What is with all the fear? 

It feels like there is fear and anxiety everywhere now, not surprising as we live through an unprecedented period of change. I started to wonder do I have to change my approach to working with fear and anxiety during this crisis? Surely this is different, and something of this magnitude requires more?

I sat with these thoughts and I concluded that the way I work with fear and anxiety is equally as valid now as it ever is.
So, what is FEAR? Fear = False Evidence Appearing Real.

When I work with fear, I often ask the question, ‘where is the evidence?’ I encourage the client to always seek evidence, real hard evidence that what they are afraid of is likely or very likely to happen.

So, seek evidence, and whatever you do don’t ‘catch the crazy!’

If you are feeling anxious a lot of the time, chances are you going headfirst into catastrophic thinking. We do this as a way of preparing ourselves for danger, our brains are hard wired for survival. When we have a problem, we creatively come up with ways to solve it. Or, creatively come up with ways in which we WON’T be able, to solve it. Either way, fears feed anxiety and anxiety feeds catastrophic thinking.

So how do we get ourselves out of catastrophic thinking?

Here are the steps:

Breathe, deeply and consistently, it lowers your blood pressure, brings your nervous system back on track and helps to get you ‘back in your body’ and out of your thoughts – simples, trust me it works.

Seek evidence – look for what is real and challenge the FEAR. Remember it can be False Evidence Appearing Real ☹.
Create an anchor of safety for yourself, you can do this with a mantra, a great one is to notice the fear, breathe deeply and say ‘this is not happening right now’ or if there is some evidence that your fear may be realised you can say ‘I am not there yet’.

These three basic steps can help you come out of your fear and anxiety and anchor yourself in the present moment.
You can build on this by saying ‘what is today about?’ Focusing on the here and now takes us away from fear, anxiety and catastrophic thinking.

Really it works, I went through this three-step process yesterday with a small business owner who was very worried on so many levels, health, money, loss of business etc. At the end of the session working through the three steps they felt a whole lot calmer.

If you are operating in fear mode right now, stop and try out the three steps.

Let me know how you get on, and whatever you do ‘don’t catch the crazy!’.
Christina