How to Overcome a Phobia

[Sloppy Zhang]

Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome a phobia?

 

Not much more I can say.... pretty straightforward question

[Tomyuri]

Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome a phobia?

 

Not much more I can say.... pretty straightforward question

 

I'm with you on this.. i have a phobia of swimming pool jets/filters. Yeah it's pretty odd.

 

Any help!?

[Marblehead]

I'm with you on this.. i have a phobia of swimming pool jets/filters. Yeah it's pretty odd.

 

Any help!?

 

My worst fear was that of spiders. Acquired it when I was a kid and it took only 50 years to get over it.

 

The advice I will give is to, 1.) find the origin of the fear - when and how did it start, and 2.) learn the facts about what is feared.

 

Generally, when something is no longer a mystery and we know the facts about it we loose the fear of it even if we still practice extreme caution when in its environment.

 

Peace & Love!

[Sloppy Zhang]

My worst fear was that of spiders. Acquired it when I was a kid and it took only 50 years to get over it.

 

The advice I will give is to, 1.) find the origin of the fear - when and how did it start, and 2.) learn the facts about what is feared.

 

Generally, when something is no longer a mystery and we know the facts about it we loose the fear of it even if we still practice extreme caution when in its environment.

 

Peace & Love!

 

Yeah spiders are also my problem....

 

The other day I was thinking, "along my spiritual path I will probably have to overcome my fear of spiders." Then the very next day I looked down in my carpet and saw something stuck in it, and I thought it was a speck of food and I wanted to pick it up because I didn't want bugs to get in it.

 

As I touched it, it was hard and crunchy and stuck to the carpet and when I yanked it out it was a dead curled up spider that I touched!!!!!!!! lskfj;sajf;alijf;aljsd;f Freaked me out a little bit....

 

Me and my predictions for the path

Edited May 26, 2010 by Sloppy Zhang

[Marblehead]

As I touched it, it was hard and crunchy and stuck to the carpet and when I yanked it out it was a dead curled up spider that I touched!!!!!!!! lskfj;sajf;alijf;aljsd;f Freaked me out a little bit....

 

Me and my predictions for the path

 

Hehehe. I had to laugh because I saw me in that picture.

 

Learn as much as you can about spiders. Learn especially of all the good services they provide to man. They really are very helpful animals, you know. (I'm still giggling inside over your story.)

 

Understanding overcomes fear.

 

Happy Trails!

Edited May 26, 2010 by Marblehead

[TheSongsofDistantEarth]

Energy Psychology (or "tapping") can be extremely effective for phobias. Check out 'Thought Field Therapy" or 'Emotional Freedom Technique."

[freeform]

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Edited December 18, 2019 by freeform

[goldisheavy]

Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome a phobia?

 

Not much more I can say.... pretty straightforward question

 

NLP techniques work well and quickly. Other than that, you need wisdom, and that takes time. So if you want a cheap and dirty method, check out NLP. The real method though, the heavy duty one, the real deal, is wisdom (which takes time and has no short-cuts).

[~jK~]

NLP techniques work well and quickly. Other than that, you need wisdom, and that takes time. So if you want a cheap and dirty method, check out NLP. The real method though, the heavy duty one, the real deal, is wisdom (which takes time and has no short-cuts).

Excelent post - I used this method to remove some unintended psycological programming from my first teacher when I was 17 .

What happened was this:

When teaching me the Savasana, he told me to watch for the "Guardian of the gates" which was what I was most afraid of and I would need to defeat it before future progress could happen.

The Savasana is the meditation that leads to astral projection and, once out, sure enough a green snake came after me and bit my arm. I imediately returned to my body and stopped the astral projection exercises. Even knowing that green snakes were not poisonous, I kept this fear for some yearsand sure enough, it halted my progression. I did still practice the Savasana and am recently returning to astral projection.

 

An interesting evolution of the problem was that, some years later, when I came to Asia, I found a very small house on the Mountain where the temple of 10,000 Buddhas is located in Sha Tin. http://blog.seattlepi.com/redlantern/archives/133497.asp?from=blog_last3 After I moved in, The owner began keeping dogs for protection. He fed the dogs too much and rats came to eat the rest. After the rat population grew, snakes came to eat the rats. One day I came home to find a Huge green snake in my bedroom - (In China green snakes are extremely poisonous) which prompted me to move out ASAP. A few weeks later the spring rains came and a portion of the mountain came down and crushed the little house I was living in. The snake served to get me out of the house and actually saved my life.

I've since discovered that snakes live around areas where rats live AKA garbage spill areas and kept an eye out as well as beating the bush with a bamboo stick which has worked to send the snakes away as well as a few rats..Point being that it may not be the water jets that is sending the message - it may be the water - reminding of a previous life experience of drowning.

[Guest paul walter]

Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome a phobia?

