How To Overcome Fear And 10 Steps To A Fear Free Life

Living a life of fear means limiting your own possibilities and potential. When you are always fearful, whether of failure or hurt or some other negative consequence, it impacts everything you do.

Learning to live a fear-free life means taking back control of your thoughts to think positively and hopefully about yourself, others, and the future.

How To Overcome Fear In 10 Easy Steps

Here are our ten best steps to help you learn how to overcome fear and to lead the life that you want.

Step 1. Reflect on your fear

Only when you look at when and why you are fearful, as well as how your fear affects you and your reactions, can you truly hope to control and minimize it. Look carefully at your responses to life and ask yourself why you are feeling fear, if you are genuinely fearful or if you are magnifying it with your thoughts, and how your anxiety is affecting your actions and interactions with others.

Step 2. Love yourself

If you don’t love yourself, you can never hope to love others or for others to honestly know and love you. Loving all the good and bad things about yourself, including your current fear means you can accept it and make changes to make yourself happier. Loving yourself will give you the confidence you need to move past your fear.

Step 3. Give Yourself Time

Changing long-used thought patterns will not happen overnight, so be patient with yourself as you work through understanding then evolving your fearful thoughts. Don’t give up, either, because only through consistent hard work can you change your way of thinking.

Step 4. Embrace Life and All Its Messiness

Life is unpredictable and crazy. By learning to embrace that instead of fearing it, you become open to new opportunities to live the life you want. Trying new things releases you from your comfort zone, where all your fears were born, and helps you see that you can achieve anything you want.

Step 5. Consider How Fear Has Affected You

Think about all the ways your thoughts and fears are blocking experiences in your life. Take inventory of how fear is controlling your thoughts, actions, and goals. Give evidence that supports your claims to make it concrete for yourself. If fear is having that major of an impact, it is time to change how you approach the world.

Step 6. Distinguish Between Irrational and Rational Fears

There may be fears in your life for which the evidence suggests you have a reason. Someone who has wronged you in the past means you are fearful they may hurt you again. But other fears may not be based in any reality. That’s why your inventory is so important. If you have no evidence to support a particular fear, consider why you are letting it control your life.

Step 7. Live Now, Not in the Past

Letting go of the past is an excellent way to manage fear. Past failures, mistakes, and hurts are still controlling you, so accepting that you cannot change what has already happened will help you move on and live a fear-free life.

Step 8. Remember Your Mind Is Not Always On Your Side

Our minds have a funny way of remembering because it is always through a lens of your experiences, not actual reality. Our minds can magnify, and change situations based on assumptions and fear. Relying solely on your account can be harmful if your mind keeps resetting to fear and doubt, so recognize that your mind is not always your best friend.

Step 9. Embrace the Power of Positive Thinking

Letting go of all the negative emotions associated with your fear is helpful. Using positive self-reflection, journaling, affirmations, and other self-talk techniques, spend as much time each day as you can thinking positively and embracing happy thoughts.

Step 10. Start Living the Life You Want

You must decide to control your life and take back the reins from the fear that has been leading you astray. You may stumble, and things might get hard, but keep working and trying. It is the only way you can move past your fear to live the fear-free life you deserve.