However you may not be able to avoid having these emotions knocking on your door, BUT you CAN avoid opening the door and letting them in. This is always much easier to do if you been working on creating a solid positive mindset.

What Fear Can Do To Us:

1. Fear Paralyses.
Something bad happens and next thing wham, a dart of fear hits your mind. If you allow this dart to penetrate your mind, next thing you will find you can’t even think straight. The fear has managed to paralyze your mind.

Note When fear hits your mind, it is still on the outside. When you stop to meditate on the negative connotations of the situation, then you are allowing this fear to come in and infect your mind.

2. When Fear Is Allowed to Stay, Doubt is Born.
A dart of fear hits, you don’t really pay attention to it and so it sneaks into your mind unnoticed. If you allow this dart to stay (and you probably will since you did not notice it in the first place) it won’t be long before doubts will be overwhelming and your mind starts rehearsing how you will handle the worst outcome senario of the situation you are facing.

The fear has to be dealt with by confronting it directly with faith. Simply ignoring fear (or anything negative) will not make it go away.

3. Fear Blocks the Solution to the Problem
Where fear reigns we have already noted the mind is paralysed. The creative juices of your mind are shut down and you are left feeling feeling hopelessly at the mercy of the situation that originally brought the fear.

How To Stop Fear From Taking Over.

1. Build The Foundation.
When something unexpected happens, you usually don’t have time to decide what your first reaction will be. This is especially true if you are facing a situation where things happen quickly or unexpectedly. In a way it is already too late. Your reactions happen quickly and spontaneously, (unless you are a robot). I know mine do, and then afterward I go through one of those times when I am saying “why did I do or say that”! (See Mindset – Why Is It So Important?)

Your very first reaction will come from the foundation already laid in your mind (also known as your mindset). That is why it is important to work on creating a positive mindset.

2. Check and Adjust Your First Reaction
If your first reaction to a difficult situation was negative, then the next thing to do is to face this reaction and adjust it.

As soon as you recognize that a dart of fear hit you:
Stop – don’t allow any more thoughts to coming flooding in, and don’t say anything (yet).
Take a deep breath – (this will help you to relax).
Evaluate the situation.
Start looking for the solution.
Now you can speak (talk about the positive solution), because you are in a better frame of mind.

3. What if I don’t notice the dart of fear that sneaked into my mind?
We have already seen that this is the same as letting the dart enter our minds. Ignoring it won’t make it go away! Only meeting it with faith will.

Once again, the best time to work with this is BEFORE anything happens. In the times of our lives when things are fine are when we need to take some moments, preferably every day, to meditate on inspirational writings (such as the Bible).

Meditate means more than read. When we meditate on something, we read, think about what it really means and how we can apply it.

Every Problem Has A Solution.
I have a friend in Mexico who always meets any challenge in life with the words: “Every problem has a solution”. (And to be honest, when I first met him, I did not always enjoy hearing it There were times when I wanted shake him saying “but you just don’t understand”. I would often came up with reasons why “this situation was different”.

But I have finally learned that this is true. Every problem DOES have a solution. However it takes a cool, calm and collected mind to find the solution.

So, when something bad happens, take some moments to ask yourself:

• What can I do to help solve this situation? (What things do I have control over?)
  
  
• What don’t I have any control over?
  
  
• Do I have the faith to believe that the things I cannot control will still work out ok for all involved? (I know of no safer place to put your faith than in our Great Creator, and His Son Jesus Christ).