Thank you for such a wonderful and rich comment!

When I’m trapped by fear, the first thing I have to do is recognize it.

This is excellent advice – rather like putting a spotlight on your fear and exposing it; turning the dark to light, so to speak.

I love your list writing too – being a list writer myself, this approach appeals to me! But ‘interrogating your fears’ is a great title, I hope it’s the title of your new post, so looking forward to reading that!

Have you ever read Face Your Fears and Do it Anyway by Susan Jeffers? She takes a similar approach when you’re faced with a choice that we use as an excuse not to progress in life. She says path A is great and so is path B – neither are right or wrong, or good or bad, they’re just a choice and we will be enriched by either one – it’s a win-win situation!

Once again, thank you for such a great comment, and for your kind words about my blog

When I’m trapped by fear, the first thing I have to do is recognize it. When a decision is coming up, or I’m facing a problem, I list all my fears, the real and the somewhat absurd ones surrounding my problem. This gets them out of the dark corners. Just writing them down helps take some of their power away.

Next, I ask myself what’s the worst things that could happen if any of them came true. I call it “interrogating” my fears. Let’s say I have Fear X, I keep questioning, “what’s the worst thing that could happen if X happened?” Then, I take that answer from that (Y), and ask again, “Then what’s the worst thing that could happen if Y happened?” and when I finally end up with Z (and often it takes much more than 3 steps) “And if Z happened, then what would you do?”
Eventually, if you do this, you get to a place where the final answer is that you’ll survive, life will go on, and you’ll be okay. I love doing this, and I am working on a post to outline it. It’s amazing how much power our fears usurp from us when we don’t examine them, and how much bigger they grow as long as they get to hide away in those dark corners.

Anyway, thanks for writing this, for sharing, and for starting this new awesome category. I look forward to more!

Cheers,
Miche

Thank you for comment – and your words of wisdom. Fear is the devil no doubt! Overcoming it isn’t always easy, as I know from personal experience, but we always have to try. I’m currently reading Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, and it’s a really good read. Is there anything you do in particular to overcome fears you have Elaine?

Thanks for posting this. It is one of my all time fave quotes. It is vital to our existence that we find ways to let go of fear as it only holds us back!