How To Overcome Fear

Why do you have to overcome your fears at all?

What’s so wrong with being afraid that you have to look for ways to avoid fear entirely?

No one is never not afraid. Everyone fears something and that’s okay!

Overcoming your fear does not mean abolishing it.

It just means standing tall in the face of it.

There will always come a time when you feel afraid. Let that time be what it is.

Let the fear come and face it head on.

Let it rush towards you like a wolf rushes to its prey.

Let it tower over you like a monster about to devour you.

And then smile and say “I love you too!”

Let it roar in your face with so menacingly it makes your bones quiver.

But just because we feel afraid does not mean we have to change our actions! At the end we are all still in control of what we do.

Our fears only become big when we give them a lot of energy through our thoughts and our actions.

Accepting our fears as what they are, is a great way to remove their power.

What comes after you feel afraid and say “Yup. That scares me.”?

As soon as you accept your fear the path stops. There is nothing more.

It’s when we resist the fear, try to convince ourselves that we are not afraid or when we fake courage that the fear sticks around.

If you really want to make the fear small then do not fight it. Accept it and love it instead.

Imagine you standing in a plane. There is a person strapped to your back and together you move towards the entrance of the plane.

The plane is a couple thousand meters above the ground. You are preparing to jump.

What if, in that moment, instead of having the conversation in your head that everything will be okay, that it’s not that scary or that it will be over soon, you simply said: “ Wow! I’m afraid!”

In the moment that follows you are in complete control over your next action and can choose whatever you want.

You remain in control, which gives you the option to overcome the fear or to subject yourself to it; None of which is better or worse than the other!

There is nothing wrong with being afraid.

The only problem comes in when you let that fear control your actions, your thoughts and your life!

Don’t resist or deny your fears!

But, on its own, fear is nothing more than an emotion.

“I am patient and loving with my fearful thoughts. Be patient and loving with every fearful thought. Practice observing your fears as a witness, and you’ll see them dissolve.” — Wayne W. Dyer

It is not based on rationality nor is it something you have to feel ashamed about.

Accept them for what they are and face them with courage. Because, the more you do this, the more you realize how small that fear really is in comparison to you.

Originally published at http://quora.com.