Tag Archives: False fear is false evidence appearing real

Stop, Drop, and Roll: Strategies for Mental Peace

In this post I share a technique for dealing with automatic negative thoughts (ants) called stop drop and roll as a strategy to achieve mental peace.  If you have ever been bothered by depression, fear, mental stress or any other negative emotion. Download the podcast  to learn how to stop these thoughts, drop all the weight of these emotions and roll with the punches. I provide actionable strategies to overcome mental turmoil and find peace.

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Key Takeaways

  • Understanding ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts): Recognize how automatic negative thoughts (ANTS) can hijack your mental peace and control your responses.

  • Stop, Drop, and Roll Technique: Apply these fire safety principles to your mind to halt negative thinking, let go of harmful emotions, and adapt flexibly to life's challenges.

  • Mindfulness and Self-Care: Cultivate inner peace through practices like mindfulness meditation, self-reflection, and developing mental resilience.

Harnessing the Power of Stop, Drop, and Roll in Mental Health

In our fast-paced world, our minds often become chaotic battlefields, fraught with stress, anxiety, and negative thoughts. This mental turmoil can be likened to a fire that, if unchecked, can consume our peace and serenity. Much like the practical advice offered by the Red Cross in case of physical fire—stop, drop, and roll—the same principles can be applied to the mental fires we face. Understanding how to combat these mental battles effectively can lead to a more peaceful and fulfilled life.

Coach Myrna’s approach to “stop, drop, and roll” during mental distress translates into three critical processes: halting negative thoughts, shedding unhelpful emotions, and adapting to life's difficulties with resilience.

Stop the Onslaught of Negative Thoughts for mental peace

Stop represents the crucial first step in halting the cascade of negative thoughts that often flood our minds. Coach Myrna points out how negative thoughts, or ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts), drag us into a mental battlefield where peace is stripped away by fear and uncertainty. These thoughts are dangerous not because they reflect reality, but because they create an illusion of impending doom—defined aptly by the acronym FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real).

“Do you know the definition of fear is false evidence appearing real, and most of your unwanted thoughts and ANTs are the same thing—false evidence appearing real.”

By stopping these thoughts in their tracks, we create a moment of stillness, allowing ourselves the space to evaluate whether there's truly a “fire” or if it's just our imagination running wild. This pause is not about denial or suppression but about gaining clarity and regaining mental control.

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Dropping Burdensome Emotions

Once we have halted the flood of negative thoughts, the next step is to Drop the burdensome emotions that weigh us down. Negative emotions like grudges, fears, and self-doubt act as heavy armor on the battlefield of the mind, hindering our progress and making challenges seem insurmountable.

“Holding on to grudges, fear, and self-doubt only weighs us down in the Battlefield of the Mind. By dropping these hindrances, we free ourselves to move more swiftly and gracefully through life’s challenges.”

Shedding these harmful emotions is akin to setting down an unnecessary load. It frees us to navigate life’s difficulties with ease and grace, enhancing our mental agility and resilience. The act of dropping these emotions emphasizes the importance of forgiveness, self-compassion, and letting go of what no longer serves our well-being.

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Find mental peace: Rolling with Life’s Punches

To find, mental peace, we need to accept our circumstances and roll with the punches.  After dropping unnecessary burdens, Roll emphasizes the need for flexibility and adaptability in the face of life’s inevitable ups and downs. Adversity is an unavoidable part of life, and our ability to roll with the punches—much like physical rolling to extinguish flames—dictates our mental resilience.

“In the face of adversity, rolling with the punches becomes essential. Flexibility is our greatest Ally, enabling us to adapt to changing circumstances with ease.”

Rather than resisting life’s twists and turns, embracing them allows us to navigate the unpredictable terrain of the mind. This adaptability helps mitigate the persistence of negative thoughts, enabling us to handle them more effectively. Coach Myrna suggests visualizing negative thoughts as colored balloons, letting them float away, thus preventing them from taking a strong hold on our psyche.

