I might be the worst blogger on the planet to tell someone how to overcome fear. But, I do know the truth. So, if you do not read a word of this post, please check out the video – Fear Is A Liar.
So, to be honest, I started writing this post only for you to watch the video. I wish I could give all the how-tos. I can’t. But I can speak to portions of the issue. So, this post is a bit longer than just the introduction of the video as I had initially planned. Even this topic is still about thinking differently.
There are so many types of fear – too many to list. However, the majority of them commonly fall somewhere under these five categories
- Death – Certainly a lot of people fear death. People of faith believe that there is life after death. We take comfort in the fact that we don’t have to fear death, yet so many times we do. Along with that, it includes the very real fear of losing our loved ones.
- Anxiety about our bodies – Many people have fears of illness, disease, being injured – things that can happen to our bodies that would cause suffering or pain. I always used to wonder how in the world some precious senior adult could all of a sudden find out that they have cancer throughout their entire body and die within weeks. I thought, heck, why didn’t they go to the doctor earlier? Well, at my age, I now have a better understanding. If I went to the doctor every time my old creaking body has a new ache or pain, I would just hav
e to camp my big fanny on the curb of the Dr’s office every day. But, truthfully, may people have anxiety about their health.
- Losing control – control of our future, our family, our finances, and our lives in general. Most of us, as individuals, do not realize how much of a control person (freak) we really are. But we desperately want to control our life circumstances. We are troubled, we agonize, we dread, and we worry about those things in which we simply cannot control.
- Rejection – it may be abandonment. It may be that we fear not being accepted by our friends or even loved ones. We, especially men sometimes, have a hard time admitting that we desperately want to be loved and accepted. We desire the love, respect, and admiration of our friends and family. If a guy tells you he doesn’t, what should you say? Bull.
- Humiliation – or embarrassment, comparison (a big one), or not being seen with the perspective in which we would like to be seen by others in our society. This can couple itself with rejection we talked about above. Ever been on vacation and driven through a nice beach location with 7, even 8 figure homes overlooking the ocean and think, “Dang, how did I miss this? How come I didn’t get my ignorant self into one of these homes?” “Hey, honey, why don’t we go up and invite these folks over to where we’re staying on the 357th floor of our small, overpriced vacation condo rental? I’ll go ahead and push the elevator button. It will be here within an hour and we can squeeze in with these seventeen other soaking wet, blistered families with their dogs.” LOL.
Those are just a few of the common fears. I had to wrap it up with a bit of humor because it is a heavy topic.
But, here are some overly simplistic tips if you’re dealing with the question – “how to overcome fear?”
- Don’t do it alone. Share your thoughts, your fears, and your concerns with trusted people around you.
- Realize that there is an overwhelming possibility that your acquaintances, neighbors, or the person right in front of you in the grocery line are experiencing some of the same fears you are. They are just hiding it.
- Don’t ruminate on your fears. You know what that means. Letting the fearful thoughts go over and over in your head, allowing the worse case scenario to play out. With great intentionality, you have to put other thoughts in the place of those. Scripture talks about us renewing our mind. It’s not only a spiritual principle, but a psychological one as well.
- Realize that for many, or most, the circumstances that drive the majority of our fears never come to pass. It’s a fact. That is not to say that we can bypass or deny the fact that people do get cancer, people do lose loved ones, people do fall on hard times and we need to share in each other’s trials. But that also doesn’t change the fact that a large percentage of fear is based on things that may never occur.
- Know that FEAR IS A LIAR. Call it what it is. The enemy of our souls will tell us that there is no hope when we do happen to experience some inevitable life circumstances. Stand up to the enemy of fear. Don’t settle on a fearful life. I know this from experience. Sometimes Christians can give short and trite answers about fear and anxiety (and we will talk about that in another post).
This is just a tip of the hat to some mindset changes or methods that we must embrace if we learn how to overcome fear. I’ve only listed five tips. If we really want to know how to overcome fear, the ultimate solution is a faith in a God who came to earth to give us, not a life of religion, but a life centered on the literal Son of God Who is the ultimate antidote to our fears. See Spiritual Values.
Brian Sloan