Nerve by Taylor Clark is a great read. It is an entertaining and insightful look into fear. He shares some key methods to deal with fear, anxiety, and stress. I didn’t say overcome fear because our fears are here to stay (for the most part). The hero’s of the world acknowledge the fear and move forward with it.

Lesson #1: Breathe.
It turns out that in the grip of fear we stop breathing or we start breathing shallowly. This response just perpetuates our stress reaction to the fear.
“By consciously controlling our breathing, we can inform our parasympathetic nervous system that things are okay, lowering our heart rate and taking fear down a notch.”
The tactical breathing method taught by psychologist Dave Grossman to soldiers, police officers, etc. is as follows:
1. “…slowly draw air through your nose down into your abdomen for four leisurely counts (you can place a hand on your stomach to make sure you’re breathing in correctly).”
2. “hold for 4 counts”
3. “exhale through your mouth for four counts”
4. “and hold again for four counts…repeat as necessary…”