How to Overcome your Fears

Fear is the greatest obstruction to happiness. Think about it, you will understand that fear robs us of the time we ought to have been happy. The time spent on analysing situations; who laughed and when or who did not respond to your greeting and why?

The fear of falling ill, losing a loved one, losing a job or the fear of not knowing the future; the fear of not knowing if your decision is the right decision. The list goes on and on.

All these fears rob you of the present and there is a lot the present has to offer. The present is the determiner of the future. Contrary to popular belief, things don’t happen by chance or accidents. There is always a chain of the future linking to the past; hence the importance of understanding the value of the present.

I have always argued with the school of thought that people can bring their thoughts to life. That you have the power to imagine yourself to be fruitful or to fail. But sometimes you realize that the thing you are most afraid of ends up happening. I have no other explanation for this than fear is capable of modulating your behaviour.

For instance, if you are always afraid of losing your job, you start losing interest in the job, and this shows by your lack of enthusiasm for the job; therefore, you begin to make lots of costly mistakes. Mind you, your boss doesn’t see your heart but sees the effect of your heart on your attitude. Just like when you are angry with someone, your countenance changes whenever you see that person. We don’t have control over these things. This is why we must learn how to overcome our fears.

The question in many people’s minds is if it is possible to overcome fears?

Fear comes naturally to us but most often, fear is derived from our inabilities and weaknesses. They arise based on our perception of situations. Yes, fear can be overcome. Fear like many other negative emotions such as anger and sadness can be understood and reduced;

Why are you afraid?

The first step to overcoming fear is to identify why you are afraid in the first place. A friend had this rash and decided to get it checked by a doctor, the doctor told him he had Miliaria Rubra. My friend came back seriously worried that he was diagnosed with a very serious kind of disease and may be life-threatening. Worst of all was that he wasn’t given any drugs. This made him think it was probably because there was no need for the drug and that he was probably going to die soon. His craze and gradual slip into a depression made us check for the ailment only to find it was heat rash.  

Identify the root cause of your fears

Yours may have nothing to do with the fear of having a serious medical condition (hypochondriasis). Identifying your fear will help you to identify the root cause of your fear. When this is identified, the next step is to work to become better than what you are at the moment. For instance, if you are always afraid of developing lung cancer, it may be because you smoke a lot; therefore, identifying the root cause of the fear can help you work towards quitting smoking. Or are you afraid of your inadequacies? Identifying why and where you are inadequate will help you develop strength in that area.

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