 Hello, my beautiful internet friends, and welcome back. I do apologize for the weird location and lighting, but right now my body is not cooperating with anything else, and so this is what we have. I wanted to share with you guys a cool story, because it feels cool to conquer fears. And this is a tactic that has helped me get over or push through a lot of fear, and oftentimes when we push through fear, we figure out that it wasn't anything to be afraid of in the first place, though not always. So I'm not claiming that this works for everything, but this has actually helped me in quite a few situations in my own life. I learned about this way of thinking about things in college. I used to practice mixed martial arts fighting, and a coach who was on the Ultimate Fighter, which was a TV show, and I was watching it to be supportive of him, and he said this one line that I'll never forget, and I started utilizing it when I was scared of something, when I wanted to run away from something, when I was terrified of a situation. And it actually kind of worked, and it's continued to work, and I tried it out last night, yet again, and it had fantastic results, so let me share this with you guys, and then see if this is something that you think you could use in your own life. Shepherd attack. So I think the audio is just gonna be shepherd painting the rest of the time. Can you like, down somewhere else, no? That was abusive. Do you see that? She just hit me. Go lay down. Go lay down somewhere else. Go lay down somewhere else. She moved like two inches that way and stopped. My friends, lovely friends that they are, invited Brian and I to go soaking with them. There's this really cool place, it has a bunch of like mineral tubs and things like that, and initially when they asked, I said, yes, that sounds amazing. Have you ever said yes to something before you actually considered what you were saying yes to? Yeah, I did that, and today's the day I actually have to face it. I didn't really think through the fact that I'm like missing a leg, right? I didn't think through all the logistics of it. First off, logistically, how am I going to get in the pool because I'm missing a leg? And emotionally, that's the second thing, not the third thing, emotionally, this is the first time I will ever be in public with my leg uncovered. That might not sound like a super big deal because I don't go out of my way to hide my leg. Also, I don't really have a way to hide it, but it's also always covered by my shrinker or the liner or something. No one's ever seen like the scars and the weird inversion in the middle and just the fact that my leg is completely gone and what that looks like in public. And that's really uncomfortable and I'm gonna have to find a way to maneuver into a pool safely on slippery surfaces with people watching. And if there's one thing that embarrasses me like nobody's business, it's like falling or slipping in front of people. So I think this will be an interesting experience. I think it's funny, because right now I'll say yes to a lot of things because I'm still used to being kind of able-bodied. Like I'm still used to having certain limitations but not these limitations. And it's only after the fact that I'm like, oh, right. I say yes a lot before I actually think it through. So tonight I'm gonna go soak in public and just see how that goes. I really freaked out about that and kind of panicky and that's when I recorded that video. But then I started thinking about this tactic and what my coach had said years ago was that he tries to make peace with the worst case scenario. Now, let me pause right there and say that at first when I heard that I was like, that's a terrible idea. Why would you envision all the bad things that could happen? He makes peace with the worst case scenario before he goes into something and it just stuck in my head. It just stuck in my head. And later that week, because this was years ago, I had to get a presentation at school and I was terrified of public speaking, which is funny because that's what I wanna do professionally now, I love it. I felt like crap, I was not prepared. I didn't like what I had to speak about. I was like, I'm going to fail miserably in front of an entire classroom full of college seniors who know what they're doing and I don't look like I know what I'm doing. I won't be able to like put words together and I'm gonna throw up in front of people and it's gonna just suck. And I was sitting there in the back of the classroom internally panicking and like hyperventiling and I remembered what my coach said and I thought about the reality of actually throwing up in front of a room of like 30 people, my peers. Cause that's what I was scared of. That's what I was scared with legitimately happened or what if I even like passed out or what if I freaking forgot everything I was going to say and I imagine those three situations and kind of just made peace with them. I made peace with the fact that, you know, if I threw up in front of everybody, there's no one in this class who really cares about me or who I really care about. There's no one I'm really here to impress. It'd probably make a funny story years down the line. If I pass out, it'll be a cool story for everybody else. Hopefully I won't hit my head and if I