One of the best exposure therapy examples is rejection. Constantly exposing yourself to rejection is the best way to get over fear. After months, you become numb and immune to any negative feelings surrounding rejection and failure.
The best exposure therapy I ever did was to start a Twitter account and become an influencer. Once I started talking about my personal finance ideas out into the world, I exposed myself to rejection, criticism, and dislike from strangers.
It was difficult to get used to the negative language when all I wanted to do was help other people’s financial lives. However, after months of exposing myself to the negativity, I don’t feel anything from it anymore. All I reply now is “great!” and move on.
It doesn’t ruin my mood, day, or anything else anymore. We don’t have to face constant rejection in real life. We can face constant rejection virtually, which is the same thing as facing rejection in real life. When Mr.Beast faces criticism for literally helping cure blindness, you understand how little rejection means.
People will ALWAYS complain about something, it’s the greatest phenomenon you will ever see in your life. No good deed goes unpunished and anything that you do will always be criticized. Even if you just say “hello” to someone, there’ll always be someone in this world who doesn’t like it.
That’s why the exposure therapy examples below are so crucial. They help you get over anything.
Exposure Therapy Examples: 9 Examples for Better Confidence
Below are exposure therapy examples I personally used myself. It helped me get over so many of my fears around social anxiety, public speaking, and communicating my ideas to someone else. It gave me the confidence to conquer any and all obstacles thrown my way.
1) Rejection
EVERYONE in this world faces rejection, It could be for a school we wanted to get into, a job or promotion we wanted, or a girl or boy we like. Rejection is everywhere. However, rejection doesn’t happen constantly. It happens from time to time and it catches our feelings by surprise.
Therefore, if you constantly face rejection as one of the exposure therapy examples, then that’s how you get more used to it. I used to get very hurt and emotional when I got a job rejection email or a college rejection email. However, after a couple hundred rejections, I expect rejections now.
I try my best during interviews and it didn’t work out? I couldn’t care less. Onto the next one. At the very least, I have the current job I have anyway. Any time I put in an application, I don’t think “maybe I’ll get the job” and get my hopes up.
Instead I expect to get the “We regret to inform you” email in any and every job I apply to. It’s helped me be more confident in taking more risks and applying for more jobs. Being in therapy is one thing, actually experiencing rejection in real life is another.
2) Exposure Therapy Examples: Trolls
When I started my Twitter account, I had no idea how negative people were until I experienced and saw it with my own eyes. Trolls are EVERYWHERE. And they will bash on your ideas for no good reason. Disagreements are fine but personal attacks are not.
Exposure therapy examples include exposing yourself to trolls who will always be negative about what you have to say. They will twist everything you have to say. When I had 0 – 5000 followers, I would care. Then 5000 – 10k followers on Twitter, I care even less.
These days, I give love to my trolls and haters. They’re helping me drive engagement to my own tweets! That’s a wonderful thing! I had the wrong perspective with trolls. They will drive your engagement, algorithm, and your message even more than your supporters do.
I am very thankful to my trolls because they helped me get to where I am on Twitter. It’s remarkable what I’ve been able to accomplish as a finfluencer.
3) Meeting New People
Meeting new people is one of the exposure therapy examples, I personally used to be terrified of meeting new people. Why? I don’t know how they’re like and what they like. I had no idea how to naturally explore and connect with a complete stranger on a human level on a first meeting.
Meeting new people is a necessary component of life. After exposing yourself to meeting strangers, whether virtually or in real person, you realize that they’re just another human being. Also, sometimes, you both just don’t connect no matter how hard each of you try.
These days, I do not care if I say the wrong thing or if I don’t get to connect with someone else very well. I know myself and the value I bring. If we don’t end up working out, then so be it. It’s neither their or my fault. Exposing yourself to meeting new people will do wonders for your life.
The more people we meet, the more interesting things happen to our lives. The world is built by people after all.
4) Public Speaking
Public speaking is one of the biggest fears people have. Not going through a haunted house, not getting on the highway for the first time. But public speaking. People are petrified and terrified of speaking in front of an audience. The biggest fear is, “what if I make a fool of myself?”.
It wouldn’t be a proper exposure therapy examples list without listing public speaking. The great thing about public speaking is that it’s communication. You don’t have to be in front of a large audience every single day to exposure yourself to public speaking.
You can do it in front of friends and family you like and trust. Public speaking is any time you speak to a group of two people or more. Maybe one day, you start with telling a story in front of your family over dinner. Then the next day, you tell a story in front of your friends.
And so on and so on. After speaking so many times, you will naturally be OK with talking. Communication is the number one skill that will get us to the top. Bonus points if communicating in front of an audience.
5) Heights
I personally have a very big fear of heights. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get over it but I constantly try to expose myself to it. When there’s a mountain to climb, there’s nothing wrong with going to the top and glancing down once in a while.
Or when we ride an airplane, we look down from our windows to appreciate the outside nature. Whatever the case is, heights is one of the exposure therapy examples that people have exposed themselves to to get results. Bungee jumping is a great way to get over a fear of heights.
Once you go through a terrifying experience like that, you realize all the little height fears weren’t really anything to fear. It’s an irrational fear because we think somehow, we’re going to lose our grip and suddenly fall from the height.
Even when we are strapped in and gripping for our lives. Plenty of people do not have a fear of heights and we can be one of them, too.