Transform Your Mind Listennotes
Transform Your Mind Listennotes

Cultivating Mindfulness and Self-Care

The true victory in the battle of the mind isn’t about force but about developing a deep understanding of ourselves through mindfulness, meditation, and self-reflection. These practices build a foundation for mental resilience, offering calm amidst chaos and clarity amidst confusion.

“Just as a skilled Warrior hones his craft through practice and discipline, we too must cultivate mental resilience through mindfulness, meditation, and self-reflection.”

By committing to these self-care practices, we arm ourselves with the necessary tools to confront our inner demons and emerge stronger and wiser. The goal isn’t external conquest but inner peace—an inner sanctum of serenity that isn’t easily disturbed by external events.

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Transform Your mind podlink

Finding Strength in Mental Peace

Applying the stop, drop, and roll technique to the battle of the mind transforms our approach to mental health. It shifts our focus from reaction to proaction, from resistance to acceptance, and from turmoil to tranquility.

“Pause to regain your bearings, release what no longer serves you, and fully embrace the fluidity of life’s journey.”

As we learn to stop, drop, and roll with the punches of life, we cultivate a resilience that isn't just about surviving the fire but thriving through it. This resilience is measured by our inner peace—our ability to remain firm in adversity and emerge from challenges with greater wisdom and strength.

In practicing these techniques, we realize that the battleground of the mind is manageable. By stopping automatic negative thoughts, dropping burdensome emotions, and rolling with life’s inevitable challenges, we don’t just douse the mental fires; we transform them into opportunities for growth and deeper understanding.

Conclusion

By embracing the principles of stop, drop, and roll, as conveyed by Coach Myrna, we arm ourselves with a practical and effective strategy for mastering the battles within our minds. This approach offers a pathway to not only manage but to transcend the challenges posed by our automatic negative thoughts, cultivating a life of greater peace, resilience, and inner harmony.

Additional Resources 

Transform Your Mind: You Are Capable

How to Overcome Fear and Find Joy

How to overcome fear, we have to realize that fear comes from our thoughts. It is not real, it is an, energy, and thoughts are the most powerful, energy,  force in the universe.  Thoughts can be either positive or negative.
Heading up the rear of, negative thoughts, is, fear. It is the bottom feeder or all the emotions.
If you allow, fear, to linger in your body and in your mind, It will not only attract the thing you, fear, the most into your experience; but it will also bring disease to your body.
All diseases can be traced back to, negative thoughts, or, fear. Negative thoughts, transform your body into an acidic state.

Fear, is a, negative thought, magnified to the 1000th degree.

In, fear,  mode your body is activated in the fight or flight mode.
Your body tenses, your breathing is shallow, your heart palpitates, your blood pressure is elevated, your hands and body sweat.
Not a good place to dwell!
Unfortunately, your brain cannot detect the difference between your imagination and reality, so the person in the grip of fear cannot tell the difference. They cannot tell that, fear, it is “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

Using Positive Energy to banish Fear

Today I want to teach you how to use, positive energy, to clear the, negative energy, of, fear. But first I want to review one of the Spiritual Laws of the Universe.

The Law of Sowing and Reaping

We all know of the physical laws like, Gravity.
Some laws are physical and some are Spiritual and quantum.
Understanding the spiritual “Law of Sowing and reaping” can change your world.
Understanding that whatever you create it in the spiritual world of your thoughts will manifest in the physical world.

Put another way, that means whatever you plant in the fertile soil of your mind, will manifest in your physical world.
Just like planting an apple tree. Except that in the spiritual world;

The soil is your mind, The seeds are your thoughts,
The water are your actions,
And The sun is your feelings.

If you allow, fear, to dwell in your heart and mind every day you will manifest an apple orchard in your reality.

Energy flows where Attention Goes

Whatever you focus on expands.

Fear is Negative Energy

Everything is, energy, and all, energy, attracts similar energies.
You can't put out, negative energy, and expect positive results.
You can't plant apple trees and expect oranges.

Likewise, you can't focus on what you, fear, and produce a successful result.
If you are constantly thinking of the things you, fear, you are planting a seed and based in the universal Law of Reaping and Sowing, it must germinate.
The mind or consciousness is connected to reality.
Think of something strong enough or long enough to and it will eventually manifest in your reality.
These are six words you must stamp on your mind

“You become what you think about”

When you realize that your mind is a garden you will begin to plant only the things you desire.

