subject: Taming Your Fear During a Recession: Part I by:Coach Jaynine Howard [print this page] Does listening to the news or reading the newspaper make you feel scared? Does walking to the mailbox invoke feelings of gloom and doom? Do you walk around the majority of the day feeling anxious and afraid as if waiting for the other shoe to drop? The current state of the economy is the topic of discussion today and every day. It invokes negative feelings in most people.
Taming your feelings of anxiety and fear is mandatory so you can move forward and have a happy and productive life. First, we must define anxiety and fear since most people misuse the words anxiety and fear. ANXIETY is defined as the vague unpleasant emotional feeling that makes us feel apprehensive, dread, distress, and an uneasiness. Anxiety is not focused on a specific object. Anxiety is manifested cognitively, behaviorally, and physiologically. FEAR is similar to anxiety but it is focused on a specific object such as public speaking, cold calling, or failure. People who experience fear can lose the ability to think, act, and perform.
There are three main perspectives associated with anxiety and fear. The Biological Perspective states that the GABA system is responsible motivating fear and anxiety. People often go to their doctor and ask for medication to control or aid in reducing anxiety. Benzodiapines are anti-anxiety drugs that can be prescribed to regulate the GABA neural transmissions.
The Cognitive Perspective states that there are three motivators for anxiety and fear: 1. Loss of Control 2. Inability to use coping skills 3. State anxiety verses Trait Anxiety.
The Learning Perspective states that anxiety and fear are learned responses to situations. Your body develops its own coping skills to deal with the routine situations. Therefore, when things push us out of our comfort zone we experience anxiety. When you hide from your anxiety and fear your body becomes conditioned to the object that invokes those feelings. When you confront your fear and anxiety, your body learns to not experience fear and anxiety i.e. being afraid of dogs. You can either confront the fear (fight) and be calm when seeing a dog or you can hide from your feelings and always experience the flight tendency. When you feel the flight or fight response, take a minute to acknowledge it for what it is.
You can identify anxiety and fear by identifying the Physiological Symptoms of Anxiety or Fear. These are commonly manifested by someone complaining of having a stomachache, head ache, shortness of breath, butterflies or a pit in your stomach feeling, nausea, diarrhea, sleeplessness, high blood pressure, hunger or no appetite. This is just a short list you can make your own list of physiological symptoms.
Now is the time to change your mindset from negative to positive. Most situations that cause us to experience anxiety are experiences of growth. Do you notice when you get butterflies in your stomach? Do you run from situations that make you feel the butterflies? When you pinpoint the source of anxiety and fear, you can confront the fear. Then you can design coping skills or a plan of action. Self certain people are aware and acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses. When you do not know or acknowledge your weaknesses, you are ill equipped to develop coping skills to conquer them.
The use of Coping Skills will help you reduce anxiety and fear. The most commonly used coping skills are visualization, positive self-talk, relaxation exercises/meditate/yoga, educate you, exercise, vent and mastermind, journaling and investing in a Coach.
When you are feeling anxiety or fear regarding MONEY or your Business Success employ the 5 Steps below in order to TAME YOUR FEAR:
1. Confront the fear.
2. Reexamine your business systems and strategies
3. Look at your budget and ensure you are financially sound or take action to ensure you get back on track
4. Examine your niche. If your niche can no longer can afford your products or services tailor your product funnel so that there is something they can afford.
5. Call or email your Coach.
You must take the necessary steps to tame your fear so that you can move forward and grow your business, grow personally and professionally, and be a pleasure to be around.
This is the first of a three part series on Taming Your Fear. Jaynine Howard, PhD (ABD) has over 25 years of experience. She coaches dynamic business owners on how to increase their visibility and credibility in the community so they are positioned as the EXPERT by employing proven systems and strategies that will increase revenue. Are you ready to turn your dreams into reality? Download your free productivity tracker at http://www.coachjaynine.com
Taming Your Fear During a Recession: Part II
Taming your Fear during a recession requires the use of Coping Skills. Coping Skills will help you reduce anxiety and fear. The most commonly used are:
1. Visualization. When you can pinpoint the source of your anxiety or fear you will be able to sit back and relax as you visualize a positive outcome. As you visualize the various scenarios you will be able to be in control of the outcome of the situation.
