Coping with Parenting Fear
& Excessive Worry
be vulnerable? Taking time to audit your belief
system can help reveal your truth and help
bring you to awareness so you can stop the
mental spin of fear.
Am I “safe” or “not safe?”
This is how your brain interprets unknown
or new situations. If the world does not seem
safe, your brain is going to reach for one of
three strategies used to combat fear:
Fight
Flight
Freeze
Shock is the freeze strategy. Once the shock of
your experience wears off, you have the option
to fight, run, or reconnect with truth.
Running can look a lot like staying very busy.
Fighting can look like acting out or becoming controlling. At the root of the strategies of
fight, flight, or freeze, however, is fear. While
that’s normal, getting stuck there is not how
fear was designed to work.
Consciously remaining in the truth—even
when the truth feels like one big unknown—
allows you to move from a state of being “on
alert” to a state of calm “awareness.” This is
important because awareness allows you to
carry on in your day without feeling irrationally afraid.
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Shifting from “alert” to “aware” happens by
slowing down and reconnecting. If a surprising and stressful event occurs in your life, take
stock of what happened. Tune-in to how you
feel and let yourself feel it, then don’t dismiss
what you’re feeling.
Always remember to ask for support if you
need to — raise your hand — because we all
need help sometimes (and, on a consistent
basis, we’re certainly also helpers). Take time
to revitalize and rejuvenate so that you can
continue to experience the tapestry and simple joys of life. Asking for a hug, taking deep
breaths in-and out