“We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” – Seneca

The fear to drive is not uncommon, many people experience accidents or other circumstances that make them develop this fear of the road. However frightening it is just another kind of fear and as all fears it can be disarmed.

It can be developed due to:

Past negative experiences. Many people develop a fear of driving after experiencing or after being themselves in an accident. This can often be traumatic and make the person extremely cautious about ever driving again. New locations. Moving to a new city is no easy task, especially if its a big city. Driving in a big city can seem really hard when we are accustomed to the nice and uncrowded streets of a small town. Fear of having a panic attack. Panic attacks are caused by the loss of feeling of control. Often a person that is scared of driving is afraid of having one of these while driving and losing control of the vehicle although it’s a pretty uncommon situation.

Every situation is personal, however, your fear and that of others can be extremely different in cause and level but nevertheless, fear is fear, and it must be conquered.

I love riding the bike, mountain bike. At first, I wasn’t really good at it, but eventually, I felt more secure to jump over small obstacles and sidewalks, I was having lots of fun, but being cocky is not always to ones benefit as I soon find out.

Just two days ago I left my house for my usual evening ride. I took the usual road, wind on my face, Bonobo playing on my phone and suddenly looked to the right just to see the perfect stair formation on the sidewalk. I decided to jump it.

I fell horribly.

Right now as I’m writing this, my hip is killing me, the sole thought of jumping that bastard again, does scare me. But the only way out of the fear is through the fear.

Overcoming your fear

Every fear is overcome by one thing only: practice.

You want to become good at facing your fears all the time so you become better and better at it.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Fear is conquered gradually as well.

Knowledge is power.

The first step in overcoming any fear is to know it for what it really is. Have you ever asked yourself exactly what it is that you fear? Is it to drive on highways? Is it to drive at high speed?

What is it that you fear specifically? Once you have this information, you have something to work with. And this is key something to work with.

Plan to act

Grab a piece of paper and define your fear. Write it down, be very, very precise. Ask yourself, what can I do to overcome this fear? Write down your actions Take action, you want to do this over and over again until you crush your fear and gain back control

I honestly hope that this quick guide helps you in overcoming your fears if you need serious help however you can go here and get advanced help.

Stoic answers aim is to provide answers to the deepest human questions, which sadly, are almost always never asked.

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