Copyright © 2022 Lee Spirit
I recently went on a hiking adventure along the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, Vancouver Island. It took a lot of pre-planning before I felt safe venturing out there, directly next to the ocean. Reading all the reports of people’s mishaps along the trail didn’t help my fear and anxiety levels. Problems like inability to cross certain areas when it’s high tide, or having to climb ropes, ladders, and over roots and slippery rocks. Being knee-deep mud is common, as is getting stranded and rescued along the trail. Not to mention, there are thieves targeting cars, smashing windows, and drilling gas tanks. I wasn’t sure about all this, as I had never ventured there before. Our fears can be paralyzing, so dealing with fear and anxiety to create more freedom is definitely something you want to be able to do!
As Buddha says, “Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life”…I struggle with fear quite a bit without even realizing it until I examine my dreams at night. All of my fears seem to rise to the surface in my dreams, giving me a clear picture of just how negative, anxious, and fearful I really am beneath the surface! It’s definitely something many of us need to work on! We don’t need to get rid of it completely. We just need to deal with it more effectively so it doesn’t inhibit our desires, or prevent us from doing all the great things we are capable of doing.
How We Interpret Fear
It’s important to recognize that fear isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and that it can be transformational. Fear can guide us to make different choices, or see things from a different perspective. It can challenge us to make necessary changes that could bring us the freedom we want to feel. How we react to fear and anxiety will determine our ability to move forward, create the life we want, and set ourselves free. Being willing to see fear as a friend who is guiding you can make all the difference in the world to your anxiety levels!
Remember that fear is often a fabrication of our minds and isn’t even a reality! Our minds like to create all kinds of stories of what could happen to us when we set out on that ocean-side hiking trail!
For instance, here’s what went through my mind: A rogue wave may sweep me away! I may fall and twist my ankle! What if I get stranded during high tide! A bear, cougar, or wolf might find me appetizing for dinner! I may get stuck knee-deep in mud! My Front-Wheel drive may not be able to handle the steepness or potholes in the road! The windows of my car might get smashed! My satellite device may not work! If my gas-tank is drilled, I’ll be stranded in a remote location! Oh my goodness, I was trying to find ways to quell my fears about all of those things before my trip! Of course when I got there and pushed through my fears, I had total freedom! How? Because none of that came true! It was all a story in my mind.
Dealing With Fear and Anxiety: Breaking Free From the Stories in Our Minds
So how do we go about breaking free from the stories fabricated in our minds that make us so fearful and anxious? Well, as the old saying goes, we must face our fears head on to release them. Facing our fears means bringing them to the surface so you can see them clearly, accepting that we have this fear, and transforming our fear into opportunity.
Bringing Our Fear and Anxiety To the Surface
Oftentimes, we shove our fears down, block them out, ignore them, or joke about them. Unfortunately this only brings them back with greater force. As the saying goes, “What we resist persists”. Bringing them to the surface so we can see and acknowledge them will help us eventually release them. Do you notice that when things are out of sight, they’re out of mind? If we can’t see our fear and anxiety, we aren’t able to deal with them effectively.
Silent meditation is one thing that helps me settle my busy mind. I can see what’s floating through my head, and be the witness of my own thoughts, emotions, feelings, and sensations. Bringing them to the surface allows us to say, “Okay, I am scared of this because…” As Jay Shetty reflects in his book, “Think Like a Monk”, keep asking yourself what you are really afraid of until you get to the root of it. Keep asking why you are afraid of that until you can’t answer that question anymore and you’ve uncovered the root problem.
Accepting Our Fears
Dealing with fear and anxiety is easier when we accept the fears we’ve brought to the surface. Okay, I see that I’m afraid to get swept away by a rogue wave along the Juan de Fuca trail. I acknowledge and accept my fear. Now what do I do with that?
Learn All You Can About What You Fear
I make sure I understand how to read the tide tables and know when it’s safe and not safe to be hiking for hours along the beach. Studying the videos, books, and maps so that I know approximately how long it will take me to get from one section of trail to the next is helpful. I get advice on social media groups from others doing the same thing, do my research, and get the assistance I need. This makes me feel prepared before I go.
