Most of us are plagued with a variety of fears such as fear of the unknown (anxiety), fear of the dark, fear of ghosts, fear of snakes or other reptiles and fear of insects. As long as these fears do not interfere with our daily functioning, we are unaffected by them and do not seek out help in trying to overcome them. However, if the fear is debilitating you in any way or preventing you from living your life to the utmost potential, you must seek help in releasing that fear. Although both fears and phobias are a type of anxiety disorders, there are some differences between the two.
Fear is defined as an emotion of varying intensity aroused by a recognisable and logical threat that involves a fight or flight response (which may occur mentally, emotionally or physically). This means that the cause or origin of a fear is known and evokes a feeling of unpleasant tension along with physiological changes and an impulse to escape. Using the conscious mind, we are able to identify the event or situation where the fear has originated. For example, an adult having a fear of dogs may be able to recall this fear coming from when he was bitten by a dog at the age of 4 years.
Phobias are defined as an excessive, uncontrollable, unrealistic and perhaps illogical fear to a person, thing, situation or activity. A strong mental, emotional and physiological response is evoked. The difference between a fear and phobia is that the cause or origin of the phobia is unknown (hence illogical) and the intensity of the emotional response tends to be greater. For example, one can develop a phobia of snakes because they died of a snake bite in a past life. In some cases, people have been seen to manifest asthma in this life because they suffocated to death in a past life, i.e. developed a fear of breathing and carried it with them to this life.
Common fear and phobias are:
- fear of insects (entomophobia)
- fear of heights (acrophobia)
- fear of people (social anxiety)
- fear of darkness (achluophobia)
- fear of flying (aviophobia)
- fear of snakes (ophidiophobia)
- fear of strangers (xenophobia)
- fear of blood (hemaphobia)
- fear of water (hydrophobia)
- fear of being alone (autophobia)
Counselling, hypnotherapy, NLP and past life regression offer a wonderful and comprehensive way to release these feelings of fear or phobia to allow you to function effectively and optimally on a day to day basis. Specifically, hypnotherapy and past life regression therapy enable us to:
- Identify the root cause of the fear through age regression. In most cases, fear stems from trauma faced during childhood in the current life. Occasionally, the memory of the trauma may be repressed, but in a deep hypnotic state these memories are easily accessible.
- Identify the root cause/origin of the phobia through past life regression. Phobias are normally due to trauma experienced in one or most past lives. Since this information is stored in the subconscious mind, it can be retrieved only through hypnotherapy.
- Heal the mental, emotional and physiological response that occurs with fears and phobias by releasing the energetic charges associated with this response.
- Feel healthy both physically and psychologically by restoring balance between our mind and body.
- Live our lives with a new sense of freedom and independence.
It is clear that healing involves uncovering the deeper layers of your subconscious mind to reveal the root cause of the fears and phobias through hypnotherapy and past life regression. Each person is unique and their response to various situations or things will be specific to them. Thus, the road to recovery includes:
- Understanding the psychological and physiological response to the trigger for the fear/phobia
- Getting to the root cause of the response
- Releasing the response through desensitization and other techniques
- Reprogramming the mind to generate a positive feeling when faced with the same person, object, situation or activity
This comprehensive method of treating fears and phobias allows you to discover a new you who is able to lead a healthy and well-adjusted life.