blood blood and more blood gushing out
of his body as if he was a pinata
the man struggles to stay alive but
can’t because the Bodhi is on gets
demolished by a huge great white shark
red liquid starts to come out of his
mouth as he finally drifts to the bottom
of the ocean jaws the movie that many
call the best of all time almost ruined
my life forever now I’m not gonna lie
this was a great movie
and I think it’s pretty great too but it
probably would have been a good idea to
show this to a tiny imaginative
six-year-old boy that boy was me
from then on sharks were my worst
nightmare and finally after eight years
I decided I was going to overcome this
fear but before I could figure out how
to make my fear disappear I needed to
understand how my mind processes it so
fear goes through something called our
limbic system which is what takes in all
our emotions including fear but it all
starts with something called the
stimulus the stimulus is what makes you
scared so let’s just say you’re afraid
of spiders when you see a spider at the
zoo the sensory data you take in is sent
directly to the thalamus the thalamus is
like a traffic cop for your brain
because it takes in the sensory
information and puts it down to roots
let’s start with road number one also
known as the messy room with this road
our minds don’t know if the signals it’s
getting are a danger or not but since
the answer isn’t a definite note it
sends the information directly to the
amygdala to fast-track the flight or
flight response
the amygdala tells I both Alamos to turn
on the fight-or-flight response and
release the hormones
and we experience fear so that’s road
number one but at the same time road
number two is going through our mind
which is the considering all the options
road from here instead of fast tracking
the flight or flight response turn on we
go from a thalamus to the sensory cortex
where it determines oh there’s more than
one way to interpret this data it might
not be bad but the sensory cortex
doesn’t figure out exactly what’s going
on so it asks the hippocampus for help
the hippocampus is probably the most
important part of the brain it uses the
memories that we’ve had and asked
questions to help us get over our fear
or figure out if it’s a danger or not so
in this situation when we’re looking at
a spider in the zoo the hippocampus
would ask where is the spider can it get
to us and since the answer is no it
tells the amygdala and the hypothalamus
to turn off the flight or flight
response see both of these are happening
at the exact same time but since the
high road or the second road is slower
we have a moment of pure anxiety and
terror before we finally calm ourselves
down so now you understand how we
process fear but why should you care
you’re probably thinking your head
this kinda kid doesn’t know what he’s
doing this doesn’t apply to me he
probably can’t even do his own laundry
well you’re wrong although you’re
something about the laundry sadly isn’t
thanks mom see fear can cause damage to
our cardiovascular and our immune
systems so unless you like not having a
heart beating or getting sick all the
time getting over your fears matters but
even more importantly fear can cause
damage to our hippocampus which as I
said holds all of our most precious
memories including when our children
were born or our wedding or even an
important talk that we said
but seriously hearing what my fear could
do to me was really scary and I knew I
needed to take action right away so
first I looked to military officers as
they have to deal with life in that
situations all the time they had to have
some tactics that they used to push down
the fear and pull up the courage I found
that they used laughter and
self-motivation we’re all used for that
voice who talks in the back of our heads
we’re all also using the fact that this
voice is kind of horrible it’d be great
to have an inner motivational speaker
telling us we’re great and everything’s
going to be fine but more often than not
this guy’s telling us we’re horrible and
we’re doing bad this is the real thing
in times of stress our brains create
talk that can dramatically increase our
feelings of fear our minds soldiers
fight back against this by repeating
words like faster so that they can go
faster I mean you can do the same thing
in your everyday life right now I’m
doing it during the speech in my mind
I’m saying keep moving forward so if I
mess up the keep moving forwards are
always right there to fight back against
that voice so what else did military
officers use laughter it’s so simple
anybody can do it laughter let’s see-oh
Platoon James Walters know that
everything’s going to be okay and it’s
all gonna work out and a Stanford study
revealed that people who were told to
laugh when they saw disturbing images
did much better and had a much healthier
reaction than people who weren’t given
the chance I realized I’d subconsciously
use this technique when I went with my
friend Stowe horror movie believe me I
hate horror movies I almost hated as
much as I hate sharks
but they convinced me and I almost had
to be shoved in the theater but once we
were in there we were cracking jokes
about the plot here and there and we
were all laughing but the horror movies
turned out to be a comedy now I learned
what military officers could do but I
skipped over the most important person
who could help me psychologists they
have to deal with patients who need to
overcome their fears all the time and
many of them have a multitude of ways of
helping their patients do this but the
way that all of them had a common thread
was to gradually push my comfort zone
until I finally overcame my fear so
that’s exactly why I decided to do I
started out with just an easy task for
myself just looking at some videos of
people shark diving pretty simple just
go on youtube and watch them in only a
couple of days I was completely fine
