Overcome Fear With Affirmations

If you begin to use affirmations in your life, you’ll unleash a power that can eliminate the control fear has over you. You can use affirmations to get you through the tough times and gain self-confidence.

Why You Have Fears

Throughout life, many situations will cause fear, but fear isn’t always bad! It can actually play an important role in your life.

Fear can instantly get your heart pumping faster and give you the adrenalin rush needed to get you away from a threatening situation. If someone were to chase you down the street, your fear could push you to run faster or think on your feet. In fact, fear may be necessary to drive you to safety.

Unfortunately, fear also comes at times when you’re in no danger at all. That’s when fear becomes destructive. These types of fears can hinder your daily lifestyle and make you act in ways that you wish you didn’t.

These are the fears to overcome. Irrational fears, like the fear of being in an elevator or a fear of speaking in public, could cause you to avoid situations that could provide tremendous value in your life. Instead of avoiding fearful situations, learn to conquer your fears and live your life to the fullest.

How Affirmations Can Help to Overcome Fears

Affirmations can help you overcome your fears by keeping your focus on being positive and in the present moment. Affirmations are short, positive statements that are written in the present tense. They describe how you want to feel as if you already experience those empowering emotions.

You can find affirmations that pertain to your specific fear, or you can write your own. For example, if you fear elevators, you can recite to yourself: “I feel calm and relaxed right now.” Repeat this phrase along with other affirmations next time you ride in an elevator. Find the courage within yourself to face the fearful situation.

The Importance of Believing in Yourself

Affirmations only provide power for you if you bring to them a determination to get over your fears. Repeated on a daily basis, affirmations reprogram your mind to believe and act differently in the stressful situations you’re seeking to overcome. But you must be consistent and keep an open mind for them to work for you.

People get over their fears every day. You can find the courage and strength within yourself to finally declare that you’re free from fear! Even if affirmations seem kind of silly at first, stick with it. They might not make you feel courageous immediately, but give it some time. Keep repeating them and you will see positive results.

Affirmations for Any Fear

You can find affirmations for almost any fear or negative emotion. But it may be more effective to write your own. Simply imagine yourself in the situation, responding perfectly and feeling peaceful inside. Write a positive, present tense statement, in the first person, describing what you see in your mind’s eye.

Create a few affirmations and repeat them to yourself over and over again. Repeat this exercise every day, and soon you’ll begin to notice yourself feeling differently about the situation.

Once you’ve worked through one fear with affirmations, you’ll possess a tool that can conquer any fear that you have.

Begin harnessing the power of affirmations today! Start small and allow the positive results to motivate you to use them more and more in the future.

photo credit: james sickmind

My life is filled with everything good. Inside my heart there is an overabundance of positive emotions. When I think about my life, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for all my blessings. True joy is the result of a grateful heart.

There are innumerable sources of joy in my life. My family and friends are the most precious gifts I have ever received. The unconditional love that I experience with them, especially in times of need, fill my heart with joy.

My joy is contagious and constant. I choose to rejoice in every circumstance. I am filled with joy because I focus on the good things and give thanks for my life.

The quality of my life matters; therefore I strive to live the best life I can. My goal is not merely to survive, but to live out the plan that has been set before me.

I practice healthy habits in order to enjoy good health. Good health improves my stamina and my ability to enjoy life. When I feel good physically, I feel good emotionally.

Everywhere I look, I see a new source of happiness. I pay attention to the little details that make life great.

Each day, I aim to share a deep laugh with someone. I allow myself to release my inhibitions, throw my head back, and laugh like a child. I surround myself with happy people in order to keep the feeling alive.

Today, I choose to look at life through appreciative eyes that focus on the small things that bring me joy, health, and happiness.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. What are my sources of joy?
2. How do I take care of my body?
3. What am I grateful for today?

Your first job is to accept the fact that you’re having a lousy day. Once you realize this, you can consciously decide that you’re not going to dwell on the negative anymore. Letting all those emotions spin around in your head is only going to make your day worse.

