How to Overcome Fear of Confrontation | Fear of Confrontation in Relationships | Fear of Confrontation in the Workplace | Fear of Confrontation Causes
What will happen if I disagree with my boss or the one friend who has been with me through thick and thin? I want to admit my mistake in front of my family but what if they don’t forgive me? I want to seek forgiveness from God but what if my mistake got revealed to others?
Feeling related? Well, at some o]point we all go through such conflicts where we feel suffocated and scared of the unknown. However, the best thing about such a situation is that in our consciousness we are clear about our mistakes.
Those who recognize their mistakes are the one who are most beloved and respected, even if no one says to you directly. You gain respect for being an honest and genuine person for the rest of the future.
The fear you experience in your mind before confessing your mistakes comes from past experiences which you need to overcome. IN this article I will share some tips that will help you overcome the Fear of Confrontation.
How to Overcome Fear of Confrontation
Know that The fear of confrontation is one of the most common emotions for many people. Sometimes it becomes challenging and makes a person weak. The good news is you can overcome it using my shared strategies.
1- Recognize the Fear
As you now know that it’s not a unique issue to feel this way. In fact when you know that no one will appreciate and support your mistake, it’s normal to feel threatened. Anyone who has experienced an adverse outcome of honesty in the past will feel the same.
Now, when it is becoming damaging to your confidence and mental peace, it’s crucial to let go of these fears. Also, let me tell you fear is one of the most damaging emotions for your well being. Any fear needs to be eliminated as soon as it’s recognized.
First and foremost step you need to do is recognize the essence of your Fear of Confrontation. In other words, know which type of confrontation makes you more fearful and why? Do you think you will lose the person, lose the respect of others or your job?
Understand the level of outcome you are afraid of and try to remember any of such past experiences. Once you are clear, accept that it’s a natural response to have fear of outcome, accept it.
2- Understand the Situation
Once you own your mistake, fear and accept that it’s a normal human emotion, relax. Take a few deep breaths, let go of the stressful emotions, and clear your mind. Now, it’s time to reflect on the situation from the start with detached emotions.
When you are detached from the event and emotions, you become clear to understand the cause of mistakes or outcome. In other words, become your own critic and judge at the same time.
It will help you understand if your mistake is forgivable or not. Know that it’s one of the effective ways to gain control not only over the Fear of Confrontation but over your entire life. When you gain the insight to look at your life from all perspectives, fear doesn’t stress you.
Remember, you need to look at every angle and understand if your fear is justified or not? Note down all the results you came up with.
3- Practice Communication Skills
Here comes one of the major steps which can either break you or make you. Your communication to other people or the way you express yourself has power. It’s a key ingredient to your Fear of Confrontation so be very careful about it.
An effective communication, the way you present your mistake may come out as a solution immediately. When you own your mistake with confidence and are ready to face the outcome, you become fearless.
Try to practice better listening, alertness and problem solving willingness before confronting the mistake. It will help you, in fact give you more power over the words you chose to express yourself.
Not to mention when you express in more constructive ways, half of your Fear of Confrontation Disappears immediately, half of them after communication.
Also Read about How to Rebuild Trust in a Relationship after Cheating.
4- Visualize the Confrontation
While you are preparing yourself to eliminate your most threatening emotion, it needs practice. As you know practice makes even a newbie pro. Before acting on all these processes in reality, visualize the outcome in your favor.
The key ingredient of any success is its being practiced a thousand times in their mind. Visualize that your confrontation has been taken positively and appreciated by others. Even, it’s been solved immediately.
This process may take some time to believe in your heart, but once you will be able to generate emotions, know that it’s done. Practice the outcome in your mind for so many times that it starts feeling real.
Believing in your mind in yourself and your actions will eliminate all the Fear of Confrontation And make you more confident about yourself. This step will prepare you to move forward confidently, positively and calmly.
5- Seek Support to Overcome Fear of Confrontation
If you feel uncomfortable, or not strong enough to go through all the above steps, do not hesitate to find support. Find someone whom you can trust and share your feelings. If you have a friend, well and good, if not, get help from a counselor.
A counselor is the best solution as they don’t judge or criticize you but support you in the best way. In addition their advice is often experienced and result oriented. Finding support will also help you feel confident and give you a sense of having someone on your side.
