Fear vs Excitement

Our brain prepares us for a challenge with some level of arousal. We might be able to change from fear to excitement on our own if we're worried about things.

We should take control of our reactions rather than have our overreactions control us. Here I will share some ideas to deal with this situation.

Fear was referred to as excitement without breath by Dr Fritz Perls, who offered us Gestalt Therapy. This way, we can feel the fear and turn it into excitement.

Steps to turn your fear into excitement

Step 1 Turn your attention to your breathing.

Sit down and notice how you are breathing. Don’t change anything. Just follow the rhythm of your breath: its pattern, its speed, what about the places in your body that move when you breathe? The more you learn to pay attention to your breathing, to stop and pause, the more your breathing will slow down and expand naturally.

Step 2 Turn your attention to your mouth.

Check to see if you have saliva in your mouth. When anxious or stressed, our mouth often dries out because part of the stress emergency response involved in fight or flight shuts off the digestive system. So, it seems that when you start making saliva, we switch on the digestive system again and the associated relaxation response.

Step 3 Turn your attention to your thought.

If you regularly feel overwhelmed, notice what negative ideas trigger you. For example, when it comes to job performance, a negative idea could be “I can’t handle it” or “I can make a mistake”. Once you’ve identified the one that comes up for you, give yourself an alternative way to feel by retrieving memories in which you succeeded before. Savour those positive memories, including the positive emotional states, feel the feelings and let yourself enjoy them.

Daily practice can help make positive emotions, beliefs, and body sensations more available when needed. a

I invite you to explore more about your feelings. I am a mental health clinician utilizing an evidence-based therapy intervention called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing EMDR, an intervention for treating trauma and distressing events. The World Health Organization and others highly recommend it.

Should this be what you are looking for, please contact me to set up a 30-minute free consultation and explore if this approach is a good fit for you.

Thanks,

Elizabeth.