Your next job is to find something you can do to cheer yourself up. Everyone is different and likes different things. What cheers you up is not necessarily going to be the same for everyone.

Try some of the following ideas for turning your bad day around:

1. Find a relaxing activity. A bad day is likely to cause you to tense up and get stressed out. You can fight this feeling by engaging in something you find relaxing, such as prayer, meditation, reading, or going for a walk.
2. Talk it out. You might enjoy the release of telling your problems to someone else. Seek out a friend and vent a little. You likely don’t even need advice, but rather a sounding board to listen while you let out all the negative feelings that have built up over the course of the day.
3. Think of what has gone right. Take a moment to count your blessings. Yes, you’re having a bad day, but there are also many things to be thankful for. Shift your attention to something you like about your life, like seeing your kids happy or spending time pursuing your favorite hobby.
4. Take a nap. If you’ve got the time, maybe a little catnap will improve your day. It could be like pressing the reset button on your day so you can start again when you wake up from your nap. If you can’t take a nap, practice starting your day over through deep breathing techniques.
5. Treat yourself. While you don’t want to get into the habit of indulging yourself every time something bad happens, if you’re having an especially bad day, you probably deserve it. Take yourself out for ice cream, chocolate, or a favorite treat of your choice. A sugary snack will help improve your mood and make you more upbeat. But be careful not to overdo it!
6. Do something nice. A bad day might make you want to sulk in the corner, but nothing turns around a bad day like doing something nice for someone else. It’ll help to get your focus off of your situation, while you’re doing something positive for someone else.
7. Write it down. Writing is a great way to release your emotions. Write a letter or email to someone you love. It may help you to vent and catch up with someone. Journal writing is another option that allows you to let go of your negative thoughts without anyone else ever reading it.

The next time you encounter a bad day, use these simple tips to turn that frown upside down and make the most of the day!

Concentrate On The Positive

It’s vital to start with positive thoughts. When you think positively about yourself and your dreams, you’ll begin to believe that you can achieve anything. These initial positive emotions can lead to a dedicated drive and enthusiasm that’ll help build lasting momentum.

Remember that nearly everyone feels overwhelmed when you’re about to embark on a long journey. That’s exactly why it’s so easy to fall into negative patterns of thinking, but you must fight these thoughts. It can be hard to imagine that so much can be achieved simply by having positive thoughts, but it’s true!

The truth is, when you think about something as scary as “I could die tomorrow,” it’s hard not to be drawn into a panic. But instead of worrying about how much time you and your loved ones have left, concentrate on making the present moment as productive as it can be towards your true calling.

Careful Planning

Once you’ve decided to take action, and you’ve battled your negative thoughts, it’s time to make some feasible plans to get you where you want to be.

Keep these tips in mind as you go through your planning phase:

1. Set realistic goals. If your goal is going to take years, give yourself years. You can’t expect everything to happen overnight.
2. Be specific. Include all the details in your plans. If you stumble along the way, you’ll be comforted in knowing that you have your detailed plans to help you stay the course.
3. Reward yourself. When you’ve made progress towards your goal, give yourself a reward. Even if your ultimate goal is far off, it’s fun and motivating to enjoy rewards as you complete steps toward your goal.

Action In Small Steps

One of the biggest tips when it comes to following your dream is to break down your actions into small, manageable steps.

For example, your goal could be to become an airline pilot or you might want to start your own business. Both of these goals are hefty and have the potential to take years of work and training.

When you first think about these goals, it’s easy to be scared of how daunting they seem. Instead of resorting to fear, try breaking down these goals into dozens or even hundreds of small steps. Chances are that each small step is not nearly as overwhelming as the big picture.

At the same time, always keep the big picture in mind. When you visualize yourself reaching your end goal, it can be an image that gives you the drive to keep going during tough times.

Inspiring Others

Once you’ve achieved your goal, consider inspiring others to reach their goals, too. Perhaps you have some friends or family members who say things like, “I’ve always wanted to do that,” but they remain working at their dead end job.

Help them take action!

