3 Ways Writing Can Help You Face Your Fear Like Stephen King

You have experienced that terrifying feeling that makes you paralysed, yes it’s your fear. Fear is not only limited to a certain number of people, you have experienced and your friend has also experienced it. To face your fear is probably the last thing you want to hear. But if you don't you'll be forever paralysed by it.

Its universal and everyone has to grapple with it in one way or another.
It isn’t rocket science that you have fear or are afraid of a certain situation, but that isn’t the end of the world.

You can learn to live with this fear where it doesn’t have a big impact on your quality of life.

Approximately 10% of people in the U.S. experience fear (phobias) according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The best and proven way to do this is to write down your fears, so take a pen and paper and get ready to start writing.

It won’t be hard because you know your own fears and how they are affecting you.
So let’s check out how writing the fears like Stephen King will be beneficial.

1. You’ll learn that they are just silly fears

Your fear is just a bodily response to the fact that you are about to do something uncomfortable. Getting out of your comfort zone isn’t easy and fear will rise up as you try to push past that comfort zone.

Fear of the unknown or what might happen if you decide to face that fear is both paralysing and frightening.

But you can’t see the future and I doubt that will calm your fears down if you saw what will happen if you did what you were afraid of. Fear brings all these thoughts that is negative thoughts of all the bad and ugly stuff that might happen.

These thoughts will persuade you to not face that fear and you won’t even try to. For instance the fear of travelling, you won’t starve to death because of the different dishes that you are not accustomed to.

That will not happen unless you voluntarily starve yourself. Fear will make something simple appear as this big bad wolf that will cause harm to you. If you look at your fears critically by starting to write them down you will just realise how silly they are.

The amazing thing that you’ll realise is that you won’t die, get embarrassed or perish because you wrote down the fear and analysed it carefully. You’ll find out that fears exist but they will not kill you, helping you face your fear.

A study published in Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy found that a full 85% of what subjects worried about or feared never happened. 75% of people said that they were able to handle a situation better than predicted or that they learned a worthwhile lesson from facing the situation.

So a large percentage of what people fear, or worry about is an exaggeration and misperception-not a good measure of risk at all.

2. Finding a solution to the scary fear will be much easier

Thinking, thinking and thinking some more about a certain fear will not help you in finding a solution to it. What you will be reinforcing is the fact that they are scary and to be avoided. The last thing you will want to do is face them and to conquer them.

You have established that you have fears but can you really overcome them is the bigger question here. By you writing down the fear and analysing it, what you will most probably find out is that a solution for this fear exists.

For instance, you are afraid of dogs; the fear makes you not enjoy life by the fact that you can’t spend time in the park or walk calmly on the street because dogs are present in those environments.

The solution will be to pet a dog or puppy as a starter and see that you won’t be eaten alive. Face your fear.

According to National Geographic, studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to overcome fear is to be continually exposed to it. Through constant exposure, the brain’s tolerance for fear increases dramatically.

3. You’ll find out that they have no control and command over you.

You are allowing your fear has a big say or part on how you conduct your life. You are not the one in control, the fear is.

You want to open that boutique shop on that street that has no clothing store at all but your fear of failing to tell you of all the bad that could happen and you don’t do it.

A few months or years later someone else does what you were afraid to do and that boutique shop flourishes but that could have been you.

Fear doesn’t control you, you control it.

The University of British Columbia psychologist Stanley Rachman, a leading expert on fear, has studied people in the world’s most dangerous professions, from bomb defusers to paratrooper. He has concluded that courage is misunderstood when it’s defined as complete fearlessness. Ranchman makes the case courage is not the absence of fear, but the decision to go forward in spite of it.

Brave people aren’t merely numb to danger or discomfort; they feel and acknowledge fear, and just refuse to allow it to dominate their behaviour according to The Atlantic Monthly.

Conclusion
The importance of having that pen and paper and writing down what you really fear is first a great act of courage, you have just admitted that you have fear and it's affecting you negatively and you want to learn to handle it.

Your fears seem like the scariest thing that will ever happen to you. But the reality is totally different; you have the same fears every day. Without taking the time to face your fear, it will become a great nurturing place for anxiety too.

It’s all about how you handle them and react to them. The fear has an influence on your happiness and fear can make you unhappy.

Do you know of any other reasons for writing down your everyday fears that deserve a mention?

Then do tell and share in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you. Also share this with your friends and family, sharing is caring.

To your success.

-Michael Kamenya