6 Deceptively Simple Ways to Conquer Fear

We all battle with fear. Just a few short years ago, the underlying current of my being was filled with fear, worry and anxiety. When your whole life is controlled by fear, it starts to get to you.

Fear isn’t your enemy; it is through fear and hardship that we grow the most. When you think about it, if your life was free from any challenges, it would be fun for some time, but ultimately it would get pretty boring as you skated through each day without any challenges.

Fear is the spice in our life and using it to your advantage can make the difference between being miserable and being happy. But before you can do that, you should probably know about the following 6 ways to conquer fear and make it your ally.

1. Use Your Curiosity
   Fear is painful when you try to push it away. Don’t resist. Allow the fear to fill your whole body and be completely aware and curious of how it affects you. A funny thing happens when you do this, the fear usually disappears because you’re not afraid of it.

Remember those dreams where you’re being chased by something horrible? Fear is the same way. It’s chasing you, but once you stop running and turn around, it goes up in smoke, because it was an illusion.

• Emotional Freedom Techniques
  EFT is almost like acupuncture, but without the needles. I have been using it on and off for several years. It is very helpful in neutralizing fear. It works by tapping (with your fingers) on acupuncture points on your body, which then balance the energy and thus neutralize bad feelings. 

It looks weird and I don’t do it in public, but it works. The first thing you might want to neutralize is how ridiculous you feel while doing it. The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in your body’s energy field. EFT is then used to neutralize and balance your energy field.

• Sedona Method
  The Sedona Method is another tool that is a lot simpler than EFT. It also helps you to release painful unwanted feelings by asking yourself a few simple questions. 

The only drawback is that the Sedona Method has a price attached to it, while EFT is free and you can download a manual from the EFT website. I recommend both, because they are some of the most effective ways I have found to eliminate fear.

• Gratitude
  Have you ever noticed how hard it is to be afraid, angry or depressed while thinking about what you are grateful for? There are many exercises you can go through, but I’ll spare you, because there are no rules needed to take advantage of the feelings that gratitude provides. 

What I do is I sit or lie down, go through everything I am grateful for and keep doing it until I feel satisfied and happy. I then bask in that feeling and really get curious about how I can feel so good and how I can feel even better. Ask the right questions and magic happens. There’s no room for fear when you’re in a deep state of gratitude.

• Just Do It
  If you’re the kind of person that likes doing things the easy way, then you might like just letting the fear be there and doing it anyway. There’s no rule that says that you have to let fear control you. When you’ve done things in fear a few times, it starts to go away on its own, because you begin to realize that there’s nothing dangerous about fear. 

This is a lot easier said than done, so do it in small steps. Be okay with not being perfect. It’s easy to get bogged down by perfection. We’ve been taught unconsciously since early childhood that making mistakes is bad.

• Be Present
  If you haven’t read the The Power of Now, I suggest you pick it up. It changed my life and is one of the few books that I’ve read multiple times. 

Being present simply means being aware of your body. You can focus on your muscles, your breathing or the sounds around you. It all depends, but you know when you’re doing it, because you will feel energized, calm and content.

Written on 1/05/2009 by Henri Junttila. Henri blogs at, Wake Up Cloud, where he shows you how you can earn money online ethically. You can also get the Passion Blogging Guide, which is free, but really shouldn’t be.

Photo Credit: Alyssa L. Miller