Cope with fear

RIA stands for recognize, identify, address. In other words, recognize that you’re afraid, identify the fear, and then find a way to cope.

Recognize: Get a sense of how you’re feeling. Is your heart beating fast? Are you feeling hot, or breaking out in a cold sweat? Is your mouth dry, or are you feeling some digestive discomfort? These are all symptoms of a fear response, and this first step simply involves acknowledging that: something is happening in your body that suggests you’re afraid.

Identify: “Name it to claim it,” says Poffenroth. Like Beetlejuice, Rumplestiltskin, or Voldemort, naming something can give you power over it. Okay, you’re afraid. Is this a factual or fictional fear? If it’s fictional, does it come from feeling like you’re not enough or like you’ve lost control?

“When you start to name it, sometimes that can just short circuit the fear response in and of itself,” she says. In fact, Poffenroth says that you can often just stop here, since simply recognizing that something is going on and identifying what it is can be enough to calm you down. “It also makes us feel not so alone,” she points out. “It’s just our human body being a human body. It’s not, like, what we would consider ourselves. It’s our brain doing its brain thing.”

Address: If you’ve done the first two steps and you’re still deep in the fear response, it’s now time to address the fear. If it’s a factual fear, this is obviously the point when you should take steps to protect yourself. If it’s a fictional fear, however, there are a number of strategies you can use to overcome it.

If all you need is to calm your fear response, try box breathing: breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, repeat as needed. But to get to the root of the problem, it’s essential to face your fear. If you’re feeling insecure in your relationship, talk to your partner about it. If you’re afraid you’ll bomb your speech, identify the very worst thing that could happen — you’ll likely realize it’s not that bad. If you feel like you can’t get a project done on deadline, make a list of your to-dos and see what can be put on hold, what can be delegated to others, and what can be abandoned completely.

Most importantly, don’t ignore it. If you pretend your fear doesn’t exist, your body will keep fighting it with or without you and cause more problems down the line.

Now for the yoga part. The above technique maybe good for ordinary life. But what does a yogi do? He knows one thing for sure. Fear of death is factual. Why? Because you have died or left the body many times. Painfully at times. This is true for animals too

That original fear – cessation of existence as we know – is what has to be conquered. Don’t be a fool and think like your imaginary football or cricket player. Oh I could have done this with that bowl or would have tackled the player this way. Your in the field. Your imagination that when death comes I will not be afraid – is simply not true.

As the sun of life sets, your control over body diminishes, no longer can you walk talk or move, and then the heart and breathing stops. You are aware of it. Those seconds or minutes or hours are very painful.

Learn to he a true yogi. Learn the right technique. Stop the theoretical nonsense. And imaginary meditation of thinking of an ocean. Or using chemicals or imaginingit.

just do it. Don’t think of doing it. Be there.