How do you handle fear?

I refuse to push that basement button Capt. I am afraid of what I might find but the thought has nagged at me.

hell is not that far off. you just push the " basement " button twice.. its only 9 feet below the footers and pipes..

my elevator ride always goes straight to hell, literally. im self employed and am always a little fearful of the future , then i remind myself that noone on earth can predict what will happen to them tomorrow. that always calms me down.

Thank you. I was looking through the topics here and found that I had posted another thread about feeling paralyzed with fear last January. The conditions I was facing then are the same issues I am facing now. No wonder I feel paralyzed -- I'm stuck and time keeps moving by, with things only getting worse. I do wish I had some friends I could trust with my feelings, but I'm pretty much alone here. All my friends are still in TX, and to tell the truth, they wouldn't want to listen to me for long. The imagery is a good idea. I always find peace sitting by a stream and watching the water flow away from me. It is like it carries the troubles with it. I remind myself that God is with me and it is all in His hands. These things work well for the moment, but then fear comes through again. For my own sake, I need to learn ways to deal with it when it shows up.

I have lived in fear and feeling so much responsibility for years. There are morning I actually wake with a feeling of panic. I can so relate to being set to sea adrift with no focus or light at the end of the tunnel. About 2 years ago I went to a psychotherapist to quit smoking with hypnosis. He delved deeper into the reasons I felt the need to light up. As we talked he defined the fear. I too thought it was stress and anxiety but it was he that brought the fear to the surface. He taught me a technique called self guided imagery. It is a learned thing and the more you do it the more it becomes a natural thing to do. When I began doing it, I approached it like meditation but as the years have passed it has become something I can call on in an instant. There are several ways to achieve this. You find what works for you. The premise is to take yourself to another place. I use an elevator. At every floor when the doors open there is another place or thing that I love or relate to. As the elevator descends the floors I tell myself that I am in a different place in my life. I see a happier time. The floors can be anything from a person who you miss..My Grandmuvre "lives" on the 4th floor...My favorite boutique on the 7th...and so on. By the time I get to the 1st floor the doors open to my favorite place in Maine. A cabin on a lake where I have always felt it's medicinal, healing powers since I was a child. I breath deeply recalling the smell of the forest and the ben franklin stove burning wood. You get the idea. It has helped me immensely and given me patience and strength. I am sure if you google self guided imagery you will find many ways to accomplish your goals. Just know Jessie that fear is a normal feeling that I think at one time or another we all here have felt. You can't let it get the best of you. You cannot let it over power you or it will take over and become a bigger issue the more time that passes. Take a deep breath! Hugs!

Honestly, the spirit of fear that gripped me for years was absolved when a pastor prayed over me. It was a deeply spiritual encounter and life changing.

With that said, you need to deal with the root of the fear. Often fear surfaces but has nothing to do with the experience at hand. We are triggered and our nervous system responds.

Find some friends you can confide to. I found this also helped - finding a safe group of friends to share my feelings and feel unconditional love and support. An online forum can't replace friends in the natural.

Peace be upon you.