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October 29, 2023 • 5 mins

Fear can be a useful emotion, it has kept us safe for centuries. But, fear can also hold us back from being who we want to be, and doing what we want to do. Sam Wood is here to provide you with tips on how to overcome your fears so that you can achieve your goals.  

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Get. I'm Sam Wood and this is your motivational moment.
This week, we're going to talk about how to face
your fears. So many of us are overwhelmed, paralyzed on
a sometimes daily basis by smaller fears perhaps in the

(00:24):
eyes of some, that are very big to us, but
they really do hold us back. We'll go back to basics.
Fear is an emotion that is designed to keep us safe,
but sometimes fear can hold us back from doing what
we want to do and being who we want to be.
And that's big, that's really big. I mean, if there's

(00:44):
something in our lives that is stopping us doing what
we want to do or being who we want to be, well,
then we need to find ways to overcome that, no
matter how hard it might be, or matter how long
it might take. When we feel fear, you've all experienced it,
but the flight or the freeze response, and then there
are actual physiological changes associated with these fears, so yeah,

(01:07):
we've all experienced it. The rapid heart rate, the redirection
of blood flow away from the tummy, the tensing of
the muscles. You know, we get that physical feedback that
something is not right as our whole body sort of
shuts down or freezes up or speeds up, and we
don't feel comfortable. So if this is you in various situations,

(01:31):
and it might be as simple as not, won't you
go the gym? So it's really important that we develop
strategies to overcome these fears. So I've written a little
list of things that I have seen people do with
great success. Number one, stop judging yourself. It's almost like

(01:55):
it becomes whatever the little fear is, the judgment that
you place on yourself builds it up and builds it up,
and builds it up and builds it up, and we
start to believe these poor judgments and these poor and
these poor thoughts about ourselves. So you've really got to
make a conscious effort to stop judging yourself. From a

(02:15):
practical perspective. As you start to feel anxiety or stress
or fear increase, I really encourage you to do some
deep belly breathing where you inhale in for four, hold
for four out for four, so that box belly breathing
just until you start to feel the fear and the

(02:39):
anxiety come down the other side and the quicker you
can jump onto that when you recognize these triggers. You
recognize these signs, the more you can stay in control.
This is one that I picked up when I was
researching this for your topic, and I think it's actually
one that very few of us do, and it's critically important.
And it is curious about why you are scared in

(03:03):
the first place. I think some of us just go,
it is what it is, and I'm just scared of
that and I can't face that. End of conversation, end
of story. Be curious about why you are scared. What
is it that's scaring you? What actually is the root
of the issue here? Do you understand it? Have you

(03:23):
thought about it on a deeper level? And the deeper
the understanding you have about where that fear comes from,
the better you can attack it from a practical aspect.
Try positive self talk. So we spoke about the judging
yourself on the negative side. Let's flip that upside down.
Talk to yourself as you would a toddler or something.

(03:45):
You're scaring them, you're comforting them, You're telling them you've
got to take these steps. You've got to go down
the slide for the first time. It's going to be okay.
It's all about positive reinforcement. I faced a small fear,
the outcome was positive. I can do it again and
then take little steps. If you go too hard too

(04:07):
early or too big too early, you can tend to
actually set yourself back. Progress becomes regression and that's not
what we want. So what's your listeners task for this week?
Great question everybody you listen to us for this week

(04:30):
is to pick one fear and you're going to write
a plan on how you can overcome it. And I
think a multi dimensional approach has the best success. So support,
baby steps, accountability or a friend. All of that stuff
is really you sort of wrap yourself up in a

(04:52):
big comfort team so that whatever happens with that fear,
wherever that fear comes from, in any particular the direction,
you've got your team, you've got your plan, and you
know how to combat it. The most important thing, though,
is you identify the right fear for you to tackle
as you listen to task and you put a plan together,

(05:12):
because we're going to take our fears head on together.
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