Fear gets the best of us, whether it is fear of failure, success, or fear itself. All of us have experienced fear at some point in our lives, and it can be a stumbling block that holds us back from being truly successful.

Fear can’t hold you back forever if you don’t let it.

There are several ways to overcome fear; here are my top nine:

1. SEPARATE REALITY FROM PERCEPTION

Ask yourself what is actually going on, locate the facts and place them over your feelings and reactions. And then stop. Don’t take any action toward anyone.

2. IDENTIFY iT

To leverage fear into courage, you have to be honest with yourself every time you’re afraid. If you don’t admit your fears to yourself, you can’t leverage them into courage. Look at this point in your life where you’re feeling afraid, and see it as an opportunity to learn to and grow. This is important.

3. KNOW WHERE FEAR LIVES IN YOUR BODY

A lot of times, fear takes over physically. It affects different people in different ways. Identify if/how it affects your physical body and do the work to take care of your body while feeling the fear. Get in a comfortable position in a calm environment and get ready to do the work.

4. Feel It

The greatest mistake people make when dealing with fear is to try to think their way through it. They analyze what triggered it, or start “playing chess,” projecting out what might happen next, and how they’ll deal with it. This doesn’t diminish fear; it actually increases it because there’s no way to outsmart it. Instead of trying, do the counterintuitive thing with fear: let yourself feel it. Then you’ll be ready to move to the next step.

5. LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION

Monitor your inner conversations. If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it to yourself.

6. FACE IT

Have you ever had one of those dreams where a dark, scary figure is chasing you? If you run away, it always gets much more terrifying. If you turn around and face it, something good almost always happens. It’s the same with fears in your waking life. Ask Allison to walk you through the visualization tool that literally reverses the desire to run away and gets you to face your fear and move through it.

7. PRACTICE BREATHING EXERCISES

Breathing helps center your body. You can do a grounding exercise or even take five deep, long breaths at any point to calm and centre yourself. It is best to start your day with this, but feel free to practice all day long, especially while working through fears.

8. PRACTICE THE TOOLS with Allison or the Tools Group

Try to think about confronting fear as a skill—something you can practice and get good at, like ping-pong, or knitting, or anything else. This will make your fear seem less dramatic, and you’ll feel more in control of it. You can also gain a lot of satisfaction in the process.

9. WATCH WHAT CHANGES

You’ll notice after doing this work that things quickly change. Your reactions, your emotional endurance changes. It works. Dive in.

Welcome to LARKSPUR WELLNESS

My coaching is a little different than most. I blend holistic longevity practices with psychology, assessments, strategies and tools to help guide my clients toward their goals- fast.