subject: Phobias And Fears [print this page] Your mind generalises to protect youYour mind generalises to protect you. When you were young you learnt to open a door. Now you're able to open pretty much every door in the world, even if you've never seen this door before. The same is true about a fear or phobia. You had a bad experience and now your mind generalises, this allows you to have the same feelings in every similar situation.
Imagine you're bitten by a dog when you were young. It was a big black Rottweiler that bit you. Now every time you see any dog you're scared. This is a pure case of your mind generalising to protect you. You had one bad experience with a dog and now you're scared of every dog you come across, even the thought of a dog scares you. The same is true about any fear or phobia on the planet. There are no exceptions here, fears and phobias all do the same things to your body. These are all learnt behaviours and anything that can be learnt, can be unlearnt. How great would it be to face your fear and not have that uncomfortable feeling in your body? Here is a great technique to lower or reduce your fear significantly.
How to get rid of a fear or phobia
Think of your fear and identify the direction of the feeling in your body. For example; it may be a forwards, backwards, clockwise or an anticlockwise spinning feeling in your body. Close your eyes now and imagine this fear or phobia playing out in your mind. Imagine you're watching a big blockbuster movie and you're in it. Notice the spinning feeling in your body and give it the colour red and keep it spinning. Now change the direction of the spinning in your body and give it the colour blue. For Example; if it was a red, backwards spinning feeling, now spin it forwards with the colour blue. Picture this blue colour spinning in your body as you see yourself successfully handle this situation in the movie calmly and confidently. Now gently step inside yourself in the movie and allow yourself to see everything through your own eyes. See what you'll see through your own eyes when everything plays out successfully, the way you want it to. Make the picture bigger, brighter and more colourful while you continue to spin this blue feeling in your body faster and faster. Let the blue colour become lighter and lighter until it's a sky blue. What calm or confident internal voice do you hear when everything plays out successfully in the situation. Make this voice more calm and confident and the sounds around you louder and richer, as you continue to spin this light blue feeling in your body. Do this for 5-10 minutes and when you feel great open your eyes.
How great do you feel now? By changing the images, sounds and the direction of the feeling in your body, you're able to feel more calm, confident and relaxed in this situation. This will allow you to take the necessary action to enter a similar situation in the future. By taking action over and over you condition a new habit of calmness and confidence in this situation until it becomes an automatic behaviour. By doing this you'll get rid of your fear completely!