A support system will help you go through all the above steps in an effective way and confidently. Even they can guide you by offering advice and make you see the bright side. In the end, they will help you overcome Fear of Confrontation.
6- Take Action
All The above effort has no value if you don’t take action about it. Taking action might be the last step but it’s one of the most crucial ones. I will suggest you to decide a day and time and then prepare yourself to confront your mistake.
The fear exists in the mind and keeps hunting you until you let it out and face the outcome. Often fear exists in the mind only. The more time you avoid confrontation, the more powerful your fear will become so don’t strengthen your fear anymore.
In the beginning, confront small fears, experience the outcome, take time to heal if you need to. If you can dare to confront your fear, step by step, one by one, one day you will become fearless and nothing will scare you.
Not to mention, you will groom yourself with more confidence, honesty and own an attractive personality. It might take time, but if you keep working on yourself, it will not only help you overcome Fear of Confrontation but make you wise enough to become clean and confident about your actions.
What Causes Fear of Confrontation
I am confident that if you can follow those simple steps and work upon your inner emotions, you will easily eliminate any fear from your mind. While talking about the solutions, I believe, knowing the root cause of certain emotions is crucial.
Let’s explore the experiences that created fear in your mind which is affecting your present.
1- Past Experiences
For a normal person, past experience is their teacher who shape their future. If they had any negative experience with confrontation, they will definitely avoid being honest in future.
2- Personality
Someone with sensitive nature get anxious or stressed easily and in most cases they avoid conflicts or any such circumstances. These people are prone to negative outcome that easily trap them into Fear of Confrontation.
3- Lack of Assertiveness Skills
If someone is poor in communication and don’t know how to deal in such situation also don’t want to confront. Its one of the skill that may turn any negative circumstance for beneficial for everyone.
if someone lack it, getting into Fear of Confrontation is common issue for them.
4- Fear of Rejection
Rejection is one of the outcome no one like to experience. What if they make fun of me or what if they don’t understand me is common fear. All of us go through in such situation, however letting these thoughts being heavy on you is one of the cause behind Fear of Confrontation.
5- Perceived Power Imbalance
Miscommunication or imbalance between the relationship is also one of the common cause of Fear of Confrontation. Difference in age, status, authority or thought process is something that easily can be reason people avoid confrontation.
6- Cultural and Societal Norms
Its one of the reason behind so many hidden activities in the society. If something goes against the society norm or disrespectful to the culture, people fear to confront it. One of the main thing we human seek is accepted by the people around us.
If the person knows their action was inappropriate, they simple like to hide it and avoid confrontation.
Also Read about 8 Best-Selling Communication Books to Enhance Your Skills
Are There are Books on Fear of Confrontation?
Yes, there are many books available in the market that might help and guide you to overcome Fear of Confrontation easily. Some of them are as follows.
1- Crucial Conversations
As we know an effective conversation is the key to any problem. In this book Authors share many crucial advice that enhances communication skill. Especially they shares the idea to have difficult conversation effectively and make things easier in life.
2- Difficult Conversations
In this books authors talk about how to have those conversation who are most difficult but matter the most. In life we avoid having many conversation which in future develops the Fear of Confrontation. The book is a step by step guide yo manage those challenging conversation and avoid common pitfalls.
3- The Assertiveness Guide for Women
When it comes to relationship, there are a lot of secrets, not because they like but they like to avoid conflicts. In this books there are many tips and ideas share especially for women to overcome Fear of Confrontation in relationship.
4- Nonviolent Communication
This book is one of the interesting communication books that shares many simple ideas to represent anything with empathy, authenticity and respect. Not to mention, compassionate communication can solve any issue.
5- Fearless Conversation
As the name suggest, this book offers tips to become fearless and express yourself in loud and clear voice. As you read above speaking with integrity and being clear in your intention strengthen you. When you speak with confidence, people listen, find the solution which helps overcome Fear of Confrontation.
Final Words: As you can see “Effective Communication” is key to overcome the fear within you. Any fear, if held for a longer time in the mind, can damage the entire future of a person. It’s wiser to work upon those damaging emotions ASAP once you realize that you have Fear of Confrontation.
Trust me, if you can dare to follow those steps and work upon your inner emotions, you are going to transform your personality in the best way.
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