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 home > professional counseling: Article - Tackling Fear
Don’t allow fear to ‘blot out’ God’s blessings for you
By Dwight Wilson, M.Div., M.A., LPC, NCC, RPT
Professional Counselor, Pathways Professional Counseling
Perhaps you can’t explain it, but it won’t seem to go away.
Fear sometimes is faceless horrors that lie waiting in the silent darkness of night. It is unreasonable phobias that exist in the furthest reaches of the mind and approaching shadows that threaten to blot out all light. All are contained in the worthless scripts known as fears, a terrible script that must be re-written and erased to pave the way for a rewarding, satisfactory life.
Imagine, if you can, being a six-year-old child lying in your bed each night not knowing at what moment your father will enter your room to molest you. Imagine, if you will, the horror of watching as your brother is beaten mercilessly until the blood trickling down his back stains his jeans. Imagine, if you dare, hovering in a corner as your mother is so viciously beaten that her jaws and ribs are broken and she lays in a bloody mass on the living room floor.
You are helpless because you believe that if you interfere you will be next.
This is an extreme case, but it is real and it is happening behind closed doors daily in Alabama. It may be happening in your neighborhood, perhaps next door. Fear keeps these awful crimes hidden.
What can be done about fear? Here are some recommendations if you or someone you know feels trapped:
- Understand that fear is not a disease. Fear is a matter of the mind rather than a physical issue. You can learn to manage fears and not allow them to manage you.
- Refuse the emotional triggers that seek to restrict you. Avoid the pressure that keeps you bound by the fear that immobilizes you.
- Your past has created internal walls that you can neither see around nor over. Create a new thought pattern that will allow you to move forward. Reality is a matter of perception. It is simply what you think.
- Move from a “can't” mentality to a “can do” mentality. Stop seeing everything as a problem and begin to see things as opportunities.
- Become a decision-maker. The constant wrestling within achieves nothing. Find an answer and try something.
- The constant battle within can get so loud and furious that all you hear is the battle. Take some deep breaths, relax, and allow reason to replace noise.
- Face your fears. Fear is often one's greatest enemy. Find the courage needed to take a stand.
- Stretch your imagination, get out of your comfort zone.
- Clarify your goals. What do you really desire? Are the boundaries real or imagined? What keeps you from reaching your full potential?
- Increase your motivation. What or who sets your limits? If you allow, your negative opinions of yourself will limit your progress.
Fear does not have to control your thoughts and actions. The choice is yours of whether to allow fear to prevent you from living the life God intends for you to live.
Dwight Wilson serves Pathways Professional Counseling clients at Alabama offices in Athens, Hartselle, Moulton, and Sheffield. Find the Pathways Professional Counseling location nearest you.
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