GUEST POST
There
is personal fear and anxiety and societal fear and anxiety, obviously
the two intertwine. How do people deal with the current fears and
anxiety over the economy, climate change, political chaos, and
forecasts that there may be economic and environmental collapse?
The fears over the economy, the
election or state of planet earth could be summarized as “the fears
of losing something of value,” such as security, trust and our
environment. However, underneath the fear of losing something that’s
important to us often lingers a greater fear: ”the fear of losing
control and being powerless.” This deep-seated fear can lead to a
vicious cycle, causing us to believe that hyper-vigilance,
micromanaging, and even obsessive thinking are the only way to
maintain some sense of power and control when, in actuality, it is
fear and anxiety that control our lives.
Although our external world may appear
often out of our control, we have all the power of choice inside of
us. We may feel forced to within life in circumstances that are
determined by others; however, we can still choose our thoughts, our
perspectives, and even our emotions. The Fear and Anxiety Solution
makes this choice easier by providing a step-by-step process to
transform these often overwhelming emotions into catalysts of growth
and empowerment.
As we feel more calm, centered and
confident, we are able to recognize both: that we can make a
difference in our immediate environment, for example by budgeting,
recycling, educating others or going to vote. And that we have the
inner resources to handle anything that comes our way.
After all the opposite of feeling out
of control isn’t being in control. The opposite is to trust and be
at peace.
NOTE:
Dr Friedemann Schaub shares information that is beneficial for you
and your loved ones, in The Fear and Anxiety Solution. His says that
people who read this book and implement the step by step program –
will find a difference in their lives by the time they reach the end
of the book. For more details about The Fear and Anxiety Solution,
visit the tour page -
http://bookpromotionservices.com/2012/10/03/fear-anxiety-solution-tour
and Dr Schaub’s website www.thefearandanxietysolution.com.
PURCHASE ON AMAZON:
How
Our Subconscious Scares Us
You’re
in a hurry, and of course your keys are hiding again. You look for
them everywhere, becoming increasingly anxious. Finally you discover
them right where you always put them. Hadn’t you checked there
before at least twice?
Or maybe
you’re on your way to an interview. You feel good until you notice
that mustard stain on your shirt. All your confidence slips away, and
you start to panic. You’re sure that you will make a terrible
impression, because all the interviewer will notice about you is that
stain—just as you do.
Why is
it that you can’t see certain things you want to (your keys),
whereas other things you want to ignore (mustard) are all you can
focus on?
Every
second of our lives, we’re surrounded by an incomprehensible amount
of information. As I mentioned before, we need to filter out a large
portion to make sense of the world and not become completely fried.
But how do we distinguish the tiny fraction of information that is
relevant from all the remaining input that needs to be ignored? If we
tried to make these distinctions consciously, we wouldn’t be able
to do anything else. Literally all our focus and energy would be
devoted to deciphering and sorting every single detail in and around
us. This is where our subconscious mind comes in and employs specific
filters to separate what it perceives to be important for us.
In a
study conducted at Columbia University in New York, volunteers were
shown pictures of random people with neutral expressions. The
researchers also displayed random images of people with fearful
expressions. The images with the fearful faces appeared and
disappeared so quickly that the volunteers weren’t consciously
aware of them. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
scans—which measure changes in blood flow—clearly demonstrated
that the brain had registered the fearful faces, even though the
subjects denied seeing them.1 This study shows that our subconscious
not only filters and processes information, it is also able to
perceive external input much more quickly and in more subtle forms
than the conscious mind can.
Subconscious
filters consist of memories, emotions, inner conflicts, and beliefs.
They delete, distort, and generalize information that passes through
them and leave us with a condensed and altered version of all that
surrounds us—an internal
interpretation of reality.
Since most people are not consciously aware of their subconscious
filters, they’re also unaware that their view of the world is
basically just “made up.” Which also means that whatever you
think you are
is just a fraction of the truth.
Why does
your subconscious make you overlook the keys you are desperately
searching for and magnify the mustard stain you don’t want to see?
Well, in both cases the subconscious mind is on a mission to protect
you. By activating the anxiety response, you’re being prepared for
the negative consequences of being late, which could be
embarrassment, criticism, or rejection. As your subconscious shifts
your awareness from the present to a possibly unpleasant future, most
of the available information of your surroundings (your keys) gets
deleted. The same intention, to keep you safe, is also true for the
mustard stain on your shirt. Your subconscious distorts and blows up
the stain to get you ready for the judgment and rejection that might
await you. Logically, you need to concentrate on what is right in
front of you—finding the keys or focusing on the agenda of your
meeting; however, subconsciously, you’re already bracing yourself
for the worst.
Your
response to situations like these depends on the fabric of your
subconscious filters. Your fear and anxiety filters dictate how you
interpret the danger or safety of your reality. The more prominent
these subconscious anxiety filters are, the faster and stronger you
react to potential peril such as misplacing your keys or staining
your shirt. Your reaction creates more stress, which in turn
increases your chance of overlooking your keys and spilling more
food.
So it
makes sense that to break through these emotions and their ensuing
behavioral patterns, you need to consciously remove and replace these
subconscious filters. Removing the filters doesn’t mean you will
permanently turn off or even dismantle the anxiety switch. As I said
before, fear and anxiety are normal and important parts of life. You
don’t want to abolish your ability to create these feelings,
because they provide you with valuable information and are powerful
catalysts for continuous growth and self-empowerment. But what if you
could convert the anxiety switch into a dimmer switch—one you learn
how to operate with increasing proficiency?
About
Dr Friedemann Schaub
Friedemann
Schaub, MD, PhD, is a physician specializing in cardiology and
molecular biologist who has helped thousands of people to overcome
fear and anxiety with his breakthrough and empowerment program that
combines his medical expertise with NLP, Time Line Therapy™,
clinical hypnotherapy, meditation, and more.
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