How to overcome fear

Exercise: How to overcome fear, write down something that is opposite of what you, fear, and start giving it the same attention you have been giving your, fear.
Since light conquers darkness, it will eventually have your, fear, for lunch!

  • Imagine you having fun traveling the world in crystal clear clarity.
  • Say daily affirmations that compliments your desire.
  • Visualize your goal so much that sometimes you are not sure what is imagined and what is reality;
  • the same way that you let fear take you out of reality.
  • Don't get disappointed if it takes time to perfect this. Remember that positive things take time to manifest,
  • it is the negative ones that show up quickly.

Weeds will sprout up, negative thoughts, of failure will sprout up.
So, every morning find the weeds and dig them up.

Remember a successful gardener will always cultivate his land.

Cultivate your mind for success.
Life is energy, whatever you put out, is returned to you.
The mind does not care what seeds you plant; it will always return what you plant.
You can plant wealth or you can plant poverty.
You can plant fear or you can plant happiness.

Here is an excerpt from the book: The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology:
The Buddha faced plenty of his own fear and terror of imminent death. This is a passage from the Buddha’s early writings that Jack Kornfield, a teacher who helped introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West, quotes in his book.

How would it be if in the dark of the month, with no moon, I were to enter the most strange and frightening places, near tombs and in the thick of the forest, that I might come to understand fear and terror. And doing so, a wild animal would approach or the wind rustle the leaves and I would think, “Perhaps the fear and terror now comes.” And being resolved to dispel the hold of that fear and terror, I remained in whatever posture it arose, sitting or standing, walking or lying down. I did not change until I had faced that fear and terror in that very posture, until I was free of its hold upon me … And having this thought, I did so. By facing the, fear, and terror I became free.

Do not Fear: Definition of fear

Fear – The definition of fear, is false objects appearing real, as per the about passage, can be released by standing your ground. Our instinctive reaction to, fear, is to turn and run because as humans we are hard wired to run from pain and towards pleasure. But, as the Buddha teaches in the passage above if you stand and have the courage to not move, you become free you, let go of fear, and realize that your imagination is always worse than the reality.

Let me share a personal story on how I overcame, fear and, remove negative energy from home. 

When I first came to the United States of America, I came as a business owner. I did not have any of the benefits of a permanent resident. As my business was building, I decided to earn money as a sales person selling vacations. I was not authorized to work in the US, so I became very fearful of being found out and being deported. Every night I would dream that the immigration officials would come to my house and take me away in handcuffs. Sometimes I would dream that they would throw me in the back of the trunk.

One day, my pastor preached a sermon on, the fear factor. He said that God promises to carry your burdens, so give them to God. He said when you give your, fears, and heavy loads to God, you can't worry or take them back because that would mean that you don't have faith in God's promise to carry them. He asked the congregation to write our, fears, and heavy burdens on a piece of paper and ceremoniously throw them at the alter giving them to God.

I wrote my, fear, of being deported on a piece of paper and threw in on the alter. In doing so, I, let go of fear, and became free because I gave it away to someone else, God. The good news is that I no longer was afraid of anything. Every time something came up that would potentially me fearful, I would face it and know that it will work out for my good. I stood on the scripture “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you.”

Meditation to Let go of Fear

Sit quietly in a chair, be comfortable.
Place feet flat on the floor, hands clasped in your lap. Close your eyes. Be present. Focus on your breathing, feel your belly rise and fall under your clasped hands.
Breathe in for a count of 4 and breathe out for account of 6. Thus, slowing down your rhythmic cycles. Be mindful of the air as it passes through your nostrils down your esophagus and into your abdomen. If your mind wanders off bring it back gently to your breathe. Your mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time. Concentrating on your breathe bypasses your mind. Once you slow your cycles and quiet your mind, you are now in the receptive mode to change your programming.

Think briefly about something you, fear. Today we will use as our example the, fear of flying. Today we are going to use our imagination to replicate the experience of flying while you are sitting comfortably and safely in your chair.

