Embracing Fear: and Finding the Courage to Live Your Life

Fear takes many forms -- dread, worry, panic, anxiety, self-consciousness, superstition, and negativity -- and manifests itself in many ways -- avoidance, procrastination, judgment, control, agitation, and perfectionism, to name just a few. Fear is our constant companion. It haunts us day and night and prevents us from living to our potential. Whether we are afraid of the dark or of being alone, failure or commitment, public speaking or flying, fear dominates our lives, affecting nearly every decision we make.

Embracing Fear challenges us to confront and move beyond the destructive control of unhealthy fear. Utilizing the acronym F-E-A-R, psychotherapist Thom Rutledge maps out a step-by-step methodology:

Face it
Explore it
Accept it
Respond to it

Instead of repressing or ignoring the voices of panic and dread, we learn that it is only through facing, exploring, accepting, and responding to fear that we free ourselves from its paralyzing grip. Combining compelling stories from the author's twenty-year practice, examples from his own struggles with addiction and depression, and practical exercises and tools, Embracing Fear does not pretend to teach the impossible and eliminate fear, but rather shows us that once we understand it we can live beyond its tyrannical control. This powerful life-transforming guide is for everyone who constantly worries about the what-ifs, but is ready and willing to triumph over fear's pervasive presence once and for all.

Thom Rutledge has over twenty-five years' experience as a psychotherapist. Thom's trademark sense of humor, a down-to-earth practicality, and his own compassion are the common threads that run throughout his unique brand of self-help psychology. Thom also writes regularly for self-help/recovery publications around the country, including Steps for Recovery (Los Angeles), The Phoenix (Minneapolis), and Recovery Today.