Challenge: How Do You Manage Fear ?

[FearfulGirl]

I've put together a blog post featuring several tips on fear management from this thread. How To Cope With Fear

Thanks for all of the tips! This makes up a great resource for those who feel fear (which seems to be pretty much everyone at some point!).

(P.S. if you'd like me to credit your name, or link to a blog or website, I'm happy to do so! Please send details.)

[unbusted67]

Thanks for giving scared people a voice. Good call. I am scared most of the time too and I usually just deal with it.

[unbusted67]

Ugh I just wrote the most elegant follow up, clicked save and it got lost because CF is doing maintenance. Argh.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by FearfulGirl

(...)How To Cope With Fear
(...)

Hey scarey cat!

Visited the link, nice job!

Alas, when I meet people who fear, I tend NOT to talk to them about fear. I will rather distract them - give them a job and lie how important it is. Too bad cannot play the same trick on myself! ;-)

Seriously though, very nice blog, congrats!

b.

[webejammin]

I learned about going off shore about the same time in my child hood as I started riding a bicycle and I guess my fears are about the same, really no fear to speak of "just trust in God" my dad would say.

[SmartMove]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

heck I think I have fear everytime I step on the boat, and I feel it is in my best interest to not really lose the fear

so I just try to always remember to be thinking about I'm doing so to be in a position to best manage whatever comes up

I'm a little late here but +1.

[webejammin]

Originally Posted by SmartMove

I'm a little late here but +1.

Respect and fear are really different things, respect is a positive thing and fear is negitive. That said I respect the hell out of my boat but not as much as I respect the weather I'm sailing in Fear is a

[Me-and-Boo]

I am a former politician. I loved going door to door talking with voters; other politicos could not do that. A few would panic and run, even hide so their campaign could not find them and drag them to the doors. I enjoyed being on stage and talking to hundreds of people; there are many people with stage fright. My favorite interview from decades ago was with a hockey goalie. He threw up before every game and shook from fear before taking the ice. Then he was fine. And he kept playing in spite of his fear, because he liked what he was doing and he was good at it. Take from that what you will.

Knowledge may help calm fear; preparation may help calm fear; yet sometimes our primitive brain refuses the obvious and wants to protect us from the dragon that lurks around the corner or giant squid under the waves. Is there a magic potion to change that? I do not think so. Sometimes fear arises for a reason when it was not there before. PTSD sucks.

My life has been spent enjoying challenges and looking for adventure where others will not go. Climb the tree, hang off the rock, row the channel to the “haunted” island – did all that and more. Sometimes there is a twinge of fear or squirmy gut feeling, but the curiosity of what lays beyond is more powerful. Amelia Earhart was a hero of mine. She flew off on her adventure; she did what others could not or would not do.

Done died once and came close another. I learned what death is like. That changes your type of fears. I no longer fear death. What I fear is not living another day to enjoy exploring more life.

[Stormsailor]

Originally Posted by Ocean Girl

This may sound like a lame answer but it's true, it is what it is.

Focus on the beauty. The ocean is so spectacular, I usually forget to be scared. Storms are the best, the things you see, no movie could reproduce it, no story could properly represent it no matter how much you stretch the truth . Standing on deck in a sea of boiling water, wind screaming in your ears, big dark sky that seems to bear down on you, it's so damn surreal I forget to be scared. My mind wanders to the freak of it all, like clear black water, how can black water be clear? But every rolling angry breaking wave pushes air bubbles ten, twenty feet below the surface and you can see it clear as day! Clear black water, facinating.
There is such beauty in those dark moments, enjoy, have faith in your boat and crew, and enjoy a world few get to see.
Mrs. Rain Dog

Wow.....you pegged something here that really got deep inside. Good reply...nothing I can say to express my thoughts that were provoked by your candor. Thanks!

[boatman61]

If you've time to be scared your doing something wrong... heave to... go below and make a brew... and chill..

[zeehag]

face it down and laugh in its face---
except spideys...lol

[Teknav]

Most people are afraid of the unknown. To combat that, read up/study what makes you afraid. Remember that knowledge is your power against fear. Sometimes fear is instilled in people to separate them from their wealth (insurance companies) or to control them (religions). Those who are mentally savvy/experimental are not afraid of the unknown, and are willing to take calculated risks. Those with little or no formal education and heavily rely on faith, are the ones who suffer the most from fear.

Mauritz
Fear not! Your opinion of me, has no cash value!

[ad5tj]

I think that is my worst fear , the storms , it sounds dream like , the giant waves ....

