It’s not often that a day on our annual calendar is centered around a specific emotion, but Halloween that’s exactly it. It is a day where the story focuses on the emotion of fear. Movies and TV shows compete to see how scary they can be and how much the plots, characters and creatures can make us jump and hide our faces behind our hands.

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Some of us enjoy being scared, while others find it too silly to be a part of it. Of course, being afraid of a screen the monster is different to the fears we face in real life, and yet our attitudes toward both have parallels.

Even if you don’t want to participate in Halloween activities, this can be a helpful time to think about how you deal with the emotion of fear.

Fear is a normal part of life. Most of the time we can manage these things, but if fear becomes a long-term persistent emotion and we feel we cannot manage it, then we need to seek professional support.

Being aware of how we deal with fear, for example when watch a classic Halloween moviecan give us insight and ideas on how we can deal with fear in real life, developing useful strategies to overcome it.

Name it

Before we can manage our feelings, we must be able to notice them. A Halloween film is labeled or titled as such, there are scary images in its marketing and we can read the plot before buying a ticket. We must do the same for how we feel.

We need to allow ourselves to be afraid and not push that fear away or pretend we are not intimidated. Fear is a normal and appropriate emotion in certain circumstances, and it is universal. You shouldn’t feeling shame or stigma about being afraid in life.

Fear does not only affect children, but also adults. When was the last time you heard an adult say they were scared? It’s more than okay to do it, and in fact, when we are honest and can name it and say it out loud, then we can work on it and manage it.

Find the cause

Once we’ve named the feeling, it’s helpful to try to find the cause. In a typical Halloween movie, common themes trigger fear: the unknown, uncertainty, lack of safety, security, or emotional supporta big change or a character finding themselves in a situation without being prepared for it. The same themes apply in life. Think about what scares you and identify the theme behind it. Either you can control this theme and do something about it, or you can’t. Identifying this can help reduce your fear.

In the moment

Fear and being afraid can be overwhelming emotions to deal with. But if we break them down into moments, they become easier to treat. Just like when watching a horror movie, you may need to take deep breaths, hold someone’s hand, pause the movie, or turn on the lights. There are daily strategies you can use to overcome fear. Try breathing exercises, grounding exercises, get support from others, step back to find perspective and see how things are really happening, and slow down.

See reality

When you can see the “monster” in a movie, it’s not as scary as you imagined. Many of our fears in life come from anticipation, from using our imagination to scare ourselves, and from expecting the worst case scenario. A lot of “what ifs” can scare us, but when we replace them with “what is”, then we can deal with problems, solve problems and take action.

See the goal

Fear is an emotion that developed for a specific purpose: to help us survive and avoid danger in its most basic form. Being afraid in life is not pleasant, but if we use it in the right way and it is a short-term emotion, it can act as a motivator to get us to change our ways. things, to solve problems and to improve things.