6) Insects
When I first started college, I was terrified of cockroaches. Growing up, I only saw a cockroach once in my entire life. I recently finished playing tennis in high school and while changing, didn’t notice a cockroach that went inside my backpack. Then when I got home, a cockroach came flying out!
We eventually took care of it, but that gave me a jolt because I’d never seen that before in my life. So when I saw a cockroach for the very first time in college is when the fears came back all over again. I couldn’t sleep. Worse still, they came back in larger numbers down the road.
However, in the 10 years+ since I started college, I got quite used to them. Because I wanted to save and invest as much money as possible, I lived in the cheapest apartments ever possible. With the cheap apartments came a lot of cockroaches.
These days, when I see cockroaches, they’re just another day now. I take care of them and life goes on as normal. Insects are one of the exposure therapy examples that will make you insensitive to them after constant exposure.
7) Driving
I got in a car accident in 2022. From there, I held a very high fear of driving. Every day felt like a struggle and even going outside near cars felt scary to me. It was an especially trying time because I had to move cities for a new job and actually get on the highway.
Driving is one of the exposure therapy examples. How I got back on the road was to start off slow. I did short distance driving for weeks on end by going to the grocery store. Then I started to increase the distance. Then I started to go outside and be around cars more.
My fear subsided over time but it took months of exposure therapy to get over my fear of driving. I know firsthand just how bad the trauma feels after a car accident. Even though I’m over it after months of driving, it still was scary because I didn’t know how I was going to get over it.
Driving is not as easy as it seems. Many got over the fear of driving after months and years of practice.
8) Exposure Therapy Examples: Negotiating
Negotiating is one of anxiety causing activities because the other side has emotions. People take negotiations quite personally and many people yelled at me during negotiations. However, I never take those things personally. If the deal doesn’t work for me, I just walk away.
One company I negotiated with started screaming at me during the negotiation. I calmly and politely declined their offer. The HR person got fired after 3 months, it was quite amusing. In other case, people’s negotiating styles are common.
Some are rational and some are more “in your face” and try to use tactics to manipulate you to accept an offer. Whatever the case is, negotiation is one skill you will constantly need in your life. When you expose yourself to negotiating more and more, you get more comfortable with it.
We negotiate with people way more than we realize. Even the simplest things like asking for time to get lunch is negotiating.
9) Sales
Sales is THE most important skill in business. When I was in college, I got a call center job asking school alumni for donations. It was a grueling job where I constantly faced rejection. I constantly convinced alumni to give money to the school for nothing in return.
However, after that, I learned how sales worked. Rejection didn’t hurt as much because every call had a recognizable pattern to the alumni’s responses. Exposure therapy examples include sales and once you master the game of sales, everything falls into place.
We sell ourselves all the time without realizing it. For a job interview, relationships, and everything in between. Sales is how I make six figures in just my 20s. Because I knew how to conduct myself during interviews and the like to get the job. Especially high paying jobs.
Every no gets you closer to a yes. Once that yes finally comes, all the rejection and sales efforts were worth it.
Exposure Therapy Examples for a Better Life
In my early 20s, I was terrified of putting myself out into the world. I was afraid, I just didn’t know it nor did I want to admit it. Sales and constant rejection were at the top of my fear list. Then once I started to expose myself to constant rejection and the like, my life improved.
I figured out how to interview and negotiate during interviews and apartment applications to get the best deal for myself. Exposure therapy examples may hurt and the process may sting, but it’s extremely helpful. If all you have to do to better your life is get a couple of no’s, it’s in your best interest to go through with it.
Even though I’m far from being an expert, I now know when someone’s trying to pull one over on me. The best part is I can only get smarter from here. Constant improvement is a great way to live because it’s how you achieve upward mobility.
The exposure therapy examples are things I constantly went through myself for a better life. Even though it was challenging, it just gets easier as time passes. This is how we learn what to do and what not to do. Life is full of challenges, surprises, twists, and turns.
The more we expose ourselves to the kinds of challenges in the world that are out there, the better off we are. The smarter we become and the more socially adept we become. I still have social anxiety and constant questions of my decisions. Even after years of going through the exposure therapy examples.
However, the effects diminish every year, which is the end goal.
Exposure Therapy Examples are Life Changing
If I could do my life all over again, I would go through the exposure therapy examples sooner and in much more frequency in my younger days. It’s life changing to learn how to sell, persuade, and get over the fear of public speaking.
Whether we like it or not, we HAVE to communicate to another human being. In our lives, we can’t do it alone and we depend on someone else for our survival. Therefore, when dependability is a necessity, we should know how to use that to our advantage.
Not because we want to “win” against someone else but because we want to better our lives. Life becomes boring when we don’t expose ourselves to new challenges every single day. It’s hard in the beginning but it gets easier as time passes.
We can’t afford to live in the comforts of our homes for the rest of our lives. We grow the most when we constantly put ourselves in uncomfortable situations. It’s uncomfortable today but easier tomorrow. Society doesn’t value us because we know how to do the easy things.
Our value is because we know how to do the hard things that others don’t easily know how to do. That’s how we differentiate ourselves and stand out from the crowd. Exposure therapy examples are a wonderful way to elevate your life and take it a step further.
It’s done wonders for my anxiety issues already and it will only get better.
Exposure Therapy Examples: 9 Examples Shortlist
- Rejection
- Exposure therapy examples: trolls
- Meeting new people
- Public speaking
- Heights
- Insects
- Driving
- Exposure therapy examples: negotiating
- Sales
