11 Ways to Disempower Fears that Ruin Your Success and Joy

Fear can get the best of us and ruin our joy and success, whether it is fear of failure, success, being judged, rejected, or not loved, etc. All of us have experienced fear at some point in our lives, and it can be a real stumbling block that holds us back from being happy and successful. People who live in fear can say goodbye to their happiness. 

Don't let fear hold you back from achieving your goals and enjoying the journey towards living your desired life. 

There are several ways to disempower fear. Here are my top eleven ways:

1. Separate reality from perception: Ask yourself what is going on. Look for and locate related facts and place them over your feelings.
2. Identify the trigger: Figure out what triggers you in a situation. Find out what situation, event, word, action or behaviour makes you experience fear and work on dissolving it. When the trigger loses its meaning and significance, you'll stop feeling fear.
3. Know where and how fear manifests in your body: Fear often takes a physical expression. You can feel it in a certain part of the body, for example, increased heart rate, butterflies in the stomach, sweating, trembling hands, faster breathing, shorter breath, etc. Fear manifests differently in people's bodies. Identify how fear manifests in your body so that you can recognise the signs. Awareness of the parts of the body where fear manifests helps you identify the nature of the fear and take steps to overcome it.
4. Practise gratitude: Write a daily list of 5-10 things you are thankful for. It doesn't matter how big or small these are. Gratitude, one of the most positive and high-frequency human emotions, helps shift the mind to positive thoughts and experience positive feelings. A consistent and long-term gratitude practice helps overcome certain fears, such as lacking something or not having enough. When you become aware of fear taking over, think gratefully about some good things in your life. However, sometimes gratitude can help you stop fear, but you might need to address the deeper cause of that fear to overcome it.
5. Listen to your inner voice: Monitor your inner conversations. If you wouldn't say it to a friend, don't say it to yourself. Stop your negative inner chatter. Don't let your thoughts go down a negative spiral. Stop catastrophising. Turn repeated negative thoughts into positive affirmations. Each time you catch yourself having negative inner speech that could lead to fear, start using positive affirmations. Speak positively to yourself and remind yourself of your strengths.
6. Change your focus: Remind yourself that the feeling and the moment will pass. Focus on the desired positive outcome rather than a scary in-between situation or event.
7. Look at the glass half full: Perception of circumstances or events is very potent and determines your emotions. Your approach to a situation and how you perceive it determine your feelings that, in turn, dictate your response. Practise positive thinking. By thinking positively, you'll give yourself a much better chance of success. This won't happen overnight. Start with a dominant negative thought. What is one recurring negative/fearful thought you have? Work on changing this thought into a positive affirmation and start repeating that at least 10 times in the morning and the evening, or whenever you feel the negative thought or fear creeping in.
8. Practise deep breathing: Breathing helps centre your body. You can do a grounding exercise, or take 5 deep, long breaths at any point to calm and centre yourself. It is best to start your day with this, but feel free to practise all day.
9. Meditate: Meditation helps you calm your mind and regard your thoughts as an outside observer, letting them come and go through your mind without getting attached to any of them and without identifying with them. In this way, you will learn how to keep your distance from negative thoughts and let them float over without starting to build up a whole catastrophe scenario out of a small negative thought.
10. Create a safe space: You cannot experience fear when you feel safe and secure. Find somewhere safe you can retreat to when negative feelings begin. This can be a real place, such as your bedroom, or a place in your mind, such as the beach or a sunny, flowery meadow. Choose whatever imagery makes you feel secure and safe. This sense of comfort will soothe you and allow you to face your fear.
11. Visualise the positive outcome: When fear stops you from taking action, or you feel fear paralysing you before an important event, practise visualisation for a few minutes. Visualise the positive outcome of the action or the event you face. For example, visualise being congratulated by your boss, or applauded for your speech by the participants. 

Please be aware that these are possible ways to disempower fear, and you must choose the most suitable ones for your specific situation. Try them out and keep those that work for you. You can combine several techniques. Start using the chosen ones and don't let fear hold you back from reaching your goals and highest potential, and enjoying work and life.

Also, keep in mind that experiencing fear in a certain situation may have deeper roots. It can result from limiting beliefs, negative experiences, traumas, etc. The presented techniques are mostly useful when you experience fear or in the short term. For lasting calm and peace of mind, you have to eliminate the deeper roots of your fears.