Using Your Environment to Overcome Fear
Estimated Reading Time: 5 Minutes
How can you utilize your environment to overcome your fears?
How will you feel the first time you succeed at something you are afraid of doing? What type of positive impact on your life will it make to overcome a life-long fear? How do you feel when you are surrounded by people who support you? Have you ever tried doing something you were afraid while surrounded by only people who were supportive of you?
Fear can feel like something you will never overcome. Fear can feel like something that will weigh you down forever. You can look at your life and see all the things fear cost you and still not have the courage or the strength to overcome that fear. There is truth to the saying that, to get over fear, you must go do the thing you are afraid of doing. Depending on how strong the fear is, the mere fact of knowing that truth is not enough. We all need something more. That something more comes in the form of doing something you fear in an environment that you feel safe in while doing it afraid.
Many times, you will hear people say, “I understand you are afraid. What would you do if you were not afraid?” and then suggest you just go do that thing. There is a difference between knowing what you would do if you were not afraid and doing that thing. You will overcome that difference when you choose a safe environment in which to do the thing you are afraid of doing. I invite you to put yourself in a safe and nurturing situation the first time you try to do something afraid so that even if you do fail, it is not the worst thing in the world and you can get up, you can learn from it and you can move on.
Confronting your fear in a safe environment is a key step to beating the demon of fear permanently.
How this applies to authentic empathy…
When it comes to authentic empathy and utilizing your environment to overcome fear, when you put yourself in a safe and nurturing environment, you are surrounding yourself with people who have a naturally higher level of authentic empathy for you. This increased level of authentic empathy will empower you to overcome your fear by doing the thing you are afraid of while you are afraid of it and doing it until you overcome your fear.
How this applies to WACASHWI…
When it comes to WACASHWI and utilizing your environment to overcome fear, as you put fears on to and move them through your list, I invite you to look for safe environments to work on overcoming those fears. To begin with, I invite you to see if the people closest to you can help create that safe environment for you. Once you look to the people closest to you, find other, already established safe environments you can become part of. A third option is to create your own, established safe environment.
Your daily invitations…
- I invite you to think about one fear you would like to overcome.
- I invite you to consider what your life will look like once you overcome that fear.
- I invite you to consider what safe environment already exists that you can be in to start overcoming your fear.
- I invite you to write down your thoughts, feelings, and actions in your journal.
- I invite you to talk about your desire to overcome this fear with people close to you so they can help create a safe environment in which you can overcome your fear.
- I invite you to talk with a good coach, mentor or therapist if working through this process beings up negative feelings you are struggling to deal with.
Final step – how will you implement one thing you learned today in your life?
This all is but one step in your journey to living a more stress-free life, beating the demons of fear, and raising your level of authentic empathy towards yourself and others.