forget absolutely everything I'm gonna say, I've also seen other students forget everything that they were gonna say and went to give a presentation and I felt compassion for them because we've all kind of been in that position before. And so realizing the three worst things that could happen might actually happen. And that I would still be alive, that I would still exist, that I would still walk out of the classroom at the end of the day and get to go home to my puppies. I was like, you know what, screw it. Let's just do this. And I went up there and I had a great time giving that presentation because I knew that when everything went wrong, I would still be me. I would still exist. It might be embarrassing. It might be challenging. It might be whatever, but I would like still be okay at the end of the day, it would just be a story. And so when I was faced with this thing yesterday that really freaked me out, that I wasn't sure about doing, kind of freaked out, I'm not gonna lie. And if I break down sobbing, I break down sobbing. Cross your fingers for me, guys. Now I recorded that video when I was at home. I was getting ready to go. It was about a half an hour drive to get to their house and then drive to the place that we were going. And during that half an hour drive, I envisioned all the things that I was most terrified of. What if my friends, which this would never happen by the way, but what if they thought I was super disgusting and gross and hated the way I looked and made fun of me? And that like almost made me laugh because they're like good friends of mine and they would never do that. And even if that was the case, that would kind of make them jerks if they were mean to me about it. And so I wouldn't care anyways. You know, it might hurt, but whatever. And what if I slipped and fell in front of people watching me? That would suck. That would straight up suck. I'd probably cry. I'd be super embarrassed, but Brian would be right next to me. My friends would be right next to me and they would help me up and it would be an opportunity to allow other people to help me as much as that would not be super fun. As long as I didn't hurt my knee anymore or hurt my leg, I'd be okay. And what if other people stared even more and thought I was weird looking, just talked about me or looked at me or whatever. And frankly, people look at me anyways. That's been the case since they lost my leg and I can't control what other people are thinking. I cannot control what goes on in other people's head. All I can control is my own thoughts and actions. And so whatever people think is outside of my control and if they think that I'm weird or gross or whatever, that's on them, that's not on me. And so driving down there, I kind of made peace with the three things I was really frightened of that made me feel like this was an experience I should run away from. And once I realized that after those three situations could happen, I would still be okay. I'd still be all right. I'd have a story to tell or I'd have something that hurt a little bit but honestly it was okay. Then I was really excited to go and guess what, we had a great time and it went wonderfully and there were no issues and it was a little hard to like navigate around a slippery area with my eye walk or just like with one leg, right? But I made it work. My friend helped me and Brian helped me and it was great and there were no issues and I was really glad that I went instead of listen to fear and stayed home. I don't think this works in every situation but when it comes to everyday stuff, when it comes to things we're insecure about or things we're afraid of, whether that is having a meeting with someone or calling a friend to ask them about something or asking someone on a date or fill in the blank. If you can really pinpoint what it is that you're terrified of, what it is that is so overwhelming and awful to you, it's been helpful to me to actually figure out those scenarios, figure out specifically what I am scared will happen to me and then envision it and usually I realize that I'll still be okay anyway. You know, I'll still get to go home at the end of the day, I'll still be me. This doesn't really apply in life and death situations, at least I've never tried it in one but it's really helped me with day to day things. It's helped me actually face some fears, it's helped me do things instead of just run away which is generally my instinct. And that is my super, super secret way to defeat fear in three easy steps. Just kidding, there aren't three easy steps. Fear is complicated but that's what's worked for me. I'm curious if you think that that would work for you or what you have tried has helped you overcome fears or insecurities or anxiety or worry. Let me know in the comment section down below. I can't wait to read your comment. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of my patrons over on Patreon. You make all of this possible, you help me more than you know and I am so grateful for you and your generosity and support of me. And thank you for watching this video. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day. I am honored that you would spend it with me. I love you guys, I'm thinking of you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. Bye. 🎵 Have her from the sky 🎵