Part 2 – The Exposure Model of Anxiety

Read part 1 of this series on Anxiety and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy here.

Cognitive-behavior researchers have found that for some anxiety sufferers, avoiding the thing that causes anxiety keeps the anxiety in place. And by confronting the thing, liberation from your fear can be had!

Do you suffer from any of the following:

• Chronic worrying
• Panic Attacks
• Agoraphobia
• Fears and Phobias
• Shyness
• Shy Bladder Syndrome
• Test Anxiety
• Public Speaking Anxiety
• Performance Anxiety
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Hypochondria

Exposure therapy is especially useful for these problems!

An Ancient Story Gives Modern Insights

We can take a lesson from The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which tells the story of what happens after you die. It’s most instructive, as it leads to an interesting way to find relief for this problem.

As the story goes, after you die you will wake up in a dark place, and from the darkness a very scary monster will suddenly appear. This monster represents all of your worst fears, every single one you’ve ever had. Everyone has a different monster, because we all have different fears.

There are two choices you have when the monster shows up. The first is to try to get away, the second is to surrender to it. If you take the first choice, you can just barely escape, but you will end up back in the dark again.

From this darkness another monster will appear. It will be a bit less terrifying than the first one, and you can once again surrender to it, or try to get away. If you try to get away you will, but again you will end up in the darkness, and once again a monster will come.

This cycle will repeat according to the number of days in the month that you die. If you die in May, you will have to face up to 31 monsters.

If you try to escape from all the monsters, you will be reincarnated as something lowly, like a worm. By surrendering to one of the monsters, you will be reincarnated at a higher level. The sooner you surrender in the cycle, the greater your position in life will be.

If you surrender to the first, most scary monster, you will make two discoveries. First, that the monster is not real. You will find that it was an illusion, and there was nothing to fear, and furthermore, you will find that all your fears were the result of a great cosmic joke from all your previous reincarnations.

The second discovery you will make by surrendering to that first monster is that you won’t have to go through the life-death cycle again. You will be transported to a “higher plane of existence.”

What can we learn from this legend? Can you guess?

By exposing ourselves to the thing we fear the most we can actually find permanent relief from what makes us anxious!

Three Exposure Techniques

There are three styles of exposure that have been developed, and different techniques are appropriate for different types of fears. Get advice from a health professional before trying any of these yourself!

The first style is to confront your fears, in reality. If you are afraid of heights or blood, elevators, animals, this technique can bring fast relief. Briefly, if you are afraid of elevators, you would get on an elevator, and stay on the elevator, and you would find that your fear subsides to nothing, and that elevators are nothing to be afraid of.

The second way to exposure is mentally, or imagining the situation you fear. This technique can be used with just about any anxiety. Used in conjunction with Hypnotherapy, you can achieve excellent results quickly as well.

The third type of exposure is more for fears having to do with other people, such as shyness and other social phobias, like public speaking.

Each of these styles has various techniques you can use to gain mastery over your anxiety. Consult with a qualified health professional to determine how to proceed. With courage, you can overcome your fears!

This is the second part of a four part series. Future articles outline more detail of the techniques, and other models of anxiety. Bookmark this site and return often to find out more!

Want fast relief right now? I recommend you read my review of the Panic Away program. With a 60-day money-back guarantee, you really have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

Read part 1 about the cognitive model of anxiety here.

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This website cannot, and should not, stand alone as the sole medical or psychological intervention for any disorder. Any individual with a medical or psychological problem should first consult a qualified health care provider for diagnosis and professional advice. This website is intended only to provide general information and is not intended as an exhaustive source of information for the topics discussed. This website and these articles do not replace your relationship with any health care professional you are consulting with or consult with in the future.