Conquering fears

Injections bothered me for a while, but only because it seemed fashionable to be scared of them. Once I realised that I was actually scaring myself of them, they completely stopped bothering me. In fact I watch with interest. I have an almost cruel sense of amusement when medics try to get blood samples as I apparently have extremely healthy platelets so any attempt to get blood from me usually fails within seconds.

Funnily enough, one of the reasons I joined martial arts was because I realised I was becoming afraid of taking a knock. I don't mean in hostility because realistically you're far more likely to become injured in training than as a result of hostility. I mean in general. Like falls or gardening accidents and such. I figured if I put myself in a setting where I am going to get knocked about and knocked over, I'd harden to it.

When I first started, and I'd see people practicing in pairs, with one trying to punch the other on the face, and the other countering with various arm locks and throws, I dreaded my turn. Now I'm well known in our club for being super picky. If someone is supposed to throw me down and I don't go fast enough, I make them do it again and again until they get me to clock a respectable velocity and make a good loud boom as I land. Extra praise for them if I skid on my back or if my legs fly over my head like in a crude backwards roll.

 

At whitby today we discovered that the old lighthouse has been opened to the public. CLs 1.1 and 1.2 wanted to go up. I could have just left wife to take them up but then I'd have missed an opportunity to fight my irrational fear one more time.

As we ascended the seemingly endless spiral sandstone staircase, I once again practiced a form of meditation. Fear is in the mind (whether rational or not, regardless of the cause of fear, the fear itself is in the mind). So any fight against it is a battle against ones own imagination. I let the stupid thoughts come in, so I could look at them logically. Ascending the tower, something like claustrophobia emerged. I became aware that I was inside a tower of old stones. The thought that it could collapse and crush us all popped in. I tackled it logically. The likelihood of that, with proper surveys having been done for public liability insurance purposes, there's no way they'd let us go in if it was unsafe.

I made it to the top. And sat down actually fairly calm. But slightly dizzy.

 

Congratulation! You overcome your fear of heights. Actually, you are right in saying that fear is in the mind. If we let our mind to think negative things will happen even if did not happen yet. We let fear to stop us in doing things. I was once afraid of snake but, I overcome it when my friend introduce me to his pet russel, a boas snake.

 

I agree with Loofah - everyone is scared of heights - it's not an irrational fear - I think it's actually a good thing to be very wary when you put yourself in a possibly dangerous situation.

Some people just control their fear better than others.

As soon as I'm above about 6 foot - I get all 'wobbly' - a couple of years ago I was giving it some serious 'wobble' on a scaffold platform - the builder was laughing so much he nearly split his sides.

IMHO you can only overcome the fear by exposing yourself to height - and then learning that in reality nothing horrible happens.....most of the time