Society is manipulated by fear. The talking heads of the news media keep us in a constant state of alarm depending on what fear is fashionable and what outcome is desired. In the last 20 years we’ve endured “Weapons of Mass Destruction”; “War on Terror”, Global Warming, Global Cooling; and more recently Brexit “Project Fear”; and Greta’s climate cataclysms, while this month US and Iranian sabres are rattling us to attention

An appropriate acronym for F.E.A.R. is False Evidence Appearing Real. We battle both with messages of corporate fear used by media and government to control what we buy and who we vote for as well as our own uniquely personal fears that are a result of our DNA, our upbringing and negative life experiences.

The battleground

The mind is the battleground. As Seneca, the Roman philosopher observed, “We suffer far more often in imagination than in reality”.

Here’s some free advice; whenever the media repeatedly shows you fearful concepts, they are trying to control you.

Advertisers warn us if we don’t buy it, we’re losers and outsiders—and that also applies to intellectual concepts like politics or science as much as to consumer products. Marketeers use our “fear of looking uncool” to sell us the latest I-phone or trainers, while governments use the “fear of terror” and “climate change” so we clamour for more “protection” as we trade hard-won freedoms for facial recognition surveillance and are coerced to agree to “carbon taxes” to save a dying planet. Yes, fear is drilled into us and then manipulated. The fashionable fear topics 4 decades ago were oil pollution, AIDS, “acid rain”, ozone layer depletion and a return to the Ice Age with images of glaciers bulldozing cities. Whatever happened to acid rain? Did universities lose their research money?

What do you fear?

The fact is life comes with fears: Fear of tomorrow, fear of failure, fear of financial difficulty, fear of loneliness, fear of not being accepted, and fear of war. Aside from the many fears stoked by vested interest groups, natural or instinctive fear serves a useful purpose. Intuitive fear helps us avoid dangerous situations, risky people and bad habits. Through fear of the Law and punishment we restrain impulses to act selfishly and anti-socially; and through fear of poverty we get out of bed to work, earn a living and resist our impulse to laziness.

However, as a qualified hypnotherapist and business trainer and coach for Carol Barwick Learning and Development, I recognise that unnecessary fear and anxiety are very real and damaging components of daily life that cause stress, create misery and cause premature aging and illness for many people.

Reasons to be fearful?

In a business sense the classic fears I help people deal with on a weekly basis are anxieties related to fear of failure, fear of redundancy, employment uncertainty and financial loss. Fear of public speaking also features strongly in my corporate training programmes. Other fears include fear of driving, confined spaces, heights, snakes, cats, spiders and man’s best friend, the dog.

The mismanagement of fear is the problem

When we allow anxieties to dominate us and define our lives we become prisoners of fear. Prisoners of fear are under great stress and many will try and placate their fear with drink or drugs, or other reckless behaviours like gambling and uncontrolled shopping (especially risky with the ease of access to online platforms).

Don’t give in to fear and never feed it

How we deal with fear makes all the difference. We are not so much affected by events, but by the reactions we have toward them. When fear knocks on your door, you have two choices; you can send it packing or let it into your house where it will end up being a dangerous, promiscuous squatter.

Origins of fear

Like the monster than hides under the bed or toy cupboard waiting to pounce when the light goes out in childhood, habitual fears are often cloaked in half-remembered trauma and neglect during infancy. For example, anxieties, stress and social phobias always have  a root cause but they can be nebulous, vague and challenging to isolate.

Unmasking the root cause of our fears and anxieties in adulthood and dealing with the many side effects which may include addictions, OCD, PTSD, relationship problems, career difficulties and failure, is where I come in…My blend of rapid transformational tools and techniques often work in one single session.

Change the programming with hypno-coaching

It may be a business problem that affects your whole team such as conflict in the workplace requiring effective mediation and good Emotional Intelligence among leadership, or it may be a very personal problem that is preventing you from being your best self at home and in your career. Your own fears are what you need to conquer. As a qualified hypnotherapist trainer and management coach for Carol Barwick Learning and Development, I can help you drill down to understand the root cause of your anxieties.

Give F.E.A.R. the elbow and move on

Whatever the new year brings, approaching 2020 with a new confidence through effective leadership coaching and hypno-coaching programmes you can rapidly refocus your mind away from Project F.E.A.R., whether it’s media-initiated or your own negative thinking patterns. I have the right tools and tactics you need to realise your full potential and regain control.

Have you a specific business goal or a personal challenge? With the right help you begin to think outside the cage that F.E.A.R. is trying to keep you in, so you learn to recognise the programming and triggers, acquiring the skills to negate them.

For good health and wellbeing at home and in the workplace, I provide a full range of bespoke coaching and training packages.

Please contact me to realise your fearless vision for home and work in 2020.