Destroy fear in five steps

Fear is simply a label we place on a situation we do not feel capable of handling successfully. As soon as we categorize a situation in the fearful file, we render ourselves limited in our capacity to show up with our greatest strengths and talents in life. What do you fear? Public speaking? Leadership positions? Conflict resolution? What’s your muse?

Sometimes, we don’t even know what we fear until we are face to face with this creepy little serpent that seems to pop up in the most inopportune moments. Take presentations. Perhaps you feel that because you took debate class in school you have nothing to fear — you’ve done it before, you can do it again… until you stand eye to eye with faces that do not express agreement to what you are proposing. Then the fear POP-UP jumps in your face and triggers your biology into quick breathing, fast heart rate and limited brain function — a perfect internal storm that as pushes you right out of your ability to think on your feet and access executive thinking.

After you have experienced a face-to-face encounter with fear that has expressed itself in and through your biology, you become vulnerable to triggering a similar response when placed in situations that have familiar elements. For example, the next time you stand up for a presentation, you may experience the a biological response of a fast heart rate, quick breathing and inability to access executive thinking — even though the body language of your onlookers reflects an agreeable response to you. 

To help break the fear/anxiety loop from stealing your show, explore the following five steps. Before reading through them, pause and upload in your mind a fearful moment from your past that lurks around each time you step into a similar circumstance. Use the following NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) technique to eliminate the emotional/biological reaction you have to your fear or anxiety:

1. Close your eyes, take three deep breaths, using the gift of your imagination imagine yourself siting in a movie theater in front of a blank screen. 

2. Take a movie clip from something you fear; it could be from your past or an upcoming event that evokes some anxiety. Use the modality of your imagination to create a movie clip that expresses the worst possible situation.  For example, you have a fear of spiders; imagine a spider biting you. Or you fear public speaking; imagine people throwing tomatoes at you. 

3. Put this scene on a movie screen and picture yourself watching it as you sit in the movie theater.  Play it forwards and backwards in color in less than five seconds. 

4. If you experience anxiety watching it, then imagine yourself floating out of your body up into the projector room protected by thick glass.  Again play your clip forward and backwards quickly, add funny music and then drain the color out of the clip. 

5. Now check in with your response to your pending fear or anxiety.  If it’s still high then repeat the steps.

Next Grab & Go Stress Relief Complimentary Workshop at Park Meadows Pilates, Lone Tree, CO: April 4, 11 a.m.  Topic: Shake it Off: Learn NLP and EFT tips to help you shake off the emotional hits you experience in “earth school.” RSVP => http://LaurenEMiller.com/share/events