So you have a fear and it’s consuming your life. Maybe you’re afraid to ask for that raise you deserve; or you’re scared to death to face your spouse about his hurtful behavior; or maybe you’re afraid you’ll catch the Bird Flu. Whatever it is you’re scared to death about, this little trick may help.
- Imagine your fear – bring it up in your mind full force as best you can. If you prefer, you can actually come face-to-face with the object of your fear (at a comfortable, yet anxious distance – enough to scare you a little rather than a lot)
- Notice – where in your body do you FEEL this fear? Take a physical inventory of your bodily sensations. This is the key – keep it physical.
- Measure – apply the SUD scale to your sensations: 0 = no sensation ~ 10 = unbearable sensation.
- Imagine a large tube or cylinder of water out in front of your body, filled with water to the level representative of the level of your SUD scale. Imagine how the tube of water feels (hot, cold, turbulent, soft, etc.); what it looks like, including color (tall, short, thin, fat, wooden, glass, metal, etc.); notice any sound it makes; make it as sensory real as you can in your imagination.
- Now imagine you could reach out and remove the bottom of the tube and release ALL the water in a sudden rush out the bottom – letting gravity do its job. Whoosh!!
- Repeat the entire process from step 1 above. You’ll probably notice a substantial drop in SUD level. Continue this process until there is NO water in the tube at step 4.
- Most important step – imagine you could PLUG UP the top and bottom of the tube so no water can reenter the tube.
Alternative 1- replace water with air pressure – like an air pressure gage. I’ve had clients who could easily imagine an air pressure gage releasing its air pressure with a WHOOSH sound – like a big sigh. Then, every time a fear came up, they would make the sound and suddenly release all the “pressure”.
Alternative 2 – imagine a toilet instead of a tube of water. Fill the toilet to the level of your SUD and at the appropriate time, flush the toilet… Make sure you place a lid on it and plug up its drain when you are done so it stays dry and empty in the future – until you want to use it, of course… 
Personally, I prefer the water tube imagery because it depends upon gravity and I believe in gravity as a force of nature. It just is – without my intervention or assistance. I release the bottom of the tube and the water falls out of its own accord – no need for me to push it, pull it, or suck it out – it just FALLS OUT. And it’s so easy to form some kind of cork to plug up top and bottom…