Is Fear Blocking Your Happiness?

Physically, fear is paralyzing and can be life threatening. Fear is your body’s auto response system to protect your body in dangerous situations. It causes your body to shrink, your muscles become stiff, your heart beats faster, you sweat, and you either become highly focused or highly disoriented. In some extreme cases, except the vital organs, all our organs shut down to save your life naturally to buy you some time.

Fear is a very strong emotion and state of mind that is at the opposite side of happiness. When you are happy, you have no fear, and when you are afraid, you are not happy. Fear blocks your happiness and cripples your imagination & creativity. The negative effect of being afraid is triple fold. 1. It takes away a joyful moment from you; 2. It almost always less dangerous than we think, and 3^rd, the law of attraction is at work. The more we feel fear, the more it’ll show up.

Since the purpose of life is to be happy and joyful, we need to learn to let go of fear. The good news is that it is in our control and we can learn.  

How To Let Go Of Your Fear? 

Here’s how To Let Go Of Your Fear in 4 ways:

• Identify Fear. Is it real or unreal? Is it phobia, nervousness, anxiety or fear?  
• Build Self-Confidence
• Trust Nature
• Act In Spite of being afraid

First, let go of your fear by Identify your fear if it is real or unreal. Here's how to distinguish real fear from the unreal ones: Real fear is a real life threatening situation. Our body senses the danger and is fearful of its loss If and when we are in life threatening situations, we are having real fear. In this case, we can decide how to respond to the situation, and we rely on our instinct at that time.

Unreal fears which are the most common are the ones that you think it might happen in the future, but they are not life threatening situations. Fear of robbery, of getting sick, of our loved one getting sick or dying, of failure, fear of losing our job or income, fear of repeating past negative experiences are some examples.

However, any time fear enters your mind, and you are thinking about the worst-case scenario, change your mind and think about the best-case scenario. Actively, get fear out of your mind and choose to think you are safe and happy.

Second, let go of your fear by building self-confidence. I was born and raised in a landlocked country. Being around water was new to me when I moved to Maui, but slowly I was able to build my self-confidence by learning to swim and going further into the ocean. Learning to swim and watching other people gave me the courage to face my fear of the ocean and swim further each time.

Third, let go of your fear by trusting nature. Because you are not always in control, you’ll have to trust that nature will take care of you, that the outcome will be good and positive. Part of living a joyful and purposeful life is to take risks, challenge yourself physically and emotionally, grow and feel the reward. Trust that you are safe and happy as nature has intended for you. Your fear will diminish or disappear when you choose to feel safe and happy.

Fourth, let go of your fear by challenging yourself. Every time fear enters my thoughts, I ask myself, "what is the worst that can happen?" When I answer this question, my fear looks small and manageable. You can challenge yourself to take the risk of moving forward with fear present because when you overcome the challenge, you'll find your wings to fly.

As Rumi says, you are born with wings, why choose to crawl. Happiness gives you wings; fear takes them away. It's your responsibility to move away from fear and embrace your happy life.

Remember, to let go of your fears one by one.  

Love,

Now, it's your turn. Please leave a comment below AND answer the following questions:

Have you challenged yourself in spite of fear? What was it? and how do you feel now? Share your story below.