Judith Hornok

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Fitness program for getting The Paralyzing Fear to move

Week 2

NEWS CONSUMPTION SELF DISCIPLINE – Only watch as much news as you can bear.

I like to watch the news, it’s exciting, entertaining, informative and stimulates conversations and discussions among people. What would we do without the news, it would get boring, wouldn’t it?

The challenge is to do a self-assessment. How much news can I take? Or to what extent does it paralyze me in my thinking and my reactions. Does it trigger the Paralyzing Fear character?

This is exactly the exercise for week 2: To notice when you personally begin to feel physically uncomfortable consuming the news. At what point does the Paralyzing Fear leave us breathless, making us “freeze inside” from the physical pressure. That’s the exact moment we need to react – by switching to another medium, or by switching off completely, thereby getting the Paralyzing Fear character to exercise, “to move.” And only getting back to consuming news when we intuitively sense: Yes! Now I am READY for it!

  • The training sessions are on a daily basis..
  • You can combine these exercises with the exercises of Week 1.

© „The Paralyzing Fear“ Judith Hornok

© „The Paralyzing Fear“ Judith Hornok

MY Training DIARY: Week 2

Monday: After an hour of walking, I’m motivated. Now it’s time to watch the news. I turn on the TV, excited to see what’s going on in the world! The first report shows a series of deaths, terrifying images. “The number are shocking,” I hear on TV. “Terrifying – we’ll see how it develops …” I feel my chest tighten again. My breath grows heavy.
“Come on,” I tell myself, “Don’t be so over sensitive. It’s not that bad. This is well-researched data, facts. That’s life. That´s the world of today. And you need to stay informed – so, come on, if others can do it, so can you. And it doesn´t feel that bad, right? The pressure is not really that great – you can take a little bit more, can’t you?”
I take deep breaths – in and out. Watch the rest of the news. I sleep badly that night.
I ask myself: Have I recognized the signs of the Paralyzing Fear character? Have I not taken them seriously? I have a plan: The next day I’ll be more disciplined in doing this exercise.

Tuesday: After an hour-long walk, I feel in good shape, and ready to watch the news again. This time I log on to a news portal on the internet. The first report: “Deaths continue to rise …” Along with photos of the victims. I feel a lump in my throat, my breathing gets heavy. Now, it’s clear to me: The Paralyzing Fear character has arrived, is active.
The time has come, switch off when you feel uncomfortable physically. When the Paralyzing Fear character freezes up your body – that’s the exercise for this week’s fitness program. Now I need to be consistent – to follow through. I switch from the news portal to my emails, start reading through them.
Right away, I get a bad feeling, somehow I feel guilty: “Come on, watch some more news, it’s not that bad, read the rest of it. Don’t be so childish, you’re a grownup. You want to stay informed! Right? And I’m sure there is something even more exciting and action-packed.” I take a deep breath – I switch back to the news blog and read the rest of the headlines: unemployment, terror, shocking news. At the end, there’s an entertaining story about a celebrity. I laugh in relief, relax – see, there you go. I click off the news portal, try to sense what’s going on inside me. Somehow, I feel depressed, hopeless. The good mood after my walk is gone. I spend a restless night.

Wednesday: After the walk today, I decide – today I’ll have a news-free day. I haven’t slept well in the last few days. Tomorrow I’ll go back to reading and watching the news. I sleep calmly, get a good night’s rest.

Thursday: Today was a good day. Professionally, I got a lot done. I feel motivated and strong emotionally. So, I decide it’s a good day to watch the news again – I’m ready. Let’s see how my body feels this time, if I get that anxiety again while watching the news. This time I turn on the TV – I am already looking forward to it! The first report is on the success of a company. I enjoy it very much – it feels really good! The next report is about an earthquake, killing many people – documenting “frightful images and numbers, and that’s only the calm before the storm.” However, I notice that I’m in a very good mental state today. This report touches me just a little bit, I’m still able to watch it with a certain distance. The next news is an entertainment report, followed by an interview. The program ends with, “Even the weather doesn’t put us in a good mood. But I still wish you a nice evening.”
I turn off the TV and breathe deeply in and out: How do I feel right now – no feelings of pressure. My breathing is calm and regular. This night too, I manage to sleep well. The balance in my mental state and the arrangement of the reports (grueling, exhausting, dramatic, positive, entertaining) have apparently contributed to my balanced sleep.

