“Everything you have ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” – George Addair
Phelps Lake, Jackson, WY – Cooke family road trip 2018
It seems that fear is on a lot of people’s mind lately. For good reason, it seems everywhere we look fear is staring back at us in the form of news reports, articles, conversations and masked people wherever we go. Even just walking around the neighborhood, everyone is in a heightened state of fear darting across the street to stay out of each other’s way.
When left unchecked, fear continues to be the background music that plays in our lives putting our mind in a constant state of hyper-vigilance and overloading our bodies with adrenaline. This makes it difficult to pick out the signal of a real threat from the noise. As humans we rely on the momentary threat signal to protect us and if the signal is on all the time it makes it hard to determine the difference.
So how do we turn off the fear channel?
- Notice – recognize that you are feeling fear
- Name – say to yourself, “oh that is fear that I am feeling?”
- Navigate – now that we have named it, we can decide what we want to do with it so that it serves us well
- What do I believe about this threat?
- Is this a genuine threat or do we have an unrealistic expectation of the threat?
- What are my choices?
- Will my response help or hurt me?
Especially during this time, we need to really take care of ourselves. And, turning off our fear channel is really good for our wellbeing.
