“Stripped of the emotional component, fear is simply information” @MichelleKhare #TEDTalks

How much of life had I been missing out on because of fear? Fear doesn't always mean stop. Sometimes it means go. Here's an example. A couple years ago, I became obsessed with Harry Houdini and his deadliest trick, the water torture cell. Bound in chains, locked upside down in a glass box filled to the brim with water, Houdini would escape with a single breath. It became my mission to attempt this act. To confront my fear of drowning, I needed a breathold of three minutes. It may sound crazy, but under the right training and supervision, it is possible. But to get there, you have to push through the struggle phase. This is when, as carbon dioxide builds in your bloodstream, your brain thinks you're suffocating and sends signals to your diaphragm to cause violent contractions to force you to breathe. I failed at this edge until my coach told me, "You can't muscle through. You have to surrender. " And when I finally surrendered to the pain, I started noticing all these details I hadn't before. I noticed I was shivering, which meant I was burning valuable oxygen just trying to stay warm. My wets suit felt a little too tight, so I actually wasn't able to get a full inhale before I went in. I started noticing all of these little changes that we began to make and address and it made all the difference. Stripped of the emotional component, fear is simply information. It tells us exactly what we need to know in order to progress. And when we addressed all of these things, everything changed. 6 weeks later, I escaped Houdini's trick in 2 minutes and 40 seconds.