Are you afraid of snakes? Spiders? Clowns? Whatever you are afraid of, it is likely something that is not really dangerous. Which means that your fear is irrational. Some fears are entirely rational, and should be respected. Falling off a building, crossing a busy street, a hungry tiger chasing you. These present real dangers, and our mind/body system has evolved naturally built in fears to keep us out of trouble.
The fears that can clog up your happiness are the fears that don’t really make any sense. Think of a snake, for example. Of course, if it is a poisonous snake, or a thirty-foot boa constrictor, then by all means, flee in panic. That would probably be the best choice. But what about a normal variety garden snake? It doesn’t even have any teeth to bite you with if it decided for some strange reason to do so. Or how about a spider? Again, if it has a little red hourglass on its stomach, RUN! (Or squish it).
But what about most spiders, that don’t pose any threat? Again, these are false fears that threaten to upset your highly toned bliss by showing up when they are least expected.
But there’s hope. There is a simple mind trick that can kill these fears once and for all. Many of my popular blog articles are about easy ways to improve yourself, and this is one of them. You can go there if you want, but until after you read this and find out how.
The first thing you need to do is think of an early memory regarding the fear you will be getting rid of. Maybe when you were in third grade, your neighbor threw a snake at you. Or maybe when you were four years old, you saw a big spider and were paralyzed. Maybe just when you noticed it, it started to crawl toward you, giving your young mind the impression that all spiders have psychic powers and are conspiring against you.
Of course if spiders had psychic powers, they would guess the lotto numbers and all spiders would be rich. And since it’s a well-known fact that spiders live in poverty, this can’t be the case. On to the procedure.
Imagine that you are sitting in a movie theater. And you see yourself sitting about six rows up. And on the screen of the movie theater, is the first scene from your memory where you learned to be afraid of spiders. Watch yourself watching the movie. Watch it with the following series of modifications:
First, watch it in normal view. From beginning to end.
Then, watch it in normal view, from beginning to end, but sped up.
Then, watch it backwards, in normal speed.
Then watch it backwards, in fast speed.
Then repeat all the above, in black and white.
Then repeat all the above, except the spider (or whatever fear is the star of your movie) is wearing an obnoxiously colored party hat.
Then repeat all the above, but add the “Numa Numa” soundtrack to it.
You’ll be surprised to find out that your old fear doesn’t have near the hold on you that it used to. In fact, next time you see a spider (or whatever) you might just burst out laughing. Of course, with long held, and really powerful fears, you might have to spend a few minutes really getting into this exercise. But that just means you’ll be able to have so much better results. And what is better than a life unencumbered by a bunch of irrational fears?
George Hutton is a widely read author and blogger who writes inspirational and life changing articles. You can join many others who read daily at http://www.georgehutton.net/wordpress
