OVERCOME FEAR

by David Nuttle

In

In a world filled with natural and manmade disasters, fear is an all-too-common emotion.

Overcoming fear is a multifaced process requiring physiological regulation, conative-type restructuring, behavioral modification, and survival plans.

Fear is caused by a "fight of flight" response to a perceived personal danger & can cause chronic anxiety and avoidance behaviors causing harmful disruptions in a person's life.

To get your fear(s) under control, use the following proven counter measures:

a) Relax and control your breathing by deep 4-second breaths, held 4-seconds & exhaled for 4-seconds.

b) Relax your stance and then tense & release as many muscle groups as possible.

c) Share your fear with trusted friends, name the fear, and indicate why you are afraid.

d) Ask yourself if there is evidence of harm to you and think about how you might have avoided that harm in the past.

e) Repeatedly expose yourself to each perceived threat, make mental notes on how you have survived any related harm, and work to desensitize yourself to the harm you fear.

f) Yawn, stretch, think about problem solutions to defeat the perceived threat.

g) If you are religious, ask for Devine protection and assume it will be provided.

American POWs have said they overcome fears of torture by keeping their minds always busy making future plans and working on the details of a project they want to complete just as soon as they escape or are released; e. g. building the new house they want. POWs who work on planning and preparing for escapes are doing the same thing by being focused on efforts that divert them from thinking about torture.

No man is an island and we are all exposed to natural and manmade hazards that can be life threatening!!!