Let's begin. visualize you are at the airport with your loved ones, your husband and 2 children. You are on your way to Venice, Italy. You chose Venice because you wanted a romantic vacation with your husband. You can't wait to ride on the Gondolas and be serenaded with live music, going to the opera and have the experience of taking a water taxi everywhere. You are excited. This energy is positive.

You let this feeling of euphoria wash over you, you feel your body tingle with this positive energy. You feel good!
Now you are boarding the plane, you are starting to feel a little anxious. You board the plane and find your seat, you buckle yourself in. The pilot announces that your flight time is 6 hours and that he will be flying at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. He advises you to give your attention the flight attendant and pay attention to the safety information. You mentally note your exits. You listen to what to do in the event of a water landing! Your mind is going nuts with fear. Your heart starts to palpitate rapidly, you start to sweat.

Now the airplane is taxing down the runway at full speed, then lifts off the ground.
You squeeze your husband's hand, you are hardly breathing, your whole body is tight. The plane is climbing it shakes a little. You are so scared the sweat starts dripping from your forehead. The plane reaches cruising altitude, the pilot turns off the fasten seat belt sign and people start moving about the plane. You calm down a little, but still aware of every movement of the plane.

The flight attendants come around and offer beverages. You ask for a glass of wine. You drink it down in one gulp! You start to feel calmer. The flight is uneventful. After what seems like an eternity the pilot announces that in 30 minutes he will be starting his descent into Venice. Your fear returns, the plane shakes a little as it descends and you are once again in the grip of fear. The plane touches down and speeds down the runway braking speed. Your body is tight, your breathing shallow. Then it is all over. You faced your fear and came out on the other side! You exit the plane and you are in Venice!

I want you now to realize that you have taken your first flight in your mind.
I want you to realize that fear is false evidence appearing real.
I want you to realize that once you face your fear, like a bully, it backs down.
I want you to realize that the energy of fear is keeping you stuck.
I want you to realize that whatever your fear, just like we took a ride on an airplane and came out alive on the other side that is how all fear works. It has no real power over you. The only thing that is holding you back from doing the things you want to do is all in your mind. So, the only way the clear it is to start with the mind. Do a dress rehearsal in the mind and then do it in the physical.

How to overcome fear:  Face Your fear.

Face your fear. The second step is to clear it from the place it is planted in your mind. Take a moment now to ask your higher self where the fear of flying came from. When was the fear planted? When you get the answer, you may think to yourself, boy that was silly or you may have a legitimate reason to be afraid of flying. Someone you know could have died in a plane crash or you yourself could have been in a plane emergency landing. The thing to remember is that you know that every time you drive on the highway you could die and you are aware of thousands of people who have died in car accidents; yet few people have a fear of driving in a car.
So, consciousness is the second step.

The third step is to clear that energy by replacing it with, positive energy. We are going to use the, positive energy, of gratitude. Sit comfortably again. Imagine a bright light entering the crown of your head moving down through your check, down your throat to your chest, down your abdomen through your feet.
Feel this light fill all your energy centers as you become fully relaxed. Now expand this energy out from your chest past the room, past your city, past your country, past the clouds, past the sun, past the planet into the stratosphere. You are now floating in cyberspace. If you can bring your fear to mind in this space, do so now.

Then replace that feeling of fear with the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude that you are alive, gratitude that you are in your sound mind, gratitude that you have a place to sleep and food to eat. Gratitude that you are wealthier than 95% of the people in the world and you have the resources to travel to exotic destinations. Gratitude that you will not let fear rob you of your joy.
Now set the intention to fly to the first place on your bucket list within the year.

If you found this post helpful, I would love to hear your comments on what your fears are, and if you achieved a successful result transferring it with these exercises. Please share this podcast and blog post with friends and family and remember to subscribe and post a review.
Transform your Mind podcast is giving away a Free Checklist you can do every morning to replace your fears with positive affirmations.
To receive please subscribe, rate and review this podcast then send me an email to [email protected] with the subject line iTunes review.
Until next time Namaste

Additional Resources

No Fear : How to Live with Courage