You’ll know from experience that, while it may be a risk, the reward is more than worth it.

Yes, following your dreams is even a reward in itself! It brings you joy in the present and hope for the future. So carpe diem – seize the day!

Meditation has been around for ages and it’s a great, relaxing activity to engage in everyday. Also, it’s available to everyone in every moment. Plus, it’s completely free!

Ultimately, there are no excuses for not being able to meditate. Some will say that they simply don’t have enough time. But are you not worth a few minutes a day? Of course you are! You should be able to allot yourself at least 15 minutes per day, just to focus on your own success.

How Meditation Can Help

Meditation is an art that has many opinions associated with it and there are also many ways to meditate. A consensus remains around the fact that it’s about clearing your mind and remaining in the present moment. With regular practice you’ll gain the necessary clarity and discover truths about your life.

Meditation is a great way for you to discover something you may already know deep down. You operate on many levels and you already know how to achieve the success you desire. Problems arise when you spend too much time dealing with day-to-day activities and too little time exploring your depth.

Feel Your Emotions

Getting in touch with your emotions is an important thing. It’s not only reserved for females, nor is it something that will make you vulnerable. It’s an important step on your way to discovering success.

When you meditate and really feel your emotions on any subject, you’ll begin to tap into the truth. What is it that you’re really after? What is your true definition of success?

You’ll often hear of the actor that achieves fame but still doesn’t feel fulfilled. You may have also heard about the successful business mogul who reaches career and financial success but still feels incomplete at the end of the day. These people haven’t truly determined their own definition of success and, instead, have chased someone else’s dreams.

Enjoy the Process

You must stay present and enjoy the process. An actor will remain happy with his or her success if they truly love the art of acting. If they were only after fame and later discovered that it wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, then they may have followed the wrong path and should reevaluate their path to success.

If you spent too much time on your business plans, make sure you take a step back and remember where you’re going. In this case, you can practice “walking meditation,” which is when you go through the steps of your day-to-day life completely aware of what you’re doing in each moment. This may sound easy, but it can be difficult to master!

Your Focus Can Shift

Once you’ve decided where you’d truly like your life to go, you can take the steps to get yourself there. However, remember that you can’t get back lost time. There’s always a life lesson to be learned by the path you’ve chosen.

Remember that each moment brings incredible transformations. You need to allow this to happen and resist the urge to fight change. This also means that your life goals may change, as well. And that’s okay! It helps to go with the flow and be willing to adapt as you go.

Practice Affirmations

Affirmations are excellent statements to meditate on while you’re achieving your focus. If you remind yourself that you’ve already achieved success, you’ll get there.

Really spend some time envisioning your success. Think about what it feels like to achieve. In the same way that you would picture yourself in a safe place when you’re scared, picture yourself in a successful place when you have doubts.

When you believe in the power of meditation, you believe in your true self, and then success will be yours!

The Benefits Of Support Groups

Support groups have many benefits. Just the venting factor alone can be enough to make support groups worth it. Even if a solution may not exist, just knowing there are others enduring your situation can help you feel at ease.

A support group can provide many other added benefits:

1. Confidence. Support groups can restore your confidence. With confidence and drive, there will be nothing in between you and your ultimate goals.

2. Emotional Release. You may often forget the true importance of an emotional release. When everything is all bottled up inside of you, you can get agitated and your emotions will manifest themselves in unhealthy ways. Support groups give you the important emotional releases that can open you up to a breakthrough.

3. Information. Knowledge is power. Support groups give you an amazingly concentrated way of sharing a wealth of knowledge. When you listen to a speaker or counselor, you’re only getting one perspective. When you listen to the members of a support group, you can share real experiences through many different perspectives.

4. Relationships. Being a member of a support group will not only help you find success in the topic of the group, but with general relationships as well. Support groups can be thought of as little samplings of the world at large. When you frequently listen and relate to others, you’ll become a better communicator.

How To Develop A Strong Support Group

Developing your own support group is always an option. In fact, all you need is a couple of other people that would like to be a part of the same type of group as yourself.

