Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but that 's wrong. We don 't have to be afraid of fear at all. I believe that fear can be one of our best friends and a trusted advisor if we take the time to get to know it.
Most of us associate fear with negative experiences, however. We think that fear is what 's keeping us from reaching our full potential because it can keep us from doing what is necessary.
I 've been afraid all my life, and I hated my fear. It kept me from pursuing the relationships I wanted, and it kept me from reaching my full potential at work because I was afraid to draw attention to myself.
Therefore, it was really hard for me to appreciate my fear, but I realized that the
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I saw the world in much more detail than usually, and my legs felt strong and ready to run.
That 's when I realized that I could use my fear, instead of trying to getting rid of it.
When it was time, I went to the meeting, and even though I was still shaking, I played my part and everything was okay. To the people at the meeting, it probably seemed like a small thing, but on that day, my relationship with fear had changed forever.
I 'm still afraid a lot, but I 've learned to appreciate my fear and act anyway. I know now that fear has the best intentions for me and – just like everybody else – wants to be appreciated for what it does.
Fear doesn 't want to keep us from doing what we need to do, it just wants us to be ready to do it. Your previous relationship to fear has just been one big understanding, but from now on, you 'll be able to appreciate what fear does for you.
It increases your heart rate and supplies your whole body with more oxygen. It gets you ready to run or fight if you need to. It heightens your senses and keeps you alert. Those are all great things if you 're in a dangerous
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You 're going to ask yourself a series of questions about your fear to get to know it better. The idea is to create an identity and character for your fear, so it loses its power.
If you name your fear Alfred, for example, instead of being afraid, you can think, "Oh, Alfred is coming for a visit. How nice." This will break your pattern around fear and give you new options.
You can do this exercise with a specific fear like fear of public speaking or rejection, or you can do it with fear in general.
Below are a few questions you can ask your fear. It 's best to (roughly) follow the order in which they are listed.
This first group of questions is to give it an identity:
- What would fear look like if it was a person/character/animal?
- What would it like to be called? What 's its name?
- What kind of clothes does fear wear?
- What does it like to do for fun?
- What does it not like to do? This second group is to discover the possible intent of your fear:
- What does fear want you to do?
- What is it trying to help you with?
- What would happen if you weren 't afraid? The third group is to try to change the