The most common FEAR acronym I’ve heard is False Evidence Appearing Real. A few others I’ve come across are:
- Failure Expected And Received
- Few Ever Arrive Rejoicing
- Frustration Ego Anxiety Resentment
- F**k Everything And Run
Fear is not a useless emotion. It is something that we feel because our body is telling us that something isn’t right. It can sometimes serve as a signal that we need to take action or change something. Fear keeps us from being open to change and if we do not change, we do not grow. A wise friend of mine once said, “If nothing changes, nothing changes.”
The problem is when fear becomes all encompassing, it begins to interfere with our daily life and eventually becomes so much a part of our existence that we stop being the way we want to be and we no longer live the life we want for ourselves. Fear gets in the way of how we make choices, how we treat others (and ourselves), and how much we are able to practice acceptance of what is.
You may have heard that Fear is the opposite of Love, but I consider Fear to be the opposite of Faith.
When I have faith, I am trusting that everything is happening just as it should. When I feel anxiety coming on, I recognize that it’s my fear and my desire to control the outcome of things. When the outcome is not what I wanted or expected, I feel disappointment and notice that my self-confidence goes down. It’s a vicious cycle, that gets me nowhere instead of now here.
My process for snapping back into faith mode and out of fear mode is:
- Check in and ask myself if what I’m thinking is real
- Take deep breaths to get out of my head and more present
- Feel and observe any emotional discomfort in my body
- Be mindful to what is actually happening instead of what I’m creating with my thoughts
- Repeat the mantra: TRUST and repeat over and over again in my mind
- Most importantly, BELIEVE that things are occurring just as they should
- Lastly, KNOW that all is good and that I am okay right where I am