Using Mother Nature to Conquer Your Fears!
Many of us fear almost anything from those little spiders and roaches to speaking in front of a crowd, failing in studies, and facing rejections. But rather than hide in one corner and let your fears control your life, you can utilise Mother Nature and live a life where fears can be used to your advantage.
Here’s how:
First of all, you have to remember that fear is all in the mind. Therefore, if you want to ever control your fears, you have to focus more in controlling your thoughts. Experts recommend practising mindfulness meditation and breathing exercises in times of severe anxiety and fears.
Mindfulness Meditation
The key principle behind mindfulness meditation is awareness. As they say – you have to face your fears. Getting away from it will make you more afraid.
You really don’t need to know much to get started with meditating. This ancient mental exercise is used by thousands of people around the world not just to ease fear and anxiety but also to deal with other kinds of negative emotions. Alight, so how do you begin meditating?
When meditating, you have to focus on your breathing. Make sure you are in a quiet place, sitting in a comfortable position. It is important that you sit with your back straight so you can breathe easily and properly. Breathe in and out slowly. Check any point in your body that is tensed and relax them. You will start to feel more relaxed and your environment will become quieter. Once you achieved the meditative state, you may start citing your mantra. A mantra is a statement or word created to aid concentration during meditation. Once you’ve reached a very relaxed state, you can now introduce your fears. Visualise it – whether it’s a snake crawling near you, a large group of people watching you as you speak, or your loved ones rejecting you. If you do well in visualising, you will certainly feel anxious and stressed. But keep going. Keep breathing in and out. Repeat your mantra and introduce your fears again until your anxiety subsides.
Experts recommend meditating twice a day – in the morning and in the afternoon. As days go by, you will be surprised on how mindfulness meditation can reduce your fears.
Breathing Techniques
Don’t underestimate the power of breathing exercises. During highly stressful situations, the best way to relieve your body from anxiety is to breathe deep. One of the most effective breathing techniques used to manage fears is ‘focused breathing’. Just like meditating, you will have to think of the thing you fear the most and eliminate those negative emotions by inhaling and exhaling hard. Imagine yourself facing your fear. For example, if you are afraid of snakes (like most people do), imagine being trapped in a room filled with dozens of large, poisonous snakes. Your goal is to relieve the tension and fear by shifting your concentration from your source of fear to your breathing. Hold that scary thought and inhale as deep as you can. And then, release your breath. Concentrate on breathing whenever your fear is starting to overwhelm you. By shifting your thoughts into something else, you can let go of the tension and anxiety that come along with your fears.
We create fears based on our own experiences and the experiences of other people. The degree of our fears depend on how affected we were by such things. In some instances, fears (especially those that were caused by severe trauma) can be very hard to control. In that case, seeing a professional therapist can be helpful.
Dear Readers,
What are your greatest fears in life? How do you deal with them? We’d love to hear your story.
Share your comments below.