Overcome Fear

Fear stops success. Everyone has their fears. Spiders, snakes, darkness, etc. Although, most of these fears are either caused by people's imagination, or are harmless. But how can you tell if the danger is real, and most importantly, how to get over being afraid of it? Read this guide to find out!

Steps

 * 1) Analyze the fear. Can it harm you at any way? If it can't, then there is nothing to be afraid of (but still read the rest of the guide, just to be comfortable and completely wipe off the fear). If it can hurt you, keep reading the guide for a solution. For example, a garter snake cannot harm you, it just eats spiders and bugs. If you touch it, you will not die/get severely hurt (even if it bites you, which is not likely). But, rattle snakes, on the other hand, are dangerous and if you touch it, you might get bitten.
 * 2) Look at what others are doing. For example, you are afraid to ride that totally extreme roller-coaster in the theme park. Look at the ages of people who are riding it (probably 9 to 50). If you are in that age range, examine your own health condition. Consult your doctor for medical advice. If you are healthy and in the correct age range, you can freely ride a coaster without worrying about getting hurt.
 * 3) Confront whatever it is you're afraid of directly. If you are afraid of harmless spiders in your basement, catch one and hold it in your hand. This can be tough if you are arachnophobic, but try to hold it for a long time until the gross-out feeling is gone. Do that a couple times. If you are afraid of certain action, do steps 1 & 2 and if it's safe, do it.
 * 4) If your fear is truly dangerous, find a way to destroy it. I wouldn't recommend doing previous step in this situation. Although, you can find some safety rules and put yourself in a condition where you can be safe even if the fear is in front of you. Other most important rule here is not to panic. Just act cool and assure yourself that as long as you follow the safety guidelines, your fear is harmless and nothing to be afraid of.
 * 5) Change the way you think and you change the way you act. You can control your thoughts.  Since you're only able to consciously think about one thing at a time, only allow positive thoughts to go through your mind.  Whenever a negative thought or fear enters, simply choose to stop it right in its tracks and immediately change that thought to something positive.
 * 6) Deliberately try to program right thoughts into your head every single day. This is the best way to change the picture of fear into one of victory.
 * 7) Realize the best defense from fear is a good offense. What you imagine is almost always worse than the truth.  So many times the "truth" you see in your mind is only the truth as you believe it to be.  So sometimes the best thing is the very thing you fear, even if you have to do it afraid.
 * 8) If you have some kind of phobia, like phobia of being in a crowded area, being alone, going to a place that you hate, a certain color, or anything that you know is harmless, just go to that place with a friend or go alone keeping in mind that nothing will happen(you know it). If it's some color or thing just touch it 'till you realize that nothing will happen. If it's a spider, go stand near it. You know that nothing will happen to you and its just the look that scares you.
 * 9)  Forget method: Tell all your friends your fear. Ask them not to talk about it. Get busy.
 * 10)  Confront method: This isn't as scary as it seems but keep doing the activity next to someone then alone.
 * 11)  Fun method: Print out a picture of it, punch it, kick it! Do anything that makes you feel better and tell the fear you're bigger than it.

Tips

 * If you are religious, consider praying about what your religion says.
 * Whatever your beliefs, consider seeing a health specialist trained in dealing with your emotions. They will be able to take you through steps to unravel the source of your fears and to create new ways of coping.
 * If you are afraid of something imaginary (like zombies, after watching a super scary R-rated movie), assure yourself that it is not real. Watch the same scary movie over and over again until you've watched it so many times it is not scary to you anymore. Don't watch anything that is too scary for you, but push yourself. Get the DVDs and make sure they have the making of documentaries and/or documentaries of the make-up and special effects, acting, directing, and music score. Sometimes it helps to just watch it over again with the cast and crew commentary on. But if you don't want to watch the DVD or movie over and over, then you can just live your life normally, and it will soon wear off. To help, at night, you can keep a light on to make yourself feel safe.
 * Visualize yourself in your mind confronting your fear and overcoming it because this helps. For example, have you ever beat Bowser in a Mario game? Pretend your fear is your Bowser and you beat it up in your mind.
 * Realistic fears, such as that of poison, are normal, and need not disturb you.
 * Remember, just because you're afraid, doesn't mean you're a coward. But when doing something you fear because it's important or necessary ,on the other hand, is bravery. And you surely are brave if you have decided to face your fears.

Warnings

 * Never do anything too dangerous, like touch a poisonous rattle snake without proper training. Be safe!
 * Don't push your limits too far when it comes to riding thrill rides. Just because you get butterflies on thrill rides does not mean that you are unhealthy. Know your stomach. Just because someone younger than you rode the ride does not mean that you can ride it too. Someone who is far younger than you may have a stomach that can handle scarier rides better than yours can. This is totally different from watching scary movies.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Cope With the Fear of Fire
 * How to Overcome a Fear of Flying
 * How to Conquer a Fear
 * How to Overcome the Fear of Dentistry
 * How to Overcome the Fear of Spiders
 * How to Overcome a Fear of Heights