FEAR! - military techniques to control it.

Fear is a natural reaction of our minds, when we face a life threatening situation. It usually boosts our body with adrenalin, which helps us get a faster reaction time when we need to act fast. Having said that, if a person is overcome by fear the exact opposite happens and they freeze.

In my experience with martial arts, my coach always said that it doesn't matter how good you are, if you can't react when the time is right. Awareness is key to overcoming fear, because we see things as they are without adding emotional attachment.

When i asked friend of mine who was in the military spec ops about his experience and this is what he said: "When you work in the military and your job consist of life threatening situations on a daily basis you need a consistent way of dealing with this. We have 3 principles that when followed, allow you to deal with your fears."

THE 3 PRINCIPLES

1 Setting a target

When you are in a stress situation your amigdala is on fire - emotions, fear, total chaos. You frontal lobes can help you deal with this by setting short term tasks that need to be competed one by one and quickly, to help us out of the situation. When you deal with a task that can be finished within a minute or several seconds, you can really set your focus on it for a moment and not on your emotions.

In Aikido, there is an exercise where we face multiple opponents. They attack us at the same time so there is no real time to think about the situation so we work on two simple tasks - move out of harms way, disturb the balance of the attacker. When you put thing simple as that your mind acts faster on it, without tangling itself in excessive thinking. It's like a piece of programing code - the shorter it is, the faster the processor reads and calculates it.

2 Visualisation

The soldiers do it, the astronauts do it, the surgeons do it, the Olympic medalists do it, why don't you start doing it? Visualization is perfect for preparation for any situation. When we imagine the situation over and over we get used to it, we observe the details in it and if the situation comes to be it is not an unknown event for us, because in our minds we have already done this thousands of times. This is what helps thousands of professionals, to deal with complex situations and it might just be the thing that helps you out.

And the samurai?

Did you know that samurai visualized their own death on a daily basis? Back then they were wise enough to understand that facing your fear was the only path to overcoming it. They imagined their death in all the possible ways, which helped them to become fearless when they needed it the most. I have tried this type of meditation and for me it helps set the mind at ease. When i got used to the worst possible outcomes, they really didn't bother me anymore.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' Eleanor Roosevelt

3 Exhilaration control

Breathe slow! Did you do it? Ok now breathe even slower and deeper! Breath control is very important because when we breathe out slowly this simulates the natural body relaxation and helps us to be more present. On the other hand when we breathe IN deeply this gives our brain more oxygen which helps our cognitive processes. This is more than just a physical process and it's a wonderful example of the link between our physiological and psychical wellbeing.

These are techniques that are tested and working so try them out, even if you are not facing life threatening situations on a daily basis. You think all of this sounds too simple? Try it for yourself and tell us the result, lets start a discussion. You have better tips? Please share them with us. :)

Now i will talk a bit more about fear itself, so we can all look at it, face it and see there is nothing to be afraid of:

"Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a specific stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to body or life. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to confrontation with or escape from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis." - Wikipedia

This is a nice definition but what does it mean for us? It means that fear is both a physical and a psychical occurrence.
What does that teach us? It means that combining physical and psychical actions will lead to the most efficient results, when dealing with fear.

The physiological side

"Many physiological changes in the body are associated with fear, summarized as the fight-or-flight response. An inborn response for coping with danger, it works by accelerating the breathing rate (hyperventilation), heart rate, constriction of the peripheral blood vessels leading to blushing and vasodilation of the central vessels (pooling), increasing muscle tension including the muscles attached to each hair follicle to contract and causing "goose bumps", or more clinically, piloerection (making a cold person warmer or a frightened animal look more impressive), sweating, increased blood glucose (hyperglycemia), increased serum calcium, increase in white blood cells called neutrophilic leukocytes, alertness leading to sleep disturbance and "butterflies in the stomach" (dyspepsia). This primitive mechanism may help an organism survive by either running away or fighting the danger.[3] With the series of physiological changes, the consciousness realizes an emotion of fear." - Wikipedia

As we can see fear is very real on physical level and the sole purpose of that instinct is to prepare us for the dangerous situation ahead and probably save us. The problem for some people is that freeze instead of using that burst of energy. The techniques i talked about would be especially helpful to such people. Breath control is the first thing to do when overcome by a burst of adrenalin. If this is not our first move we might lose precious time to react.

All techniques are to be used consistently to achieve the state of mind that will allow you to act in any situation. They have been proved to work, but what do you need to do to make them work for yourself?

Create a habit
You really need to make it a part of your routine. You can link it to a basic everyday action that doesn't require your absolute attention. You can try it before you go to bed, and the results will depend entirely on your will to be persistent and making these techniques a habit.

I hope you found the post interesting and informative. I've uploaded links to some interesting articles on the topic.
You can read more interesting posts about psychology on the blog of this great psychologist @dysfuncional.