You simply need to determine what methods of communication will work best for the group. If it’s best to meet face to face, inquire about times and potential venues to hold your discussion sessions.

Nowadays, online support groups and forums are also an option. This is helpful because you’ll always be able to refer back to the helpful advice and personal reflections from others in the forum. There is also no set time that everyone has to meet. You can simply post or chat with the group when it’s convenient for you.

How To Find A Good Support Group

Nowadays with all the social networks, it’s getting easier to get involved with others going through similar experiences. You can search Google for relevant forums or websites, and you can also take a look at Facebook groups and MeetUp.com, too.

If you’re involved with any type of one-on-one counseling, you can also inquire if there are any group sessions in your local area.

Often times your insurance company will cover support group sessions – at least partially. If this is the case, get on the phone with someone from your insurance company and see if they can match you up with a good group.

A good support group will strengthen you and help you build your confidence. Find a group that you can identify with and get active, today!

Once you gain control over your emotions you’ll be able to choose better reactions, which leads to better solutions.

It’s important to remember that no one is perfect. Everyone overreacts from time to time. It’s when your overreactions become the norm that you should seek a better way.

Consider the following action strategies to help you stop overreacting:

1. The art of not reacting. In order to stop overreacting, you can try using the art of not reacting. This means that when you’re presented with a certain situation, your goal will be to not react at all. Instead, you’ll take the time to think about the situation and then formulate your action.

2. Let out your emotions. Let yourself feel your emotions as they come to you and find positive ways to express them. When you let your emotions build up, they become stronger inside of you. It’s difficult to stop yourself from overreacting when you’re full of pent up emotion.

3. Take a time out. If you tend to overreact with anger, it’s vital to allow yourself some cool down time. If you feel emotions building inside you, instead of bursting out, go somewhere where you know you can be alone. Cooling down will help you to react with a clear head.

4. Write it down. Instead of reacting to a situation at all, go write it down. Writing it down is another way of giving yourself time to think over the situation. Later on, once you read what you wrote, you may be able to see whether your reaction was an overreaction or not.

5. Practice relaxation techniques. When you adopt relaxation techniques, you’ll find that you’re automatically more in control of your emotions. Try deep breathing or attend a yoga or meditation class. Relaxation will stop your stress and you’ll be less likely to lash out with any negative emotion.

6. Avoid judging. Make it a point to stop judging yourself and others. Judgments can give you strong opinions that may be unwarranted, which can lead you to overreactions. In the same vein, when you judge yourself for overreacting, you aren’t allowing yourself to make mistakes, which is a self-defeating attitude.

Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

If you find that you’re overreacting to all of life’s situations, it’s time to start with the small things. Ask yourself why you’re reacting to small situations with such negative passion.

There could be an underlying issue you need to deal with first. Are you overly stressed? Is your mind focused on something else? Answer these questions and solve these problems first. Just take it one thing at a time.

Change For The Better

Once you’ve discovered a method that works well for you, incorporate that change into your life permanently.

It’s important to expect that you will make mistakes along the way – but that’s okay! You may still overreact from time to time, but we are only human and it happens. Don’t let mistakes discourage you from jumping right back into the methods that work for you.

If you’re having trouble changing, remember to take small steps. It’s quite difficult to become a different person overnight. Try to bring an overall awareness to your life so you no longer feel the pull to overreact. Soon enough, you’ll regain control over your emotions!

However, you can find the strength to recover from a tragic job loss. Sometimes it’s difficult to find the silver lining, but it’s always there waiting to be discovered.

Focusing On Your Self-Esteem

Your thoughts are very powerful. Sometimes you may think that you don’t have control over your thoughts, but you always do. Of course you should give yourself time to recover from the initial shock of a job loss, but it’s how you choose to react afterwards that makes all the difference.

When you focus on developing positive self-esteem, you’ll be able to think clearly and confidently so you can figure out what your next steps are going to be. You may even use this new opportunity to finally follow your dream job.

