When was the last time you felt afraid? What was it that triggered that feeling – was it the fear of rejection, failure, looking stupid or feeling powerless?

But in my experience that results in the fear becoming more intense and lingering longer. Instead, if you can simply notice the feeling of fear, and DO NOTHING but accept it with self-compassion, the feeling will diminish of it’s own accord. (“I am scared I’m going to make a fool of myself, it’s ok to feel this, it’s ok not to like this feeling.”)

And every time you do that you will feel a little bit stronger.; “I CAN tolerate feeling scared after all – wow, I’m braver than I thought!”

So we can learn to do the things that scare us even if they, well, scare us.

Today I want to share another top tip on how we can face our fear. ALL EMOTIONS, INCLUDING FEAR, ARE TRANSIENT. Which means the best approach to fear is to simply acknowledge it without fighting it… because it WILL pass.

In other words, you can TOLERATE fear even if it’s unpleasant (the technical term is “distress tolerance”). This is not instinctive – usually our response will be to try and bury the feeling, fuel it with over-thinking or maybe even wrestle with it to try and “conquer” it.