6 Ways to Use Your Strength to Make Fear Whimper

The "Stay at Home" order has come for many.  Feelings of fear and anxiety are louder and stronger than ever.  The situation we are facing has many unknowns.  How can we live well during times that cause disruptive feelings? 
 
Fear often takes power over us and draws our eyes down and inward as we begin to think more and more about taking care of self and our loved ones.  When we turn the focus inward we begin to get smaller.  Our courage and strength diminish.  Often, we lose our voice.  We hope someone knows what to do.  Maybe we blame others for not preventing this chaos.  Old trauma responses of fight, flight or freeze can take control over us more than our rational and analytical thinking.  We feel energy drain away.
 
Especially for those of us who have experienced victimization in the past, many of those old feelings of helplessness and powerlessness rise to the surface and we can find ourselves acting and reacting in strange ways that are difficult to understand. 
 
I would like to offer 6 options available to you when you feel this kind of fear and anxiety.  We do not need to be held hostage by our feelings.  In truth, we have the strength to diminish uncomfortable feelings of fear.  Reclaim your strength and try one or more of these suggestions to bring a shift that can help you take back your power.

1)   Intentionally lift your eyes, your focus, up and out.  Bring your conscious thinking back to truth and remind yourself that right now you are safe, you are not alone, you are not helpless.  Look at the sun in the sky, the birds singing, people coming and going.  Move your focus beyond your corner of the world.
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2)  Get your tools out of your toolbox and use them.  These simple tools can change the chemistry in your body in minutes.
             a)   Find an easy breathing technique, like the 4-7-8, and use it a few times each day.   You can find out                                      more about  this technique  by clicking here. 
             b)   Learn how to do EFT Tapping and do it once or twice a day.  Check out my "Intro to EFT Tapping" video                             by clicking here. 
             c)  Take out your journal and write down your feelings.  Move the thoughts that are swirling around in your                              head out onto paper.

3)   Talk with someone who will listen well.  You may need to ask them to just listen.  Let them know that you don't need them to fix anything or have answers, but that you just want to be seen, heard, known and understood.  Ask them to just, simply hear you.

4)   Think about what you are actually feeling and give it a name.  Joan Rosenberg talks about 8 unpleasant emotions we tend to avoid, and how, if we will ride the wave of the emotions for 90 seconds we will be able to move forward.  Identify your emotion and feel it deeply and fully for those 90 seconds.  It's quick and effective.  Check out Joan's TED Talk here:  https://youtu.be/EKy19WzkPxE

5)   Ground yourself.  Notice what is real right now.  Are you safe?  Are you hungry?  Do you have protection?  Are you ill?  Write down 10 areas where you are safe, peaceful, unchanged.  Then speak gratitude over those areas.
6)   Acknowledge the spiritual and turn toward spiritual truths in prayer or meditation.  Remember that you have a higher power you can turn to who is able to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
 
Don't stay stuck in the swirl of fear and anxiety.  You have what you need to take a step forward, right now.

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