2. Positive self talk. Negative Nellie's and Debbie Downers are bad for your psyche. Learn to use positive self talk to chase away anxiety and fear. Try to see the positive in all situations. Learn to employ the Laws of Attraction.
3. Relaxation exercises/meditate/yoga. Now is the time to learn to be greedy and take time for YOU. Scheduling even just 15 minutes a day to engage in relaxation exercises, meditation, or yoga will reduce the stress, anxiety and fear you may be experiencing.
4. Educate yourself. When you know the source of your anxiety and fear is the unknown take time to invest in educating yourself. If you do not understand your finances, or how to run a particular aspect of your business now is the time to learn. Educating yourself does not have to cost a lot of money. The internet and local library are valuable sources of credible information. You can also take part in free Teleclasses and webinars hosted by various agencies and coaches.
5. Exercise. Exercise will increase the production of your feel good endorphins and help chase the blues away. It is also a great way to stimulate the creative juices and brain storm. I always solve the world problems while out walking my dog or going for a run.
6. Vent and mastermind. We all know that keeping things bottled up inside is not good. Find someone that you can confide in and share you troubles and joys. If you do not belong to a mastermind group start one of your own. We all need people that we can trust and share our worries; plus they need us too for the very same reason.
7. Journaling. Journaling and behavior charting are a great way to record the date, time, and situation that invokes feelings of fear and anxiety. After journaling or charting for a period of time you will be able to review if there are certain people or situations that always invoke the butterflies in your stomach to flutter.
8. Invest in a Coach. Now is the time to invest in coaching.
Remember: Most situations that cause us to experience anxiety and fear are opportunities to grow. Using my 8 coping skills listed above you will be able to tame your fear during a recession or anytime.
This is the second of a three part series on Taming Your Fear. Jaynine Howard, PhD (ABD) has over 25 years of experience. She coaches dynamic business owners on how to increase their visibility and credibility in the community so they are positioned as the EXPERT by employing proven systems and strategies that will increase revenue. Are you ready to turn your dreams into reality? Download your free productivity tracker at http://www.coachjaynine.com
Taming Your Fear During a Recession: Part III
When you are feeling anxiety or fear regarding MONEY or your Business Success, employ my 5 Steps to Success below:
1. Confront the fear. Fear is different than anxiety. Fear is associated with a specific object. When you become paralyzed and cannot function due to an upcoming event, you are experiencing fear. You must be able to pinpoint the source of your fear in order to confront it. You can identify your fear by journaling. When you keep a journal you will be able to go back and identify times you experience anxiety and fear and use coping skills to manage the fear and anxiety.
2. Reexamine your business systems and strategies. When the news or current events are making you feel fearful it is time to examine your business and personal systems and strategies. Now is the time to review your business plan, marketing plan, lead attraction and networking systems, and your crisis plan.
3. Look at your budget and ensure you are financially sound or take action to ensure you get back on track. Remember, a budget is not a straight jacket to curtail all spending. A budget is a plan on how you are going to spend your money. Embrace the word budget and make the necessary adjustments for your personal and business survival. Do not forget to use the leverage power of Web2.0.
4. Examine your niche. If your niche can no longer afford your products or services it is time to tailor your product funnel so that there is something they can afford. Since many consumers are tightening their belts it is time to ensure that you have products or services that they can afford. You may want to bundle services to provide more value or offer individual products and services at a lower cost or for free. If you do not have a referral program or loyal customer rewards program now is the time to start one.
5. Call or email your Coach. Your coach can help you brainstorm the necessary systems and strategies needed so you can continue to grow your business and tame your fear. Your coach will propel you to take action and hold you accountable. Coaching is an investment in you and your business. Isn't now the time to invest in you and your business? Today is the someday you have been waiting fortake action now.
About the author
This is the third of a three part series on Taming Your Fear. Jaynine Howard, PhD (ABD) has over 25 years of experience. She coaches dynamic business owners on how to increase their visibility and credibility in the community so they are positioned as the EXPERT by employing proven systems and strategies that will increase revenue. Are you ready to turn your dreams into reality? Download your free productivity tracker at http://www.coachjaynine.com
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