Weekly Roundup: Facing Fear
June 22 – June 26, 2020
Monday: Most change—personal or cultural—causes anxiety. It’s scary (and it’s okay to say that). Avoiding it is the best way that it will remain scary. We need responsible, compassionate, and often guided exposure to the cause of that fear. We need a type of habituation to the change we know is necessary but scares us the most.
Tuesday: Facing our fears is an aversive discipline because it requires short-term discomfort. The goal is to habituate ourselves to not experience the fear or anxiety, but like so many worthwhile goals, the means of facing the fear feels awful.
Wednesday: “I’m feeling anxious” or “I have fear right now” cuts through the lie that it’s permanent, it defines you, and there is no way out. And, counterintuitively, it gives you some staying power to face it.
Thursday: “Beating” fear is not like Mr. T busting through doors. It’s more like a dance. We face it, get close to it, step with it, turn with it, until we are familiar with it's movements. When we are synchronized, we can predict it's movements.
Friday: Part of the fear I had of chainsaws resided in my physical body. I needed a physiological solution. I literally needed to “re-narrate” the stories that lived in my muscles and bones.
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