Eat your Fears!
Eat your fears!
The one thing that holds so many of us back from reaching our true potential is fear. Chances are that you have a fear, whether you are consciously aware of it or not, that is currently eating you for breakfast (and quite possibly for lunch and dinner as well).
Some people argue that fear is an integral part of our inbuilt emotional response system that guides us away from perceived danger and risk. Though this can be true, the actual modern day reality for most of us is that our fears are largely imaginary and serve only to hold us back from doing the things that we would really love to do.
If you think you are special because you are afraid then allow me to share a little truth with you. Every single human being walking this planet is afraid of something (myself included). In fact it is actually a very healthy part of the human condition.
So it’s not that you are afraid that’s important – it's how you respond to that fear that makes all the difference.
How does fear hold us back?
The main reason fear holds so many of us back from reaching our true potential is because we have trained our minds to believe that our fears are really much bigger than they are. We breathe life into our fears by letting them fester in the recesses of our minds until they become so big that they paralyse us from taking the actions necessary to live a life full of meaning and purpose.
The good news is however that it is just as easy to make your fears appear much smaller than they actually are. By consciously reshaping your fears so they underwhelm you rather than overwhelm you, you will actually begin to reclaim the confidence that you were born with.
A radical new process.
I’ve recently developed a radical new process called ‘eating the fear sandwich’. I specifically designed the technique to enable me to eat my own fears rather than have them eat me!
(Please note that it is highly unlikely that you will ever find this technique in a psychology journal or even a recipe book for that matter!)
A step-by-step guide to prepare and eat the fear sandwich...
Step 1 - Assemble a tasty selection of organic sandwich ingredients on a chopping board.
Step 2 – Visualise your biggest fear as being nothing more than the combination of the various different ingredients in front of you.
Step 3 – Joyfully prepare a mouth watering sandwich feast.
Step 4 – Notice how insignificant and helpless you fear appears to be as you assemble your sandwich and then ultimately cut it in half
Step 5 – Now take a bite out of the sandwich.
Step 6 – Feel the delicious ingredients effortlessly melt away in your mouth as you feel yourself becoming more empowered and energised with each bite.
Step 7 – Allow the fear to pass as you open up new doors of possibilities within you.
Create your own fear busting metaphor.
I want you to know that it is important not to get hung up on the food metophor. If eating your fears doesn't work for you, you may want to visualise your fears as something entirely different.
For example, if you regularly take baths you may want to visualise your fear as water that you can pull the plug on at any time you choose. Alternatively, you could just as easily turn your fears into a golf ball if you are a golfer.
The trick is to create your own fear busting reframing technique that will place yourself in the position of being the ultimate authority over your fears and not the other way round.
Whatever metaphor you decide to use, be sure to have a bit of fun with the whole process. And before too long, you'll feel your fears subside and you'll be strangely wondering what all the fuss was about!
The one thing that holds so many of us back from reaching our true potential is fear. Chances are that you have a fear, whether you are consciously aware of it or not, that is currently eating you for breakfast (and quite possibly for lunch and dinner as well).
Some people argue that fear is an integral part of our inbuilt emotional response system that guides us away from perceived danger and risk. Though this can be true, the actual modern day reality for most of us is that our fears are largely imaginary and serve only to hold us back from doing the things that we would really love to do.
If you think you are special because you are afraid then allow me to share a little truth with you. Every single human being walking this planet is afraid of something (myself included). In fact it is actually a very healthy part of the human condition.
So it’s not that you are afraid that’s important – it's how you respond to that fear that makes all the difference.
How does fear hold us back?
The main reason fear holds so many of us back from reaching our true potential is because we have trained our minds to believe that our fears are really much bigger than they are. We breathe life into our fears by letting them fester in the recesses of our minds until they become so big that they paralyse us from taking the actions necessary to live a life full of meaning and purpose.
The good news is however that it is just as easy to make your fears appear much smaller than they actually are. By consciously reshaping your fears so they underwhelm you rather than overwhelm you, you will actually begin to reclaim the confidence that you were born with.
A radical new process.
I’ve recently developed a radical new process called ‘eating the fear sandwich’. I specifically designed the technique to enable me to eat my own fears rather than have them eat me!
(Please note that it is highly unlikely that you will ever find this technique in a psychology journal or even a recipe book for that matter!)
A step-by-step guide to prepare and eat the fear sandwich...
Step 1 - Assemble a tasty selection of organic sandwich ingredients on a chopping board.
Step 2 – Visualise your biggest fear as being nothing more than the combination of the various different ingredients in front of you.
Step 3 – Joyfully prepare a mouth watering sandwich feast.
Step 4 – Notice how insignificant and helpless you fear appears to be as you assemble your sandwich and then ultimately cut it in half
Step 5 – Now take a bite out of the sandwich.
Step 6 – Feel the delicious ingredients effortlessly melt away in your mouth as you feel yourself becoming more empowered and energised with each bite.
Step 7 – Allow the fear to pass as you open up new doors of possibilities within you.
Create your own fear busting metaphor.
I want you to know that it is important not to get hung up on the food metophor. If eating your fears doesn't work for you, you may want to visualise your fears as something entirely different.
For example, if you regularly take baths you may want to visualise your fear as water that you can pull the plug on at any time you choose. Alternatively, you could just as easily turn your fears into a golf ball if you are a golfer.
The trick is to create your own fear busting reframing technique that will place yourself in the position of being the ultimate authority over your fears and not the other way round.
Whatever metaphor you decide to use, be sure to have a bit of fun with the whole process. And before too long, you'll feel your fears subside and you'll be strangely wondering what all the fuss was about!
posted by Damien Senn at Wednesday, September 20, 2006
1 Comments:
I love the concept Damien. Just a question, though. Do you imagine - or name - your actual worst fear before you visualise it as the sandwich? Or do you just treat it as an abstract fear, which is then transformed into a tasty sandwich?
If my worst fear was spiders, I wouldn't want any visualising or imaging of that getting in the way of eating into a sandwich, so I'd have to keep the fear abstract to go through with this exercise.
Kim
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home