Having a fear of birds is incredibly awkward. Relaxing on a city trip? Forget it, because every beautiful square is full of pigeons. The beach? Forget that too because that's where those pesky seagulls are who like to peck at French fries. And have you ever noticed how big those seagulls really are? To ensure that you can still enjoy the beach or a city trip, in this article I will discuss how to overcome your fear of birds.
Fear of birds
If you have a fear of birds you find it difficult to be around birds. You may also find it difficult to go outside (because there are birds there) and then spend hours planning to go to the store for a while because you visualize staying away from birds.
Then, when you do face a bird, your mind goes wild about what might happen. This can even cause you to have a panic attack in severe cases.
- You're going to vibrate.
- You sweat more.
- Your heart rate goes up.
- Your blood pressure goes up.
- You can freeze.
- You can run away (sometimes without seeing where).
These are all symptoms of anxiety.
The origins of fear of birds
Because birds are harmless to most people, fear of birds is usually something that can arise during childhood. This is because beliefs about how the world works, and which animals you should be afraid of, are formed until about age seven.
An expert by experience on the Internet also reveals that his fears arose when he went with a group of friends to care for a bird that had been injured. Each time they took pride in the fact that when they opened the shoebox the bird was in, it was not dead and was still alive. Apparently he was under the impression that the little bird would always be in that state until it died. Unsuspecting, he opened the box and the bird suddenly flew at his face. At that moment he only realized how big the bird was (suddenly as big as a falcon) and what kind of claws it had. He has had a fear of birds ever since, well into his adult life[1].
Treating fear of birds
If your fear of birds is preventing you from enjoying normal things, such as going out on a terrace or to the zoo for a while, it is important to do something about it. There are several ways to overcome your fear of birds.
Hypnosis can help in these ways.
Regression
Regression is even a hypnosis technique for figuring out your fear of birds if it is not as obvious as in the above example. And even when it is obvious to you. With regression, you go back to the moment when your fear arose while under hypnosis.
You then go on to do something with that moment. The hypnosis expert guides you in this process to see this moment from a different angle. For example, you can empathize with the bird, which is probably terrified of a large human child and in that fear it tries to run away and then when you are sitting with your face above that box, it looks very much like it is attacking you. Whereas the little bird is more afraid of you than you are of him.
This technique can already do much to reduce your fear of birds.
Reducing sensitivity to birds
Another way to reduce your fear of birds is to make yourself less sensitive. This is done with confrontation for fear. To do this, you first create a top 10 fears of birds, such as:
- Photo of a bird.
- Video of a bird.
- A stuffed bird.
- A parrot.
- A blackbird.
- A magpie.
- A dove.
- Pigeon feeding.
- Petting a parrot.
- Having a falcon on the arm.
This is just one example.
To make yourself less susceptible to fear, you confront yourself with the fear. You confront yourself until you get bored of what you are doing. Then you are sure the fear is gone.
At first, it can be very simple, such as looking at a picture or video. With a set-up bird, it may already be different. The hypnosis expert can then help you look closely at the bird.
For example, this can first be practiced with a guided visualization of viewing the stuffed bird. This can go as follows.
"You're going to look at a stuffed bird soon. Then really look at it. Look at the feathers and the patterns, look at the beak a the little nostrils on the beak. Look at the legs and the little claws. Touch the stuffed bird. Feel how smooth the feathers are and how brittle the legs actually feel. It's not scary at all, the bird is just beautiful."
This visualization while under hypnosis helps you look at the bird with the right mindset and confront your fear.
In addition, you can also get suggestions to help you control your physical response to anxiety so that your physical response does not make your mental anxiety response worse.
These may include suggestions such as:
"You keep breathing calmly."
"You can feel your soles on the floor/ground."
"You relax your muscles."
"You smile."
These suggestions may be different depending on your issues when you experience anxiety.
Mind Reversal
Your thoughts also determine much of how you interact with birds. For example, if you avoid picnics because of your fears, redirecting impeding thoughts can help you get out of your house anyway.
For example,
Thought: Birds take my food.
Rethinking: Birds are curious and if I drop something they eat it.
Thought: Birds are going to attack me.
Rethinking: Birds are afraid of me and fly away.
The hypnosis expert can also help you with this thinking around. What omdenk actions you get depends on the beliefs you have about birds.
You can figure out these types of beliefs with regression or with a Socratic conversation in which the why question is repeated several times to get to the heart of your beliefs about birds.
Overcoming fear of birds
So overcoming your fear of birds can be done in several ways. The easiest way is to use regression to do something with the moment when your fear arose. You do this while under hypnosis.
Then you can make yourself less sensitive to your anxiety. By confronting it to the point where you get bored of birds. At that point, you can be sure you won't become agitated or anxious by birds.
A third way is by rethinking your thoughts about birds. This requires some form of mindfulness, and hypnosis also helps well with this.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis works and how to help people? Then come to the hypnosis playshop where you can master the basics of hypnosis.
Feel like you want to learn more than just the basics right away? Then come to a seminar or enroll directly in one of our courses. Ask about online options if this suits you better.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-are-a-lot-of-people-incredibly-afraid-of-birds
