It’s the time when witches and wizards in the wizarding world could discuss everything, spoke every name but one and You Know Who. Harry was a new kid in The Hogwarts and quite unaware of the fact that He-who-must-not-be-named was still alive.

 

Well, the above clause is drawn and readjusted from the iconic Harry Potter series. This is what J K Rowling has written in her masterpiece novel series. She made Lord Voldemort the villain of the story and since a taboo spell has been attached with his name so if anyone utters his name, Voldemort’s followers can trace him. By constructing such a legendry villain, Rowling humanized “Fear” in Voldemort’s character. In other words, Lord Voldemort depicts the emotion of fear in human beings. Something that we fear the most, we avoid the most. And by avoiding it, we give it more power.

 

We all have fears which we do not necessarily consider fears and call them by different names such as nightmares, suspicions, anxiety, worry, apprehensions, antipathy, complex and what not. Fear has lots of names and symptoms but every time when we hide our fear, we make it the Lord Voldemort of our lives. When we fear the confrontation of fear, we make it even a more powerful fear.

 

Voldemort of Self-Doubt

 

We often bury our self-doubts within the grave under our pillow and go to sleep every night. But in the morning, don’t those buried self-doubts just become visible in the mirror when we stand in front of it? Then these self-doubts follow us to our office, college, shopping mall and haunt us wherever we go.

 

Self-doubt is common among people and a state of uncertainty that makes us skeptical about our capabilities. We tend to be underconfident even about the things we are good at. This may happen to you at your workplace or with friends in a café. Where you may have been asked to do a job because they deem you a perfect fit for it. However, instead of feeling great for getting the opportunity, you might start worrying and panicking about how you would do it. Ultimately, you procrastinate and delay your work.

 

This all resulted due to brooding of self-doubt in your mind. There can be numerous reasons behind this disappearance of faith in yourself. You might have had bad experiences in the past that led you to this. Or your childhood was filled with challenges that still disrupt your beliefs. Or maybe, you fear the failure which is why before acting upon a task, you put enough efforts to doubt yourself.

 

All reasons aside, having self-doubt isn’t as harmful as silencing it would eventually be. Your doubt needs a table where you can put it and look at it from different angles. What I mean is, you need to list all the things that cause you suspicion. Once you analyse the causes, you can move to overcome it by the methods I am about to explain below.

 

• Take a break – If self-doubt has become the demon of your life, you need to relax. You need to reconnect to nature and be at peace. Its high time you gave fresh oxygen to your brain. A healthy mind is a must to fight with fears.

 

• 21 days of being grateful – When we start comparing ourselves to others, we can give rise to self-doubt and then self-loathing. A lot of people, despite being outstanding, suffer from self-loathing. The reason is they are not grateful enough for their blessings. In order to overcome the Voldemort of self-doubt, you can take up the 21 days challenge of making the list of all the things you are grateful for in your life. Highlight your haves more than have-nots. You become what you feed your brain and if you keep feeding gratefulness for 21 days, it will become your habit.

 

Voldemort of Loss

 

The word Loss is attached to misery. We all fear losing things, people and our lives. Accept it that no matter how much you try, you often overthink during the midnight and most of the overthinking is about what-if-I-lose-this or what-if-it-left-me. The fear of loss is basically you being sad about something that has not happened yet.

 

You may fear failing in an exam that you have not even attempted yet. You may have misjudged your boss’ direction and started fearing to lose your job. You may fear that your dog would die someday. You may fear losing your loved ones in an unfortunate way. The fear is the cause of attachment. We get attached to things, people and habits. And then even a slight thought of detachment starts pinching us.

 

This Voldemort will become a massive one if you do not talk about it. But whom to talk about it? The simple answer here is – firstly, elders. Since elders, who can be your teachers, grandparents, parents or older siblings, have more experience than you in life. They are more likely to have experienced this fear before and might have even overcome it. They could prove to be a great help to you only if you share your mind with them.

 

Secondly, you can approach an expert or a counsellor. The fear of losing can turn out to be causing different mental health-related issues. Hence, it would be best in your favour if you reach out to an expert to seek help.

 

Another way to defeat this Voldemort is that you need to live in the moment. Living in the moment while also being prepared for future scenarios and accepting them. The denial may cost you a lot so instead of hiding the fear, you need to accept it and not be surprised of the eternal truths.

 

Voldemort of Judgement

 

Voldemort of Judgement is equivalent to the fear of not being perfect. When you shy from things because you think you are not perfect, it shows that you don’t wish to be judged.

Well, this one is a widespread Voldemort, found in almost every mind. Anyway, what can be the worse forms of this fear?

You not taking criticism well could be one of the worse forms of this fear. You becoming impulsive and sensitive could be one of the worse forms. You having inferiority complex can also be one of the worse forms of this fear. All these forms sleep and grow beneath your insecurities.

 

Most of the time the fear of judgement is the reflection of our own insecurities. The things we might judge in others, we tend to presume that others would judge the same in us. So, if we wish to fight this fear, we need to look at how we judge others.

 

You might judge someone by based on your incomplete knowledge. For an example, You might judge a couple sitting on a park bench silently that if they are not talking to each other, they might have had a fight. But that may not be the case really. Besides, once you pass through that park bench, you may never think about it again. The assumptions you made can easily be incorrect and also be easily forgotten.

 

The same applies when you think that someone is judging you. Chances are that they are not even going to remember it at all. So, you need to understand that judgements can be based on half-knowledge and incomplete information which is why they shouldn’t affect you.

 

What if somebody judges you and speaks to you directly? In this case, you need to know that such people need to educate themselves. All you need to do is chuck them off from your life. And if you can’t do that, you need to maintain your self-esteem without being adversely affected by their judgements.