Dr. Oz was brave to air this episode and face his fear of heights. I am proud of him.

He faced his fear with the support of professionals and dealt with a phobia that had power over his conscious mind. He made a real breakthrough when he looked FEAR in the face and stood his ground…determined to know the beast that held him in tangible visceral panic.

The human body has a visceral reaction when fear grips the individual whether imagined or real. Many people choose to let the fear control them, instead of gaining control over the source of the fear.

Fear can be purposeful. We learn as children to avoid burning our hands on hot stoves and we learn to deal with many dangers that are common in our shared world experience. This serves to educate, inform, and make a person aware of their environment. The healthy response to fear allows us to master our personal responsibility to take care of ourselves without bringing harm to our bodies or minds.

Then there is the person who succumbs to fear and becomes overwhelmed, feeling powerless to deal with the situation. Their lives are altered when the fear becomes magnified and untamed. Dr. Oz and his expert helped one such woman begin to take a look at her fear of spiders.

She did fairly well, being able to finally take a look at the image of the spider on the screen while Dr. Oz held her hand and stood between her and the image of her fear. Her conscious mind knew that the spider was not real, but her emotional body was intimidated to the point of barely being able to view the tiny creature. I could tell than many audience members felt for her while she attempted to face her fear.

I was talking to the TV and telling her to stomp on the next spider she saw in real life. Stomp on it, smash it, smush the little beast, put it out of commission when it invades your personal space. The spider is more concerned about this huge human being than she realizes. Most spiders aren’t out to bite people, but are acting upon instinct and survival. Her phobia extends to unrelenting cues from her body by affecting her breathing, sweating, anxiety, and even the way she holds her body. At first, she could not even look at the image of the spider and needed to stand far from the screen. That goes beyond fear and reason…and it diagnosed as a phobia.

She is going to need to spend a lot more time conditioning her mind and body to face her fear and conquer her unnatural response. She has the luxury of time.

When you own your own Power, you face your fears and realize that you have more power within you than you originally believed. The fear loses its grip on your mind. That is the most empowering moment…

Embrace what you fear, determine why you fear it, and face it by standing your ground and feeling your personal Power!

This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.