[zeehag]

it has been found over time that a small amount of fear is the cause of alertness and attentiveness in responding to emergencies.
there are many kinds of fear--fear of failure.
fear of unknown.
and phobias.
fear of failure is what happens when one is gridding formula one cars on the hot track -as you run to show each driver where to place his front wheels for the rolling start and you think you may fall and be run over by a racing car. your own fault--never happened--but each time gridding those extremely fast and sleek cars i did have a slight fear of falling off my alleged game and being on track with wheel marks on my back.
while working in emergency and intensive care, in a code blue situation, one will have a slight feeling of omg, if i screw up this guy dies forever----but that didnt happen.... the guy either lived or died on his own--not from any foul up on our part.....
.working in arrhythmia center when we stopped hearts at bedside and restarted them deliberately to test the medicine being tested----yes we were investigational unit-- we would , me and the other rn, look each other in eyes and wink--we both felt this if we screw up thing---we did well each time without fail=--we always feared failure there as our fail was the patients life, as well as his hope, as we were his last chance at living any kind of life....
yes a little fear is good--a positive thing. when it gets out of hand--like most of us with spiders---then it is not positive. without the fear of whatever, we get careless and do not perform in our best mode. so , a little fear is a good thing.

phobias do not have positivity. is extreme uncontrollable fear of whatever without reason.

when i was 3 yeas old, i was a near strike by a ball of lightning in denver colorado, as it danced its ball lightning dance within one foot of my face and body---scared the living %%%% out of me and i had a very looong time coming to reality between what was dreams of a 3 year old child scared out of wits and what was reality--i finally figured it out when i was in my mid 30s---and i sailed thru lightning storms holding a steel wheel and wearing crocs with my cat on board and my hair curling more each lightning bolt nearby in 2009-2010....gulf of mexico is a good place to sail away the fear of lightning--i am not completely over it--but i want to take a picture of a lightning bolt to further my freedom from this fear. i used to jump out of my skin each time i saw lightning anywhere in the sky......now i dont --i can think like a human and not react like a critter fleeing it.

fear of unknown can keep souls from sailing out of a comfortable environment --their own dock and marina --- and for what reason---some take this fear as a challenge, while others take it as a sign to quit.
not everyone reacts same in situations--we make our own fears inside our brains. it is the ways in which we deal with our fears that defines us.

i respect storms, especially those with names on them....
normal frontal systems are fun to sail=--prefrontal winds move my boat. most other gentle breezes my boat thumbs her nose at.......storms are wind and rain and swells and lightning....conquer each one and you be fine. conquer them together in one place and you rule ---for the moment....

i have been getting my perspective so that my greatest fear is hurting my momma---she doesnt want anything to happen to my cat--lol---so i got spot so she can save bubba when and if necessary---i bought a ssb so she can hear from me when i do longer passages--i just need to install it, and get licensed!.... mortification of momma has been my pastime thru my life so far---lol she didnt like me playing in the literal freeway of race car track working--dangthatwasfun--but she tolerated it===i think that helped her from being afraid i will die at sea --she just doesnt want to out live her kids, even tho she probably will outlive one or two of us.

[tropicalescape]

Originally Posted by zeehag

it has been found over time that a small amount of fear is the cause of alertness and attentiveness in responding to emergencies.
there are many kinds of fear--fear of failure.
fear of unknown.
and phobias.
fear of failure is what happens when one is gridding formula one cars on the hot track and ypou think you may fall and be run over by a racing car. your own fault--never appened--but ch time gridding those extremely fast and sleek cars i did have a slight fear of falling off my alleged game and being on track with wheel marks on my back.
while working in emergency and intensive care, in a code blue situation, one will have a slight feeling of omg, if i screw up this guy dies forever----but that never happened.... the guy either lived or died on his own--not from any foul up on our part......workin gin arrhythmia center when we stopped hearts at bedside and restarted them deliberately to test the medicine being tested----yes we were investigational unit-- we would , me and the othe rrn, look each other in eyes and wink--we both felt this if we screw up thing---we did well each time without fail=--we always feared failure there as our fail was the patients life....
yes a little fear is good--a positive thing. when it gets out of hand--like most of us with spiders---then it is not positive. without the fear of whatever, we get careless and do not perform in our best mode. so , a little fear i a good thing.

phobias do not have positivity. is extreme uncontrollable fear of whatever without reason.

I have no fear of spiders,I am scared when I have got to climb a ladder ,dont mind jumping off of a mountian as long as I have a wing strapped to my back, no wing and I will not even get near the cliff edge,after I am airborne I have no fear of the altitude,but I cant even climb my own mast! go figure..