Have you noticed how your mind and body changes immediately when you experience fear? Your fight or flight response kicks in immediately to respond to fear to protect you. Research shows us there are a few practices that can slow down and even help you dissolve your fear. It is time to stop your fight and flight response when you experience fear.

3 Tips To Dissolve Your Fear

1. Affirmation

Memorize a positive affirmation. Research at the University of California tells us that individuals who repeat an affirmation when they experience fear or stress have lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone that causes our body to have a fight or flight response in a time of fear. You may say, “I am calm, I am in control, I am strong, and I am free.” Use an inspiring religious statement from your faith or any short positive statement you believe. Research continues to show your brain believes what you tell it in any situation.

2. Guided Imagery 

Research at the Cleveland Clinic shows a simple guided imagery may work. Memorize a calming peaceful place in your past experience, a place where you have experienced peace and calm. It can be a mountain, the beach, a farm, or a garden. Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and be at that place in your mind. Your blood pressure will drop, your heart rate will decrease, and you will be in your calm and controlled world. You are not in the elevator, but at your cabin in the woods in your mind. Olympic athletes and other successful people use this effective technique.

3. Diaphragmatic Breathing

Memorize a stress/fear reduction breathing technique. Research at Harvard and University of Massachusetts shows it works to reduce fear. Focus on your breath, take a deep breath through your nose to the count of four (1-2-3-4), hold to the count of four (1-2-3-4), and release your breath through your mouth to the count of four (1-2-3-4). Imagine the air you are breathing in is cleansing and the air you are breathing out is your fear.