How to overcome fear of confrontation?
I live in a rough neighborhood where I often need to confront people (usually young men) who are misbehaving, ie. pissing in front of my house, harassing girls passing by, ringing the doorbell for fun etc. While I am not psychologically afraid of a confrontation, my body immediately goes into an almost paralyzed state, with highly elevated breathing and hearth rate, which makes it almost impossible to even speak, much less be in control of the situation. Even though in that moment I am present, I realize what’s happening and am trying to calm myself down but the bodily sensations simply take over. I’m a small guy so it’s essential for me to project confidence and strength, speak calmly and not seem afraid, which I think is also the best way to avoid escalation. How to overcome that physical reaction so that I am in control of myself and the situation?
Intelligence
Hey Andrew, one of my topics of interest in psychology has been intelligence for a very long time. If intelligence/G Factor is the sum of all our cognitive abilities, why is there such a huge market for optimizing our cognitive capabilities, like focus, working memory, strategic implementation, etc.. if the psychological literature clearly indicates that an individual's intelligence is fixed and can't be changed. yet in the mental optimization space there is a vast landscape for optimizing our cognitive functions and it seems contradictory when thinking about cognitive performance. can you please address that?