Increased Exposure To What You Fear
One way to to diminish my fears of being out on remote trails I’ve never been on before is to just do it often enough that it feels comfortable to me rather than scary. Most of the time, the more exposure I have to the forest, mountains, and trails, the more I develop a sense of what a safe area looks and feels like. I know where there will be lots of people around, or few people around. Is this a place where there is food bears may be attracted to? I know which areas bears wouldn’t frequent so often, and educate myself on bear and cougar safety. Eventually, I just feel “at One” with nature and wildlife.
Everyone Has a Different Perspective
On my recent trip, I got there and realized how so many people online blew things out of proportion and made things sound way more dramatic than they actually are. If you’re not an experienced hiker, you may feel that way. Why do a remote trail when you have no experience with hiking? I know my experience level from a beginner, and that affects people’s descriptions of things. To some people, it may be a treacherous road. To others, it’s a walk in the park. So find out who you are asking when seeking advice, and what perspective they are coming from.
Dealing with Fear and Anxiety By Transforming Them
Once we’ve brought our fears to the surface, accepted them, learned all we can, and exposed ourselves to them, it’s time to transform them. Usually fear is considered a negative or bad thing, but if we look at it in a different light, we can turn it into something more positive.
Click Here To Stop Worrying and Feel Through Your Fear
When you’re more prepared, you feel more in control. At this point, you can transform your fear into creative solutions or new opportunities for growth. It may take some time before you get to this stage, but eventually you will see the gift or the lesson in the circumstances you face. Fear can be our greatest teacher, so allow it to guide you in a different, healthier direction. Life won’t always be sunshine and rainbows. Often if we can just work through difficulties, we see that we are quite capable of dealing with some really tough situations. Knowing we can get through it will help us cope when faced with something difficult again.
Do you React or Respond?
How are you reacting to the fear and anxiety in your life? Can you swap it for responding instead of reacting? When we react, we get anxious, fearful, back away from situations or people, withdraw, get angry, or lash out. When we respond, we are dealing with something difficult in a more relaxed, calm way. We take a step back to be the witness of our fear, and ask ourselves what we are afraid of. You can reprogram your response to fear so that you see how it can benefit you. When you notice if you’re reacting or responding, you can work with it to transform it into something healthier.
Dealing With Fear and Anxiety By Noticing When You Feel It
Just ask yourself, as you would ask yourself what you’re afraid of, “When do I feel this fear and anxiety?” Look at the situations in your life when you most feel it. You are then aware of when it comes up, and you can better adjust your responses to match your values and purpose.
The key thing to remember is that just as we are not our thoughts, we are not our fears and our anxieties. They are things we feel, and they come up at certain times more than others. Just notice that. Thoughts, feelings, emotions come and go like the wind.
Celebrate Your Successes
You may want to recall a past instance of when you felt some crippling fear and anxiety, like the time you got laid off from your job. When that happened to me, I was pretty devastated and thought I’d never find another good job again. It turned out that a series of short-term positions led me to the perfect position that was even better. When you can celebrate the fact that you overcame a challenging time and see that it turned into something much better, then you can have more confidence in your ability to get through things like that again.
Dealing With Fear and Anxiety By Seeing Through the Fog
In my last post, I was talking about the thick morning fog by the ocean-side along the Juan de Fuca trail. Not something to be feared or anxious about, but making the scenery a little less visible. It was even more beautiful to me, and eventually the fog cleared in the sunlight, and everything was visible. That’s what happens when we uncover our fears and anxieties. Suddenly the truth is visible, and we’re better able to transform these into something meaningful, purposeful, and positive. This is how we set ourselves free.
Lee Spirit is an avid outdoors adventurer with a love for nature, photography, health & fitness, wellness, and spirituality. She helps those who suffer from anxiety & negative thinking to become healthier in mind-body-spirit. Her own personal journey has led her to the study and practice of mindfulness, health, wellness, yoga, spirituality, sound healing, meditation, and personal development for over 20 years. Get mindfulness, meditation, and personal development tips in her Free Natural Mind Healing Report.