Have these tips in mind to keep your self-esteem intact:

1. Give yourself time to grieve. Sometimes you don’t think of job loss as being the same as other types of loss, but the shock can be the same and you should allow yourself some time to go through the standard stages of grief. You’ll eventually recover from the shock, but give yourself an appropriate amount of time to absorb the situation.

2. Look for a support system. You might feel especially alone after losing your job. Your initial reaction might be to run and hide and keep your emotions inside. Be sure to fight this feeling and, instead, rely on your support system. Remember: it’s okay to ask for help, that’s what your support network is for!

3. Keep up your motivation. After the shock has worn off, it’s important to strive for a certain level of enthusiasm and motivation to find another job. You need to believe in yourself and trust that things will turn out for the best. Remember that your new job might be even better than your last one!

4. Looking for a new job. When you’re ready to start the search, consider all of your options. You may want to consider whether or not you really enjoyed the field you were in before. Consider your job loss as a new opportunity. Maybe you’d like to try bringing your life into a different direction.

5. Keep an eye on your finances. When you deal with job loss, you must also deal with the financial realities. Determine your current financial situation and how long you have until you must return to work. Maybe you have to find a job right away, or perhaps you have enough savings to consider other career options. Whatever the case may be, you should know what the financial implications mean to you and your family.

New Life: New Opportunities

After dealing with job loss, the best thing you can do is to think of it as a new opportunity in life. Sure, you didn’t choose to embark on this path at this particular time, but it’s important to roll with the punches.

Don’t be afraid to take risks. Also, don’t be afraid to adopt the attitude that everything happens for a reason. Bad things happen in life, but good things happen too. Stay strong for yourself and your family and your self-esteem will prevail.

Often what I send out comes back in unexpected ways. I don’t expect, for instance, to get rich because I bought coffee for the homeless man on the corner!

But I do believe that the kindness I send out into the world bounces back to me in some form. It may be sooner or later, but it always comes back.

I recognize that it is counterproductive to give only because of what I might receive in return. Doing so voids the point. I give simply because people are in need.

As part of a family, community and society, I know that I need to help meet the needs of others. And by being confident that my own needs will be met, I am free from the tendency to hang on too tightly to what is mine.

I believe that we are all fluid at our core. We are meant to overlap each other. When I am stingy with my resources and emotions, I build a wall around my little pool.

Sure, the gorgeous fish that I’ve stocked my pool with won’t get away, but my wall also closes off the source of freshness and life. In due time, my pool would become stagnant.

When I remain generous with my resources, I am free flowing and open to the influx of life from all around me.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. Do I hoard my resources out of fear that my own needs won’t be met?
2. When was the last time I gave to someone in need?
3. Does my life reflect a kind and generous spirit?

I have many tools in my toolbox that I can use to keep myself heading toward my goals. The ones I use most often are my action plan success strategy, affirmations, self-reflection, and time management.

My action plan success strategy sets me up for victory. I take the time to divide my goals into small steps that I know will get me to my destination. In my plan, each task that I complete brings me one step closer toward the achievement of my goals.

Part of my strategy that keeps me motivated is that I celebrate every success, no matter how small. Every time I complete a task in my action plan, I reward myself. I allow myself to feel good about it and I look forward to completing the next task to continue my success.

Positive affirmations help keep me focused on my goals and banish thoughts of self-doubt. I repeat affirmations to myself at least twice each day and again each time I need a boost to my confidence.

Self-reflection also helps me move forward. When I reflect, I visualize living my dreams as if it’s happening in the present. I experience it with all my senses and feel the wonderful emotions of being there. It motivates me to make my dreams a priority.

Lastly, my time management skills bring everything together. I consciously put time in my schedule for making my action plan, working on my tasks every day, and reflecting about myself. Everything works together seamlessly with good time management!

Today, I plan to use my time effectively to keep myself moving forward toward my goal, allowing time for goal planning, completing action steps, and self-reflection.

Self-Reflection Questions:

1. Have I taken the time to create my plan of action steps?

2. Do I do something to work toward my goals every day?

3. What motivates me to do what is necessary to achieve my dreams?