You know that feeling of being trapped in situations, or with a person, and the feeling of having no way out?  What about ever feeling that you cannot meet a deadline at work?    Or, how about feeling something as simple as the dress you chose for the party isn’t the perfect one?  Or the lipstick you’re wearing may be too pink for day?

What you are experiencing is fear.  Yes, even these simple silly examples I gave are actually feelings of fear.  Here’s a shocker: Fear is really an illusion.  Yes, you heard me.  It isn’t real!

This month is about controlling fear.  According to dictionary.com, fear means a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.  According to WikED, fear means a response to a stimulus that one perceives to be threatening or harmful.

The feeling of fear is only a reaction to a certain circumstance of the types of uncertainties that you may be presently experiencing.  I find fear to be nothing but uncertainty.  As an emotional roller-coaster, fear can be paralyzing.  And the worst thing about having fear is that it keeps you trapped and unwilling to change yourself, or the circumstances around you.  Fear is non other than:

False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

I have a really great story about overcoming fear.  One morning I woke up basically not being able to move.  I couldn’t get my body from the bed.  I had to try a few times until I was finally able to stand.  Barely.  Then, I had to steady myself, because I was so weak and shaking so bad, and it was so hard for me to walk.  When I finally made it to the bathroom from crawling I noticed that my face was severely sunburned.  I thought I was dying.  Literally.  Soon after standing I started to go into jerked spasms.  I couldn’t stand on my own and had to be rushed to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital and was checked on, the doctor said I had to go under IV for 6 hours because my blood was severely clotting.  At first, they wanted to take blood, but couldn’t.  The clots were too thick. I continued to ask the doctor, “Am I dying?” He chuckled, thinking I was hilarious.  But I was a nervous wreck wondering what went wrong!

Well, after waking up, he explained that I was severely dehydrated and had to rest.  And then he gave me a prescription for my face.

Talk about fear!  I was so afraid because I did not know what was wrong with me.  I mean, to wake up and be in such a different state than normal was very frightening, and totally unexpected.  But more importantly, I did all of that panicking when the situation was so simple.

This is a different type of fear than what I mentioned earlier because it pertains to health, but they are all fears.  In this case, I had a fear of dying, and a fear of not being able to control my life or the incident that I was going through.  The best way to control fear is to remain calm, as hard as that is.  Know that situations always appear worse than they really are.  And in cases where you are alone, it’s very easy to fall into the fear trap.  When you are calm you have a better chance of making rational decisions.

The most important fear I want to talk about is the fear of free will.  I’ve noticed that most women are afraid to make choices, or even to stand up for themselves.  They have a fear of doing things on their own, as their fear of failure and fear of being judged is what keeps them imprisoned.  Sometimes it can be fear of a loved one that keeps them stuck in place.

Fear is a mighty powerful thing. It is fear that causes all anger, hate, war, murder, rape, abuse and everything else that isn’t love.  In many ways, fear is what controls you.  This month is about controlling fear. All of it.

This month, become aware of your fears, whatever they may be.  Make it a habit to constantly check yourself to see if you are making judgments and decisions based on fear or not.  When you catch yourself in a fearful situation, make a note of it, journal it.  Learning and understanding about your fears will help you to better control them.

—Penna

The Fright Night: Controlling Fear by INNER PRINCESS Magazine, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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