Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear – Cheri Huber

Let’s say you are a starter.

You have this great project of bringing creativity to your workplace. You decide to tackle the beast with baby steps and start with an informal
creative workshop among close colleagues.

You have decided about the content and activities of this first workshop. You have set a date and invited everyone. Everyone has confirmed their attendance.

And then FEAR sets in.
You start doubting.
You start thinking you will fail.
You start thinking that your colleagues will find your activities ridiculous.

We human beings still have some instinctual fears.

We have quite a few conditioned fears (if your mother was afraid of spiders and jumped and screamed each time she saw one, it is very unlikely that you love arachnids).

We also have the sometimes unfortunate gift of anticipation. We anticipate terrible things that might happen — things we have heard about, read about or seen on TV. Or things that we simply imagine could happen (because as starters we have a wild imagination with tons of ideas of what could happen to us, right?)

Fear is a contradictory feeling as it can be exciting as well. Just look at the people who love horror movies or roller coaster rides.

So you have this workshop in a month time and you want to silence the doubting and fearing voices telling you that this is all ridiculous and that you will become the laughing stock of the company.

Fear extinction involves creating a conditioned response that counters the conditioned fear response.
Most behavioral therapies for fear extinction focus on exposure.
For instance, therapy for a person with a fear of snakes might involve visiting a snake farm repeatedly and taking small steps toward touching one.

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. — Audrey Lorde

Eight Practical Tips

Below is a summary of the article “What are you afraid of?: 8 secrets that make fear disappear” which offers these tips for dealing with everyday fears:

1. It doesn’t matter why you’re scared. Knowing why you’ve developed a particular fear doesn’t do much to help you overcome it, and it delays your progress in areas that will actually help you become less afraid. Stop trying to figure it out.
2. Learn about the thing you fear. Uncertainty is a huge component of fear: Developing an understanding of what you’re afraid of goes a long way toward erasing that fear.
3. Train. If there’s something you’re afraid to try because it seems scary or difficult, start small and work in steps. Slowly building familiarity with a scary subject makes it more manageable.
4. Find someone who is not afraid. If there’s something you’re afraid of, find someone who is not afraid of that thing and spend time with that person. Take her along when you try to conquer your fear — it’ll be much easier.
5. Talk about it. Sharing your fear out loud can make it seem much less daunting.
6. Play mind games with yourself. If you’re afraid of speaking in front of groups, it’s probably because you think the audience is going to judge you. Try imagining the audience members naked — being the only clothed person in the room puts you in the position of judgment.
7. Stop looking at the grand scheme. Think only about each successive step. If you’re afraid of heights, don’t think about being on the fortieth floor of a building. Just think about getting your foot in the lobby.
8. Seek help. Fear is not a simple emotion. If you’re having trouble overcoming your fear on your own, find a professional to help you. There are lots of treatments for fear out there, and no good reason not to try them under the guidance of someone with training and experience.

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive –the risk to be alive and express what we really are. — Don Miguel Ruiz

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. — Eleanor Roosevelt

I will report on how I managed to silence my doubts and fears and the outcome of the first creative workshop in about a month…

Source: How fear works