I was scared of the dark when I was a little kid, and I never went into the basement by myself. I always had to have my mom with me going down the stairs because I told her there were monsters in the closet. She would take my hand, walked down the stairs, and slowly opened the closet, and showed me that there were no monsters at all. I would jump for joy and go back to playing again. Thinking back on how I was when I was little, I was literally paralyzed from going downstairs. I was so convinced that there were monsters in the closet that it held me back.
So what are the stories you are telling yourself? Are you telling yourself that you’re never going to be able to lose weight? Did you hold back from doing something because you told yourself you were just going to be rejected? What are you afraid of? Failure? Success? Rejection? the unknown?
The stories that you tell yourself have a harmful way of hindering you from taking action and reaching for your goals. F.E.A.R. is the famous acronym that stands for “False Events that Appear Real.” You sometimes tell yourself a story over and over and you convince yourself it is real when in fact it is not. Then the common reaction to help calm yourself down is to reach for food for comfort.
So how do you conquer something that is not even real, so to speak?
The first step, especially if you are about to grab that piece of chocolate to calm yourself down, is to realize what is in your control and what is not. The best way to change a situation is to change your perspective. Reframe how you look at the situation. This is a concept we work on extensively in my office.
The second step is to seek “outside eyes”. Find someone you trust that you can talk to in order to sort out your fears. There is a high likelihood that this person will point out something that you didn’t think of that can open doors for you to manage the situation.
The third step is to take action. That fear might just be the gut signal you were looking for in order to take that next step. Fear is merely telling you that something needs to change, and the best way for you to change is to take action.
If you need any help to get started, click the link here and take the first step towards that healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Angela Tran D.O.
