at a time and find ways to cope with the shortcomings.
For example, if you are afraid of heights, try and find ways to overcome it. You can try climbing up to the top of your building and looking down for the first day. Then, you can gradually book a vacation in the mountains. Then, you can try paragliding.
When it comes to challenging yourself, you don’t need to do paragliding the first day itself. It is okay to take small and baby steps because at the end of the day, that is what matters.
9. Stop Pleasing People for the Sake of it
We, humans, are people pleasers. We try to keep up with everyone’s likings and at the end of the day, fail to realise why we are wrong in doing so. This is where you need to put a stop.
If you are trying to overcome your fear and following your vision, it is likely that not every person will be happy with your choices.
It is time you stop sacrificing your vision and your needs for fulfilling other people’s demands. This is exactly what fuels the fear within you even further.
10. Change your routines
It is true that routinely brings in the discipline in your life. But, at the same time, it also makes you way more comfortable than you should be.
This is where things need to change. If you do want to overcome your fear, it is necessary you face situations that are out of your comfort.
It can be something small like taking a different route to work in the morning and such like that. It doesn’t necessarily have to be something dramatic.
11. Be willing to Accept Failure
One of the most common reasons behind fear is failure.
We are so afraid of failure that we fail to try new things out in life. This is where things need to change.
If you want to become fearless, it is necessary that you are willing to accept failure. It is what we predominantly learn from.
Every successful person was once a failure but not letting the failure ingrain its passage into your mind is just what you need.
Once you are practical and willing to accept the failure and mistakes it becomes a lot easier for you to cope with fear.
Understand that committing mistakes and failures is the best way for you to learn better things. This is what helps you create better behaviour.
12. Be grateful
Not many do this but having a sense of gratitude instilled within you is a necessity. When you feel a crippling fear in your mind, try to switch that with gratitude.
Instead of being afraid of the things you are doing, try, and be grateful for the opportunities that you have been presented with. It is always in those small things that make your life fruitful and worth remembering.
Once you start appreciating things in life, you will understand that the ingrained fear within your mind is a passing phase, something that you won’t have a hard time dealing with in the long run.
This is also one of the best ways that help you get better with time.
13. Share your thoughts
Being fearful and afraid is common. You are not the only person struggling. This is one of the main factors that you need to realise.
Once you open up to someone, it becomes a lot easier for you to cope with your struggles and find better ways to convert your fear and channel it in a constructive way.
Not many people can do this because being vulnerable and showcasing the side of you that you are not comfortable with can be tough.
But, at the end of the day, you need to realise that sharing your thoughts with someone helps give a better perspective to things. It lets you analyse what you truly want from life and even lets you understand where the fear is coming from.
14. Read more books
This might sound lame for some people but there is no better way to cope with your fears that to educate yourself.
The more you read, the more you open up the possibilities of understanding and the prospects associated with it.
This is one of the main reasons why you need to take on more reading, especially on the subject of your fear.
Learning more about it helps fill in the void in your mind and makes you realise what could be the shortcoming behind your struggles. When you know what you are struggling with, it becomes a lot easier for you to cope with the hassles.
You can even take up reading some inspirational books because those come a lot in handy too.
15. Have a better look into the worst case scenario
One of the main reasons behind our fear is the lack of understanding of it.
If you are afraid of something, I want you to assess what the worst case scenario behind the condition could be. This can come off as “not so effective” but when you prepare your mind to already tackle the hassle of the worst case scenario, the fear dissipates gradually.
It is not necessarily about the things in life that go wrong; it is about the things in life that you do right.
So, even if your worst case scenarios come true and you are left with no option but to repent the try, it is okay.
You have a better perspective of your next try, which is what is most important. Not giving up in such situations is what matters the most. And, you need to understand that.
Enable yourself to make mistakes because the more you make mistakes, the more you’ll learn. This is the first step to overcoming your fear.
As mentioned in the Atharva Veda, “Our Actions Should Be Such that We Become Fearless”.
This is not just a saying but a life lesson. If you have been struggling to keep up with your fear and the constant nagging feeling in your mind, it is necessary that you overcome this by embracing your flaws and struggles.
Understand that nobody is perfect and that everybody makes mistakes. The only way to beat fear is by embracing it. You need to acknowledge its existence to overcome it. This is often the basic rule that the majority of people tend to forget.