Ten Ways to Live Free From Fear
At some point, we recognize that to live completely, we must live free from fear. Not free from fear of bears or cobras - some fear is practical. But to live free of fear to be yourself, to follow your dreams, to try something new... those are the fears from which freeing ourselves will allow us to live completely. Practice the following skills and you will live free from fear.
How to Live Free From Fear
1. See the good in your life, stay focused on this. Write down what you appreciate about your day every night before bed (Change your Mood With Gratitude). This will build your skills in seeing what you are grateful for and you will more readily see it during the following days. Keep this up until you feel a robust sense of your life and feel there is more to be grateful for than to fear.
2. Trust that you have the skills to can get through hard or difficult times. Fearing bad things happening and feeling that you will not survive them is a mark of anxiety. We have all gotten through hard times in the past. We now have greater skills to do it the next time. Take stock in your skills. Remember hard time are also opportunities to connect and hold onto what is truly important to us.
3. Don't be afraid of the anxiety. Anxiety needs you to be afraid of it to have any power over you. Since anxiety feels so uncomfortable, we often do fear it. If we were to say, "Oh this is just anxiety, just let it come." We would take the wind out of its sails and it wouldn't come or be much less than if we were afraid.
4. Do something that makes you feel better. Recognize that you are taking action to help yourself and that you can take action to help yourself instead of being a passive recipient to the anxiety. This will give you a sense of being more in control than out of control.
5. Get in touch with your 5 senses to help you stay in the present moment. For example: Look at the woven pattern in a piece of cloth. Focus closely on the breath going in and out of your nose. Listen to some music. Anxiety is worry about the future, and we could feel it so much we miss the present. Don't miss you life being anxious. Stay in the here and now (Mindfulness Can Calm Anxiety).
6. Remind yourself that anxiety is temporary. Panic attacks last for a finite time. Most people know how long they last. Remember that you will get through it within that time frame. This might help you be less scared and then allow you to pass through it faster.
7. Breathe. Use a focused breath. Bring the breath low into your belly. Count or pattern the breath to help increase your focus.
8. Connect with someone or something. Anxiety breeds in isolation. Connecting with a family member, a friend, a pet, or even a tree can help you feel less alone and often brings us out of the panic. Have a sense that you are not alone in life and you will be less scared of it.
9. Remember anxiety cannot hurt, it just feels like it is. Anxiety might feel like a heart attack or that you will stop breathing, but it is just an experience of these things. Fear that you are dying increases the anxiety. Remember this is only anxiety at work, and anxiety in and of itself cannot hurt you.
10. Stop judging yourself. Anxiety often has us blaming ourselves for everything. This makes you feel lousy and increases anxiety (Afraid of Failure? 4 Steps to Breaking Down Failure). Let the judgments go, have compassion for yourself. See the good in yourself.
What other ways do you know to live free from fear?
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APA Reference
Lobozzo, J.
(2012, September 5). Ten Ways to Live Free From Fear, HealthyPlace. Retrieved
on 2024, December 22 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/anxiety-schmanxiety/2012/09/ten-ways-to-live-free-of-fear
Author: Jodi Lobozzo Aman, LCSW-R
I use deep breathing all the time to ease my anxiety. It really does help.
Me, too. It is great because we need nothing, and we can do it anywhere, without even being noticed!
Jodi,
I have to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Today I had bad anxiety. Mine is not the panic attack kind but more of the racing thoughts and being afraid of having anxiety for the rest of my life that causes me to have more anxiety. So today was a pretty bad day until I came across this website and saw your blogs. You really hit my anxiety on the head and it help me so much and You made me realize that I am in control Not anxiety. U have no idea what you did for me today. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! For understanding and helping. any info that can help me in learning more how to control my anxiety I would really appreciate it. I guess I have had Anxiety my whole life but I am normally a pretty level headed person but for the past few years my anxiety has taken the wheel and I have let it. Im so ready to take control of this ounces and for all. Thank you so much.
