How to Overcome Fear
Posted on May 20, 2015 by Michael Wigge, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
We all know that fear can be helpful, but also be destructive if it's too strong. I have done a self-experiment to show you how to overcome fear.
Colorado is a great place to live, especially in winter to go skiing several times a week. But culturally I experience a difference to back home in Europe. Over there you enter the chair lift to go to the summit, while the safety bar is automatically been shut. Here in the U.S. it’s pretty common to leave this safety bar up in the air.
My American friend Bryan to me: Wigge, we are not in the E.U. where President Martin Schulz tells you to use the safety bar.
The U.S. attitude is that everyone is responsible for themselves. You can be stupid and to fall out of the chair or just stay in, whereas Europeans want regulations.
These 14-year-old trick ski guys are sitting next to me in my chair lift. I know that they don’t think it’s cool (not “epic” here in Colorado) if I start pulling down the safety bar. So I leave the bar up there and experience a strong fear of heights, since we are 30 feet up in the air. I secretly start holding myself to the chair, but the 14 years old trick ski guys see my fear and feel uncomfortable that this older dude is so anxious.
This is how things continue and they do get pretty uncomfortable, because I try to avoid my fears, until I recognize that I have to try another tactic: Confront your fears!
So, I start to challenge myself every time I use the chair. No holding to the chair, looking down to the ground on purpose and trying to relax my tense abs (if I had some). The beginning is hard, but I recognize how I let go of my fear, step by step. Now, after more than 80 rides in the chair lift, I can proudly say that my fear of heights has definitely disappeared, at least to 80% or 90%. I am still not doing a handstand in the chair, but I can take the chair without pulling down the bar and being relaxed. My fear of heights belongs to the past.
If you experience fear of flying, please don’t use the train. If you experience fear of heights, please don’t move the Netherlands.
I coach people through fear issues and many other daily topics in my online coaching sessions. Please check out my page and contact me for further questions or a free life coaching session. I need to go back to skiing now, please share if you like…
Yours,
Wigge
