https://king.ie/SwitchingFEAR is an acronym for
F alse
E vidence and Imaginings
A ppearing
R eal
All Your Anxiety comes from fear.
Fear can come from various sources. It can be triggered by
- Fears and worries picked up from others by contagion
- Yourself in your mind when you have an internal conflict over meeting the “shoulds” , “oughts” and “expectations “ of others
- Appearing out of nowhere because your imagination is capable of interpreting facts incorrectly and putting two and two together and getting 22. (Think of a three year old’s logic . We expect the 3 yr old to have faulty logic and the right hand side of your brain is operating in the same way – linking unrelated information with ‘what ifs’ and misunderstandings!
- Primitive fears activated by the words or actions of others ( ‘Addiction to social media’ and to the news and newspapers is often based on a fear that we might miss something important, or be left out of the loop and socially excluded or let others down by being too slow to respond to our “friends” gossip, news and information updates . These scaremongers all tap into your basic fears which you inherited from your ancestors- who lived on their wits, hunted and gathered for survival and needed to be included in the tribe, family or group for food, protection and survival. )
- Fake news preys on your hunger for news and instils fear deliberately by harping on the most shocking aspects of human behaviour and focusing on wrong doing, depravity and disloyalty.
- Every news paper, magazine and TV channel gives you the negative news up front. Rarely do they even mention the positive news! Fear sells their media so they thrive on it!
- Fear builds dependency on the news teller so you want round-the-clock news updates on the dramas and traumas they peddle
- Fear builds compliance with authority and makes big crowds and even while nations easier to manipulate- e. g. orange and red weather warnings.
- Fear make people, even armies, easier to control so it was the weapon used in the Iraqi war by the Americans when they were attempting to get Sadam Hussein’s army to surrender. By massive bombing they hoped to scare his army into surrender. George Bush referred to the tactic which was developed in the University of Defence as “Shock and Awe”!
- what was once psychology’s answer to breaking the will of the Iraqi troops supporting Salam Hussein is now being used daily in our news feeds to sell ideas, change your mind in the way they want you to vote and even by the advertisers of products e.g. Detol : the advertising will shock and surprise you with information that prompts you want to use their product to kill 99% of all those harmful germs!
- Grizzly and gory details sell ! The more gore, the more they sell and the more we seem to want to find out! e.g. Mr Moonlight – the case of the man killed and hidden in the slurry pit in Tipperary! Of the case of OJ Simpson’s trial when it was televised and people watched it day after day looking for sordid details and gossip !
So how do we counteract the constant stream of negativity and scare mongering that bombards you and makes uou and your children feel unsafe, worried, anxious and stressed?
I believe we can deal with it in the same way I deal with every stress – find the root cause of your distress and fix that first, then you won’t have the worries, the anxiety or the stress as these melt away!
Anxiety is just a symptom of distress and would remind me of those warning lights that come on the dashboard of your car to say something is not right in the engine. You can unplug the bulb or smash it but the problem remains the same and unless you fix it you are just tinkering with the bulbs on the dashboard. You’ll need a proper mechanic to look at your engine and fix it- which in this case is your brain or more specifically – your thinking and the mindset you hold!
When I work with you in a private session in my clinics or on the phone to switch off your anxiety I’ll listen to you attentively and with compassion, then I will zero in on the big shock or stressful event that shook your self-confidence and drove you into a primitive fear mindset that created your worries, fretting, stress and anxiety!
Then I help you to deal with your traumatic event with a few simple activities and a special visualisation that calms and resets your fear mechanism inside!
Soon you regain your self confidence and self assurance and peace of mind.
In my presentation on Wednesday at 7:30pm in The Hive, Carrick on Shannon I’ll be Switching off the anxiety ofeverybody who attends! To book your place(s) click https://king.ie/Switching