11:52
AnkiT
What would overcoming your
fear or anxiety about driving mean to you?
Think about it. Would it mean...
The chance to see family and friends more often, without ruining the experience with anxiety, nerves, or panic attacks? What relationships would you build or strengthen?
Not having the ongoing stress and health problems caused by constant anxiety while driving? (if you don't think all that stress is effecting your health, you're dreaming.)
The ability to accept that promotion or career change that you’ve been avoiding without having to worry senselessly about traveling? How much better could everyday life be if you conquered your fear?
Ending the excuses you've been making for why you can't drive and not living with secrets or feeling ashamed?
Being a role model of strength and courage to your children so they can live a life free from these types of fears?
The opportunity to take vacations and getaways with loved ones and experience all that life has to offer? We don't get to rewind life, whatever you pass up on now is GONE, and the worst part is, it doesn't need to be.
Being back in control of your life and not making decisions around your fear? How often does fear play a role in what you decide to do or not do? You can take your life back for good.
The confidence and peace from knowing you’re not held back from a bothersome or debilitating fear? To just not have to think about it anymore is wonderful...
What causes your anxiety while driving?
The fear or anxiety you experience while driving IS NOT YOUR FAULT...
You don't feel afraid because you're weak, silly, or strange. You feel scared or uncomfortable while driving for one reason, and one reason only. Your anxiety has tricked you.
Before I explain how your anxiety has you fooled, there's a couple things you need to know about your fear:
Your fear proves you're a VERY fast learner. My experience has convinced me that having a fear often means that you have the ability to learn at a much more accelerated rate than normal.
You probably had a bad experience while driving, such as getting anxious for no apparent reason or having a panic attack, and from a small handful of experiences you developed an intense fear response that you carry with you to this day. You only needed a very small amount of experience for your brain to learn something very powerful.
Now here's the good news...
If done correctly, you can use that same rapid learning ability to be taught something new - to learn to NOT be afraid while driving.
Fear is simply a message. Your brain is telling you that something is dangerous and you need to be on guard, ready to take action to protect yourself or escape!
But here's the big problem...
Your brain is making a huge mistake!
Based upon those small handful of experiences, your brain has wrongly learned that you are in danger from your feelings of anxiety and now considers driving a threat.
Maybe when you get anxious you worry that you'll lose control, pass out, die, or go crazy...
Understandably, those scary thoughts frighten you and your mind goes on "red alert' to protect you from the perceived "threat."
This activates what is called the "fight or flight" response, which has been part of our genetic makeup for thousands of years. This response causes your body to take massive action to protect itself from harm, and it doesn't even bother asking your approval!
It does this on a very primitive, emotional level, giving you no opportunity to properly evaluate the situation using your own judgment and logic as to whether or not the threat it perceives is real. That's why your fear has nothing to do with your intelligence and why just knowing your fear isn't justified doesn't help...the decision to get anxious or panic isn't occurring on a rational level.
Within milliseconds, hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol surge through your body which cause symptoms such as racing thoughts, a pounding heart, vision changes, sweating, a strong urge to escape the situation, and more.
Of course you know that this response isn't appropriate when you're not in real danger, so you need to learn how to teach your brain to respond differently when you drive so it doesn't keep getting tricked into starting the fight or flight reaction in the first place.
The core of the problem is that your mind has learned to associate driving and your anxiety with danger, which simply isn't accurate, but you don't yet know how to teach yourself the truth. But it IS possible and you CAN learn how to respond differently...
fear or anxiety about driving mean to you?
Think about it. Would it mean...
The chance to see family and friends more often, without ruining the experience with anxiety, nerves, or panic attacks? What relationships would you build or strengthen?
Not having the ongoing stress and health problems caused by constant anxiety while driving? (if you don't think all that stress is effecting your health, you're dreaming.)
The ability to accept that promotion or career change that you’ve been avoiding without having to worry senselessly about traveling? How much better could everyday life be if you conquered your fear?
Ending the excuses you've been making for why you can't drive and not living with secrets or feeling ashamed?
Being a role model of strength and courage to your children so they can live a life free from these types of fears?
The opportunity to take vacations and getaways with loved ones and experience all that life has to offer? We don't get to rewind life, whatever you pass up on now is GONE, and the worst part is, it doesn't need to be.
Being back in control of your life and not making decisions around your fear? How often does fear play a role in what you decide to do or not do? You can take your life back for good.
The confidence and peace from knowing you’re not held back from a bothersome or debilitating fear? To just not have to think about it anymore is wonderful...
What causes your anxiety while driving?
The fear or anxiety you experience while driving IS NOT YOUR FAULT...
You don't feel afraid because you're weak, silly, or strange. You feel scared or uncomfortable while driving for one reason, and one reason only. Your anxiety has tricked you.
Before I explain how your anxiety has you fooled, there's a couple things you need to know about your fear:
Your fear proves you're a VERY fast learner. My experience has convinced me that having a fear often means that you have the ability to learn at a much more accelerated rate than normal.
You probably had a bad experience while driving, such as getting anxious for no apparent reason or having a panic attack, and from a small handful of experiences you developed an intense fear response that you carry with you to this day. You only needed a very small amount of experience for your brain to learn something very powerful.
Now here's the good news...
If done correctly, you can use that same rapid learning ability to be taught something new - to learn to NOT be afraid while driving.
Fear is simply a message. Your brain is telling you that something is dangerous and you need to be on guard, ready to take action to protect yourself or escape!
But here's the big problem...
Your brain is making a huge mistake!
Based upon those small handful of experiences, your brain has wrongly learned that you are in danger from your feelings of anxiety and now considers driving a threat.
Maybe when you get anxious you worry that you'll lose control, pass out, die, or go crazy...
Understandably, those scary thoughts frighten you and your mind goes on "red alert' to protect you from the perceived "threat."
This activates what is called the "fight or flight" response, which has been part of our genetic makeup for thousands of years. This response causes your body to take massive action to protect itself from harm, and it doesn't even bother asking your approval!
It does this on a very primitive, emotional level, giving you no opportunity to properly evaluate the situation using your own judgment and logic as to whether or not the threat it perceives is real. That's why your fear has nothing to do with your intelligence and why just knowing your fear isn't justified doesn't help...the decision to get anxious or panic isn't occurring on a rational level.
Within milliseconds, hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol surge through your body which cause symptoms such as racing thoughts, a pounding heart, vision changes, sweating, a strong urge to escape the situation, and more.
Of course you know that this response isn't appropriate when you're not in real danger, so you need to learn how to teach your brain to respond differently when you drive so it doesn't keep getting tricked into starting the fight or flight reaction in the first place.
The core of the problem is that your mind has learned to associate driving and your anxiety with danger, which simply isn't accurate, but you don't yet know how to teach yourself the truth. But it IS possible and you CAN learn how to respond differently...
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