How To Deal With Physical Adversity, Part 3 Emotion in Adversity – Dealing With Fear Emotion shadows every person. Some use it to power themselves to victory. Others are defeated by it. Nobody can say that emotion does not affect the outcome of a circumstance, be it confrontational or circumstantial. To use emotion to your advantage, don’t avoid it! Try to understand what emotions your perceived threat brings out in you and how you can best use them to your advantage. Harnessing and applying your emotions is better than avoiding or denying them. The most common feelings before or during adversity are fear, nervousness and anger. Dealing with fear Fear has many sources. The most obvious source of fear in any adverse circumstance is the fear of injury or death. Before you react to adversity, you will mentally asses the situation and consider how much damage may be inflicted on you by your choices at his point in time. This mental damage assessment comes from the basic instinct to remain safe. When doing this, reverse your thinking. Think instead about how you are prepared for adversity. You expected this to happen. Focus on the strength of your defence. Visualize how you will easily deal with this circumstance. If it is a physical threat in terms of an attack, visualize how you will easily defend every attack your opponent attempts. Before you experience being hit, you have to have an unreasonable amount of fear. But by integrating combat training into your workouts, you become comfortable with being hit and anticipate the effects of the blows. Once you are hit a few times, your fear diminishes. You become accustomed to the sensation of contact. So to must you become accustomed to other types of adversity. Practice recovering quickly. The human body is equipped with a front line defence system that is activated every time you face potential threat. If you are injured, your body has a short term coping system that suppresses pain. Minor injuries are almost completely masked. Accept now that is an adverse situation, there will be some physical damage, one way or another. No matter how skilled you are, if someone attacks you with the intention of taking your car, there is a real possibility of there being injuries. To whom and by whom remains in the realm of your choices, to a certain extent. Fighting is an exchange of blows. The person that sustains the least amount of damage prevails. Another common fear is the FEAR OF FAILURE or Fear of Losing. This is more of an illusory fear than the fear of injury. Being seriously injured is a reality that could change the course of your life forever. Losing or failing is only a temporary emotional setback. Often the sense of having ‘lost’ is no more than a sense of self-doubt. Your skill does not change when you enter a circumstance of adversity. But your self-perception my change. Try to focus on the reality of your present situation rather than imagining all the horrible things that could possibly happen. Reference - Hanho Next, Part 4: Emotion in Adversity – Dealing With Nervousness
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 03:32:54 +0000