 

Not much more I can say.... pretty straightforward question

 

 

I suggest EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)--you can learn it in half an hour off the net (youtube etc) and if everything goes well and you apply it properly you could be over a phobia or two by the end of the day. It works by tapping some meridian points in sequence while you think/feel the problem you have. Has worked a treat for me--for emotional and physical pain. This technique requires you to be honest about the origin and existence of your problems so it should fit in with Gold's comments about "doing the work" (I agree!). It just gives you more incentive to be honest with yourself cause once you have done that a lot of the "problems" that come up can be 'erased' quite quickly. Doesn't mean you still won't inherit more whilst living in this most wonderful of worlds though Paul.

Edited May 27, 2010 by paul walter

[de_paradise]

Any hypnotist or NLP person should be able to deal with that inside of 15 minutes.

 

The type of phobia you have is the easiest to get rid of, because you realize the fear is irrational. It was somehow picked during childhood, but you know as an adult of course spiders are not fearsome at all. If it was a phobia where you were still exposed to the wrong information, then that kind of phobia is harder to deal with.

 

So it comes down to altering the symptoms of the phobic reaction, and hypnosis and NLP has devised those quick phobia release for that. Anthony Robbins seemed like so magic when he first started doing those, because it was so fast.

 

I once hypnotized my friend who had a fear of water and sharks, even in swimming pools. The technique was something like having him watch himself as if in a movie theatre, then associating him into the reaction where he no longer had any of the symptoms of the fear. You might be able to find some file sharing download of a mp3 where they take you through a phobia release script. Just search for "NLP phobia"

 

Tapping is good too.

[freeform]

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Edited December 18, 2019 by freeform

[Marblehead]

It took you 50 years to learn the facts about spiders?!!?

 

Hehehe. Well, yeah, I was avoiding them. Didn't even want to read about them.

 

Peace & Love!

[Sloppy Zhang]

So I stepped out of the shower yesterday when I was faced with an armed intruder!

 

An eight armed intruder!!!!!

 

It was just chillin' in the middle of the floor. So I took the time to examine it and reflect on what I found so creepy about spiders. And as I was examining it, I started to feel the tension building up in my mind.

 

And seeing as how in my practice I'm working in dissolving tension, I did the only thing I could think of at the moment: dissolve the tension.

 

And that's when all the thoughts kind of melted away and I just saw the spider. And I was like, "so is it your multitude of arms/legs that I find so creepy?" And thoughts and tension started to build, then they went away. I thought, "is it the jerky way that you move which is so creepy?" It moved a little, almost on cue, then those thoughts dissolved away.

 

And I was just like, "well, you're just a spider.... not so bad....."

 

And on that note, spiders DO have a spider sense, because as soon as I picked up something to kill it with, it moved like hell to a safe corner.

 

I might have to start emulating spiders to develop ESP

 

And on THAT note, I really like Spider Man....

[Marblehead]

And on THAT note, I really like Spider Man....

 

Hehehe.

 

You're doing great! Keep up the good work and it won't be long you will be going for a nwspaper for it to crawl on and you can carry the little biddy outside and let it go free.

 

Peace & Love!

[NeiChuan]

I say sit with it. Put yourself in a situation with it where it can't be any worse and analyze the emotions deeply, learn to like them even.. It changes everything.

[RiverSnake]

Fear is the contraction of awareness.

 

-Expand your awareness and you will see your fears for what they truly are.

Edited May 30, 2010 by Tao Apprentice

[Samuel]

Ok, I can understand that learning about them is helpful, and that the fear is only irrational, but that still doesn't stop me have an instant almost visceral reaction to Spiders. (Admittedly only the larger ones). I know quite a bit about them, down to how they breathe, and I know that the ones in Britain can't harm me, and I deplore killing them, but unless they're near an exit, that's usually what ends up happening to the poor bastards. [Side note: Did you ever see the scene in Madagascar, where there's a spider on one of them, and they're whacking away with sticks and melman is shouting "Kill it! kill it! kill it! kill it!"? Well, although I wouldn't normally hurt a fly, literally, that's how I react to spiders.] I'm not sure just understanding them, or realizing the irrationality of it all, will help!

[Maddie]

I guess I'd suggest smiling to your kidneys and doing the kidney healing sound (chooo or choreee) since fear is the emotion of the kidneys / bladder meridian. Breath in widsom, willpower, and gentelness to your kidneys and breath out fear.

[Marblehead]

I'm not sure just understanding them, or realizing the irrationality of it all, will help!

 

Well, I'm pretty sure it will help. Hehehe. But it's not the end. Gotta go deeper. Why did this fear arise in the first place? Was it bacouse of a personal experience or something someone told you or something someone used to intentianally cause you fear? Many questions. Gotta find the source. Only then can you apply logic and reason to it.

 

Peace & Love!

[fizix]

Spiders . . . such wondrous Taoist master creatures! Always been fascinated by them, especially after meditating, then smoking a bowl and going on a nice walk outside and BAM: Huge beautiful spider web with its roguish maker meditating within, waiting with perfect patience to restore its chi. Spider watching is very Tao. Even observe spiders long enough to witness it hunting prey, it's like Taoist fishing, except you're not the fisher...or are you? but There is nothing to fear, but fear itself. Unless its the good Fear :.

 

But anyways, try meditating on the subject of your phobia, you'll be surprised :