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Functional Self Confidence

Saturday

Finding the Source of Your Fear

Any problem cannot be resolved unless you get to the source of the problem. The same is the case with your fears. If you are serious about getting rid of those fears and lead a more rewarding life free of fears, then you have to take care of this step before you proceed any further.

Why is finding the source of your fear important? Identifying the triggers of your fears will help you either manage, eliminate, or combat them. Regardless of the type of fear you have, there is always a source that triggers it. Hence, you can take the time to list down your fears and their level of intensity. Then, take note about environmental, emotional, or other factors that could trigger that fear. This will help you trace the source of your fear. Aside from external triggers, make sure that you also consider the internal triggers. Was there something in your past that created this emotional responses? It is basically as simple as asking yourself, “Why am I afraid?”!

Another important reason why finding the source of your fear is of essential is that it enables you to assess whether it is something that you can manage and control on your own, or whether you need professional help.

Getting Started

If you want more success in overcoming your fears, then you need to take the initiative so you can get proper help for whatever fears or anxieties that consume you. Here are tips to get you started on the right track:

• Remain positive. Fears that produce negative impact are also triggered by negative thoughts and outlook in life. Therefore, you must try to brush aside those negative ideas from your mind and prevent yourself from feeling depressed.

• Communicate with your internal self. There is no better person who knows about your fears than you do. So, you need to create awareness about your fears by identifying them and breaking them down into more manageable parts.

• Assess your fears. Some fears are irrational and often takes place in the mind of the person instead of actual reality.

Overcoming Your Fears

The importance of learning how to overcome your fears is rather obvious. No one wants to live their life in constant worry or fear, no matter how intense it may be. An anxiety-free life is one that provides more opportunity for growth and liberates you.

Here are basic techniques that you can try if you want to find relief from your fears or totally eliminate them:

*Visualization *Gather facts *Get professional help

Visualization

Take time each day to find a place where you can be isolated and be able to concentrate. Your objective is to transport yourself in a low stress situation wherein you have control over your fear, instead of the other way around. Imagine your fear as a concrete object that you destroy. You will never realize how it is able to calm you down.

Gather Facts

Most fears are caused by the unknown or people's inability to have control over a given situation. When you are suffering from certain types of fear, you need to look into the reality of the situation and gather information that you can. The more facts you have in hand, the less you become stressed about your situation because you always know you can manage it.

Professional Help

If you are one of those people who are too afraid to perform self-talk or confront their fears head-on, then it is best to seek professional help. They will start by assessing your fears and then suggest techniques that you can employ to combat those fears. Overcoming fears is often a long process, so don't expect to get rid of all your fears (if you have many) at once.

Thursday

As much as there are several potential triggers to your fear, there are also as many types of fears. However, they can be categorized into three basic fears: external, internal, or subconscious. Among the three, the subconscious and internal type of

External Fear

Among the types of fear, this one is the easiest to diagnose and manage. It is similar to phobias wherein an outside source elicit a degree of internal fear or any manageable level of anxiety. For example, fear of spiders or fear of heights are among the most common phobias that several people share. A feeling of fear, anxiety or discomfort is experienced by the person with that particular fear when the situation confronts them with those triggers. Since the source of fear is easier to identify, then one can easily look for alternative ways in which to confront that trigger and overcome fear.

Since external fears are often caused by negative experiences in the past involving those external sources of fears, you can adapt some techniques that will help you understand the reality of the situation. Hypnosis or some other psychological methods are employed in order to erase any previous negative associations with these objects or creatures that elicit fear.

Internal Fear

This type of fear is closely associated with low levels of self esteem or confidence. But like with external fear, the triggers are coming from an outside source and yet it produces a negative emotion. This trigger will then produce internal reactions or fears such as self doubt or questioning one's capability to do something. Most often, when people begin to question their own abilities, failure is inevitable. This type of fear often impacts one's ability to interact with the social environment.

If you want to conquer internal types of fear, you often have to go back at your childhood years wherein character development is at its peak. This is the stage in people's lives wherein they build characters and develop fears. Some people seek professional help that enables them to adapt a new perspective in life and change any behaviors that produce such insecurities and fears.

Subconscious Fear

This type of fear is produced by accepted beliefs in your mind that serve to limit your potentials and worse, could end up in self sabotage. This one is somewhat associated with the internal type of fear wherein you have the tendency to question your capacity to achieve something. Thus, the tendency for self doubt and negative self talk. This one requires you to take active steps towards reversing those beliefs and enable you to maximize your potential.

Goals to Overcome Your Fears

One of the many reasons why people neglect the need to overcome their fears is the lack of motivation. Therefore, setting goals will help increase the desire to manage and overcome your fears. Aside from that, this will enable you to take careful methods toward your goal and provide a sense of direction. One benefit you can get from it is that aside from getting rid of your fears, it offers more focused direction in your everyday living as opposed to not having a clear idea of what you want to do in life.

Setting goals as motivation to overcoming your fears will also enable you to have a bigger grasp at the need to fight your fears as an opportunity to grow and delimit yourself.

Monday

What is Stress?

Stress is a response produced by your body when you are subjected to various types of demand, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally. Contrary to what most people believe, stress is not associated with the negative only since excessive positive emotions can result to stress as well. When something that takes place or is about to take place in the environment is producing stress in a person's body, it results into the release of certain chemicals into your bloodstream.

On the positive side, these chemicals can be utilized to produce more energy or added strength. This is helpful when the cause of your stress is something physical. But when you are dealing with emotional stress, it can cause a negative effect on your body since there is no outlet for releasing that extra boost of energy and strength. Therefore, stress results to various types of emotional or physical responses because each individual's body respond differently to the stimulus.

Types and Causes of Stress

Whether you admit it or not, stress is a part of everyday life. Whether you are at school, at the office, or just about anywhere you are forced to deal with people and the environment. Hence, the types of stress is closely associated with its cause. And because your physical body is closely connected to your emotional and mental state, you will notice some connection to their effects when you begin to experience stress. This is also the reason why it is important to combat the cause of stress since it affects several vital aspects of your body in order to function.

Here are some of the most common sources of stress that must be dealt with on an everyday basis.

Internal Stress

There are times when you constantly worry about certain events without having enough control to determine its outcome. Internal stress is also one of those kinds of stress that needs to be addressed quickly. Most of the source of stress is rooted in the person's mind, which makes it difficult to manage and would entail more work to get rid of. Oftentimes, people suffering from internal stress subconsciously puts themselves in stressful situations or feel stressed out about things that aren't stressful to begin with.

Survival Stress

This type of stress deals with the danger, mostly physical, that an individual is subjected to. It can be prompted by an attack made by either human or animal that could potentially hurt you in the process. Therefore, your body releases this burst of energy that you need to utilize to respond quickly about the situation at hand whether to confront it or escape from it.

Environmental Stress

This type of stress is your body's way of responding to changes or activities in your environment that could produce stress, such as extreme levels of noise or pressure from work. As compared to the other types of stress already mentioned above, this one is a lot easier to deal with. The best way to get started combating this stress type is to determine the source. Once you have identified the source of environmental stress, find a way to avoid them.

Stress Due To Work and Fatigue

Another common type of stress and probably the most prevalent. This one though does not happen in an instant, but rather builds up over time. When you are spending too much time working or forced to deal with excessive amount of work, then it can take its toll on your body. To deal with work stress, you need to make sure you have enough rest and relaxation in between so your body can recover from the tremendous amount of work. There are relaxation methods that you can apply in order to find relief from stress.