If fear creates obstacles in your life, performance or business, I hope that these 10 tips are valuable during times of feeling extreme anxiety and panic.

1. If you feel frightened, unreal or unsteady – it does not matter. These feelings are nothing more than an exaggeration of your body’s normal reaction to stress.

2. Just because you have these sensations doesn’t mean you are very sick. These feelings are just unpleasant and frightening, not dangerous. Nothing worse will happen to you.

3. Let your feelings come. They have been in charge of you. You’ve been pumping them up and making them more acute. Stop escalating the feelings! Don’t run away from panic. When you feel the panic mount, take a deep breath and as you breathe out, let go. Keep trying. Stay there almost as if you were floating in space. Don’t fight the feelings of panic. Accept it. You can do it!

4. Try to make yourself as comfortable as possible without escaping. If you are on the street, lean against a post or store wall. If you’re in a store, tell the sales person you don’t feel well and want to sit awhile. Do not jump in your car and go home in fear.

5. Stop adding to your panic with frightening thoughts about what is happening and where it might lead. Don’t indulge in your feelings and think, “Why can’t I be like all the other normal people? Why do I have to go through this?” Just accept what is happening to you. If you do this, what you fear most will not happen.

6. Think about what is really happening to your body at this moment. Do not think, “Something terrible is going to happen. I must get out.” Repeat to yourself, “I will not fall, faint, die, or lose control.”

7. Now wait and give the fear time to pass. Do not run away. Others have found the strength. You will, too. Notice that as you stop adding to the frightening thoughts to your panic, the fear starts to fade away by itself.

8. This is your opportunity to practice. Think of it that way. Even if you feel isolated, one of these days you will not feel that way. Sometime soon you will be able to go through the panic and say, “I did it.” Once you say this, you will have gone a long way toward conquering fear.

9. Try to distract yourself from what is going on inside you. Look at your surroundings. See the other people on the street, in the store. They are with you, not against you.

10. When the panic subsides, let your body go loose, take a breath, and go on with your day. Remember, each time you cope with panic, you reduce fear.