Friday: After walking, I turn on the TV, it’s time for the news – let’s see how I’m doing today with my fitness program for the Paralyzing Fear character. The top of the news is: “We are still far from our goal …” followed by a listing of facts and figures. “The situation is hopeless …” another voice says. I feel inside myself – what’s going on? How am I doing currently, in this particular moment? “All good,” I calm myself down, “I don’t feel any kind of pressure. I don’t need to switch the TV off – all is well. “I want to continue watching! The report is well done. I’m excited, can’t let go, have to see more. I inhale and exhale deeply.
The next news item is, “Another hotspot …” a person in the background reports, “… that’s impossible to stop!” The voice sounds a warning, there is a negative undertone. I feel my chest tighten. I’m having trouble breathing, feel the lump in my throat. “The time has come!” I say out loud. The Paralyzing Fear character has now definitely arrived and is starting to paralyze me physically, to manipulate me. And now it’s up to me to really get this creature “moving.” I resolutely turn off the TV. I’m amazed that I don’t mind at all. I also don’t feel guilty about missing something. I feel very good, somehow relieved. And proud of being so strict with myself. This night, I sleep very well.

Saturday: After the walk, I decide I won’t watch the news today. I sleep like a baby.

Sunday: Curiosity has a hold on me today – after the walk I decide I want to watch the news again. But this time too, I’m also aware: I need to react immediately to an unpleasant physical feeling (when the Paralyzing Fear character has a noticeably paralyzing effect on me). Then I need to switch off or change channels immediately. That is the exercise. I log-on to the news portal. The first reported news is: “Positive numbers for…” Well, that sounds pretty good. I quickly scroll over the rest of the headlines for reports on this, read only the headlines – it is a mixture of warnings and positive takes on the situation. With each remark that is made, I check to see what is going on inside of me. If I sense physical pressure – I immediately scroll to the next item. And I go through them, till I reach the end of the list. Today, it’s going very, very well. At night I sleep well.

Results for Week 2

At the beginning of the week, it was difficult for me to consistently switch off or turn away, when the Paralyzing Fear character made me “freeze,” put physical pressure on me. This is where the Paralyzing Fear still had the upper hand. Along with the Aggressive Inner Critic, who likes to stick close to the Paralyzing Fear, and manipulate it with words of warning: “Well, aren’t you being overly sensitive. My god, such a sensitive soul. How do you think this is going to turn out? You do not want to watch the news! That’s impossible! It’s ridiculous, absurd!” But through my consistent training in mindfulness (every day) I was able to manage two of The Emotional Hinderers, get them exercising, “moving” – and, in that way, get them to relax.

I took responsibility for myself – disciplined my daily dose of news consumption. And I was flexible – day by day, minute by minute. I decided: Today I can take watching the news or I can’t. On some days all I did was search for news channels that only presented information (facts and figures) without images or interpretations.

Behaving in this way, I had daily control of my mental state. I felt myself grow physically and mentally fitter by the day. My creativity and joy of life increased.

Fitness program for getting The Paralyzing Fear to move – Week 1

Fitness program for getting The Paralyzing Fear to move – Week 3

1 Comment

  1. Dale Karraker

    My Dear Judith, Yes, now having read the second week’s exercises, I better understand the point and what you are doing here. The self-awareness and understanding when Paralyzing Fear is in control is a very good self-evaluation – it gets us thinking about ourselves and how we are consuming and reacting to information. Bravo! Now I want to think about how the English language is used here – now that I more fully understand the exercises I want to think about the American or English reader will perceive this. VERY GOOD and VERY HELPFUL.

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