About Fear & Anxiety: And How To Overcome It

How to overcome fear or anxiety about anything

How to overcome fear or anxiety about anything

Fear is a construct in our heads which inhibits & causes most of our anxiety, problems & destroys the well being and balance of our lives.

If you’re scared of something, or anxious about something, it’s fear which is causing this feeling.

But what is fear? Is it chemical, looking at it from a biological perspective?

It may be so, with the fight & flight neurotransmitters in our brain. That’s just categorizing the neurotransmitters rather basically, without delving into the science behind it.

However, I would categorize fear as a mental construct that stems from either thinking about the future or the past.

Whether it’s a future event, or concocting a hypothetical outcome of a future event that has a bad or negative outcome or based on a past event, that has a bad or negative outcome.

Like if it’s a bad or negative experience you’ve had and thinking it will repeat again in the future.

It’s basically your brain thinking up a hypothetical negative outcome of the future or re-living a bad experience of the past.

But in essence, looking at it from a philosophical lens, it’s only because your mind is wandering to the past or future.

And in this short definition, although, it’s not a very good one; fear can only exist when the mind is drifting off to the past or future.

Whether you’re scared of death, jail, or performing badly, getting injured, taxes(just kidding), exams, diseases, whatever it may be, we are human and we still feel fear, because of some hypothetical situation we make up in our heads with a negative outcome or a scary outcome that causes this feeling.

Overcoming the fear of death is quite essential. It’s an eventuality and inevitable outcome & the briefness of living should give you enough impetus to live a worthwhile life of meaning. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.

But coming back, so how do you overcome fear then?

If you’re not thinking about the past or the future, and are immersed firmly in the present moment, voila, there is no fear.

It’s easier said than done, but with rigorous practice of being mindful of only the moment, fear cannot interfere, because you are here in the now.

As I’ve mentioned, all you need to do is be mindful of the moment, as Buddhism teaches, “Watch breath”. That’s the easiest way to be present in the moment. It’s giving your brain a simple task — to watch your breath.

A simple meditation technique is to count your breaths until you get a thought, and starting over from the beginning every time you get a thought that interferes with the count. It’s a basic meditation technique, so just keep working at it and see how many breaths you can count without a thought.

I’m in the mid twenties and thirties at the moment, but given my competitive nature & the bulk of my childhood playing football to win, I’m constantly pushing myself to get to 50 and who knows 100 or 200 or more! Get in!

I wrote this quote when I attempted to write a book of quotes a long time ago, which gradually evolved into poetry.

I said, “To be happy, is to not think”

This ‘not thinking’ actually leads to peace & peace leads to happiness, so that was the reasoning behind that quote.

And it resulted in several poems in my poetry book ‘The Indian Night’ as well.

So that’s the ultimate goal, not to think, especially about the past or future, or as I would put it, develop a relatively still mind. And just enjoy & immerse yourself in the moment.

Of course there will be thoughts coming in every now and then and ultimate stillness of the mind probably was achieved by only Gautam Buddha & a handful of people, but a silent and blank and quiet mind, for prolonged periods with lesser thoughts, leads to a lot of satisfaction & an enriched living experience.

And in turn, lesser fear & anxiety.

Don’t worry if you’re an overthinker, so was I, but I’ve been working at it over the years and I can assure you that the living experience becomes significantly better, when there is lesser clutter in your head.

By not thinking and just observing the present, there’s nothing that can interfere.

Fear has no power over you, if you have a blank mind. No past. No future. Just ‘now’.

Being present in the moment and also being a ‘watcher’ of your thoughts, i.e. to let them come & go without relating to or interfering or analysing or reacting to them, is also great practice.

Just like a river flows or waves flow. Thoughts come to go.

Of course, I’m not perfect, but I have learnt to have a stiller & quieter mind, with lots of effort and practice, and sometimes the fear & anxiety does creep in, but learning to disassociate with those thoughts helps in those cases.

Because you are immersed in the moment, just letting your thoughts flow and focusing on your breath, slowly, with conscious practice, the chatter will reduce & you’ll have lesser thoughts, and not associating with them, will also lead to further peace. As I’ve already mentioned, peace leads to a lot of good health & happiness.

There are also worries, tension, stress, problems, situational issues etc, because of what life throws at you but dealing with them with a calm & composed mind, is the ideal way to tackle them.

We all of course have hopes & positive thoughts about the future, which are great, but learning to just live in the present is the best way to train your mind.

The answer is always within.

As the Dalai Lama put it

These are some basic steps & techniques which have worked for me, for overcoming my fears & anxiety, and I’m not perfect, but this is just from my experience & I’m looking to improve myself each day.

So I’m hoping this article helps you in your journey through life, to live, easier and more peacefully and overcome fear & anxiety.

The way is within.

Thank you.

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