Christina B.
Thanks Christina! I am so glad I helped! Lots of love to you!
I hear you Christina I could have written your post. How are you these days?
Christina,
I'm right there with you. I've been taking meds for depression for several years. But just recently, I'm recognizing my symptoms as being more the anxiety type than depression. And I'm a licensed counselor!!! I'm resisting my feelings of incompetence (lies of anxiety) as this is in my line of knowledge & training. I'm chalking up my embarrassment to recognize my own anxiety as the inability to see the self very objectively. I'm fighting my anxiety by reaching out to you & encouraging you to face your own anxiety like a boss! Take the "anxiety bull" by the horns, look it straight in the eye, squeeze those horns with the tightest grip, & YOU control IT. Continue reading, learning, empowering & equipping yourself with as many techniques as you can, but most especially with thoughts of truth & not the lies that anxiety would have you bowed to. You can do this. The power is in WHAT you choose to believe. You will have to conquer those lies with truth. YOU CAN DO THIS!
I've started focusing on the feelings of anxiety, the way my body feels when I'm anxious. The focusing seems to help it diminish.
[...] Ten Ways to Live Free of Fear Practice these everyday and you will live free of fear. [...]
Points well taken, Jodi. All good. I have found that to overcome fear of flying, Valium (generic = diazepam), works very well! It helped me actually enjoy flights to Paris, the South of France, Hawaii (twice), and the Caribbean on a number of occassions, plus less glamorous destinations as well. Check with your doctor, of course, as he needs to write the Rx.
The tips are all great but when you have past traumas and deep seated beliefs stored in your body it's hard to move past that.
I use Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). It's like acupuncture without the needles. The method is very easy to learn and you don't need a practitioner to administer it.
Dennis: I'd recommend a session or two with a practitioner for your fear of flying, I worked with a friend of mine on her fear and she now enjoys long haul flights alone (and drug free) and looks forward to meeting her fellow passengers :-)
EFT is awesome, I highly recommend it! I guess I should write about it one of these days...:)
it always helps to have someone talking to me about anything, but when I can't have that, I might put loud music. It's like the loud music stops me from listening to my own thoughts.
[...] Anxiety usually wants us to think that we need something a certain way “or else.” (Not that it tells us what the unsavory consequences are: Anxiety is always vague, never clear. This is how it holds it’s power.) [...]
[...] Anxiety takes loads of energy to sustain. It sucks that energy from you. So if Anxiety is around, you have much less energy for other important things in your life. There is nothing good about this waste. Life is precious, every moment is precious. (i.e., Loving and connecting with people trumps isolation to “protect yourself” from losing a loved one. Taking a risk beats forgoing great opportunities. Reaching out is more gratifying than letting words go unspoken.) Enough is enough! Live free from fear! [...]
This is an awesome blog post. Lately, I've noticed writing has been my outlet to anxiety relief. Writing about my feelings daily has helped me to not focus so much on my negative thinking. By writing and then sharing my content has given me back great responses to others who are suffering from the same issues as well. Focusing on my talents have made me feel better, it has proven that I have the ability to focus and concentrate on my goals, and that I can my projects even though I am going through so much at this time.
Stephanie,
Any action will work. And writing is a good one, since it is safe and readily available. Writing can be very therapeutic. It helps you be an audience to your own situation. Stepping back like this, you are able to see from a big picture! I am so glad it is working for you! I'm sure you are greatly helping others around you!
Love,
Jodi
I wanted to share this link with you; on my story with anxiety; I am glad now its not as bad, maybe takes about 5% of my life; guess its better than a whole of my life :-) but I try really hard; anxiety can mess someone's life; thanks for the articles you write.
http://www.nation.co.ke/magazines/Living/-/1218/658244/-/reu4jdz/-
Excellent Liz, how much did it take over to start with? Can't wait to read about it!
Axiety/depression has completly taken over my life is not the same, I feel alone, is it normal to feel like no one understands no matter how hard you try to explain that you feel different?
Tiffany, It is normal ( if normal existed) to feel like nobody understands. It is anxiety and depression's way of isolating you because this way you are ore vulnerable. It is not true. People do understand. Not everyone, but stop wasting your time with the people who cannot validate you. There are more than enough people who can, and they love you. Someitme people who love you, are scared and they try to make you feel better, this is not what you need but acceptance for where you are. It feels like they don't understand. Don't make their fear your excuse that you are alone. They still love you. xoJ
My comment is around point 9, anxiety cannot harm. After living many years with socially denied Akathisia from prescription medication I would like you to question yourself. To live as you indicate, denying the dangers of the constant anxiety, dread and sense of doom is like we really do not care of the message your body is giving you so why should you. As my brain cells were being destroyed and I was forced to suffer in silence, for fear the help would only increase the harm when I knew I could take no more, I found the power of positive thinking is a trap, at times very deep and I was not the only one that was putting me there.
David,
Akathisia is awful. Just to clarify, it is similar in some ways to anxiety but not the same thing. I do not discuss akathisia in this article. I am also not a proponent of postive thinking. I am sorry for the misunderstanding. I am so sorry for your pain. I hope beyond hope that you are finding some relief.
Love,
Jodi
Hi
I feel fearbwhen i talk with some one
Plz can u give me solution for that
hi dear madam
awesome wav.. superb mam ur thoughts awesome thanks yo to ., thank god for have us such a nice madam ., love yo my dear aunt :)
I love this whole website ,,I am surrounded by mental health problems in my family,,several different ones,,and have suffered anxiety myself all my life,,I love reading your posts and comments ,,and have passed this informative site on to many friends...Well Done .... Thankyou for caring...
Hi Carin,
Thank you for your feedback! It's important to everyone at HealthyPlace to have a site that does just what you described. Most (if not all) of us have lived with various mental health issues, and we want to use our experiences to help others. I'm glad to hear that this is a good place -- where the comments left by everyone are just as helpful as the posts!
Hello Harish,
Jodi is the one who wrote this post, but because she's no longer writing for HealthyPlace, she's unable to respond to comments. I know that she'd say you're very welcome, and she'd be pleased that you found the information to be helpful!
Hi Nicole,
Jodi is the one who wrote this post, but because she is no longer writing for HealthyPlace, she is unable to comment. I'm Tanya, one of the current authors of Anxiety-Schmanxiety. You're not alone. Most, if not all, people cry in response to intense emotions such as fear. And it can help. It can relieve physical and emotional pressure to help us feel purged and better able to move forward. Crying is a human instinct. As Jodi wrote in this article, there are other ways to reduce fear's control, too. So go ahead and cry, and try some other things, too!
Thanks a lot i really need to hear somthing like that.
thanks thanks God bless u thanks
Hello Ankit,
I'm glad you found Jodi's post to be helpful. She no longer writes for Healthy Place so can't respond to comments, but I know she will be very pleased to read yours.
Wow this really helps me a lot now am trying to overcome my fears and stress using the guidelines.
Before all, we ought to distinguish normal fear from pathological ones. The first one is coming on from real danger circumstance that threatening seriously our global health and life, as well. Pathological fear, on the other side is overwhelming fear without any real risk moment, that compromise profoundly our global daily functioning. Beside this notorious features pathological fear is common and more frequently than normal fear. Pathological fear in psychiatric vocabulary is denominated as anxiety. Anxiety and its numerous types indicate the most frequent emotional and mental disorder, that damage and ruins physical, mental and social wellbeing. So, your 10 smart and practical suggestion are of immense importance to overcome the malicious consequences of anxiety. However, promptly and on time psychiatric treatment and management of anxiety presents professional and the best way to escape oneself from this modern epidemic.