with this and moved on to my next step
which was having a remote controlled
flying shark in my house yes this is
supposed to be a fun toy and look at
that kid right there he’s having a great
time but believe me when I say this this
was no fun at all
I woke up in the third morning to have
it floating right above my bed and it’s
not very fun to have a five-foot object
right above your head I almost had a
heart attack but by the end of the week
I walk talk walked in the door from
getting home from school and I’d greeted
it as as it was just some normal thing
to have in my house okay now I overcame
my fear of the helium shark but real
ones
so I knew I needed to go to Long Island
aquarium in Riverhead New York to
overcome my fear first I started at the
shark tank
I started it outside and I stood maybe
about 10 feet away then as time moved
forward I slowly inch myself forward
until I got to the glass then I was on
my second to last step which was now I
knew I needed to do some type of touch
exhibit so I went to the shark touch
tank and I just dipped my hand in the
water again as time passed I slowly made
my way to the Sharks back the tiger
shark and just slightly rubbed it then I
got into more a little bit like more
comfortable rowing so after this I
couldn’t do anything else other than my
last step which was jumping in a tank
with these shirts yes I know it’s crazy
I definitely did not want to do it but I
knew it was the only thing I could do to
fully overcome my fear of sharks I put
on a wetsuit and an oxygen mask and I
Tim idli dropped in and as the bubble
started to lift oh my a huge huge shark
just glided past my face I wanted to
scream every curse word imaginable and I
would have if it weren’t for the
microphones in the mask so I kept it PG
with the holy beliefs and the oh my gosh
but at around the five-minute mark I was
finally calmed down my hands started to
let go and I was actually breathing at a
normal pace at this point I knew my fear
of sharks was finally gone because my
hippocampus must have remembered me
touching the sharks me having the helium
shark in my house and me looking through
the shark tank I was so happy that my
fear of sharks was fine
they gone now I want you to think about
your fear you don’t have to say it just
think I mean it might be a little bit
embarrassing for you now use this fear
and think of one way that you could
gradually overcome it execute this and
you just made your first stride toward
fully overcoming your fear I believe in
you and you should believe in yourself
because if I a kid a 14 year old kid who
barely make his own peanut butter and
jelly sandwich can overcome my fear of
sharks why can’t you thank you
of his body as if he was a pinata
the man struggles to stay alive but
can’t because the Bodhi is on gets
demolished by a huge great white shark
red liquid starts to come out of his
mouth as he finally drifts to the bottom
of the ocean jaws the movie that many
call the best of all time almost ruined
my life forever now I’m not gonna lie
this was a great movie
and I think it’s pretty great too but it
probably would have been a good idea to
show this to a tiny imaginative
six-year-old boy that boy was me
from then on sharks were my worst
nightmare and finally after eight years
I decided I was going to overcome this
fear but before I could figure out how
to make my fear disappear I needed to
understand how my mind processes it so
fear goes through something called our
limbic system which is what takes in all
our emotions including fear but it all
starts with something called the
stimulus the stimulus is what makes you
scared so let’s just say you’re afraid
of spiders when you see a spider at the
zoo the sensory data you take in is sent
directly to the thalamus the thalamus is
like a traffic cop for your brain
because it takes in the sensory
information and puts it down to roots
let’s start with road number one also
known as the messy room with this road
our minds don’t know if the signals it’s
getting are a danger or not but since
the answer isn’t a definite note it
sends the information directly to the
amygdala to fast-track the flight or
flight response
the amygdala tells I both Alamos to turn
on the fight-or-flight response and
release the hormones
and we experience fear so that’s road
number one but at the same time road
number two is going through our mind
which is the considering all the options
road from here instead of fast tracking
the flight or flight response turn on we
go from a thalamus to the sensory cortex
where it determines oh there’s more than
one way to interpret this data it might
not be bad but the sensory cortex
doesn’t figure out exactly what’s going
on so it asks the hippocampus for help
the hippocampus is probably the most
important part of the brain it uses the
memories that we’ve had and asked
questions to help us get over our fear
or figure out if it’s a danger or not so
in this situation when we’re looking at
a spider in the zoo the hippocampus
would ask where is the spider can it get
to us and since the answer is no it
tells the amygdala and the hypothalamus
to turn off the flight or flight
response see both of these are happening
at the exact same time but since the
high road or the second road is slower
we have a moment of pure anxiety and
terror before we finally calm ourselves
down so now you understand how we
process fear but why should you care
you’re probably thinking your head
this kinda kid doesn’t know what he’s
doing this doesn’t apply to me he
probably can’t even do his own laundry
well you’re wrong although you’re
something about the laundry sadly isn’t
thanks mom see fear can cause damage to
our cardiovascular and our immune
systems so unless you like not having a
heart beating or getting sick all the
time getting over your fears matters but
even more importantly fear can cause
damage to our hippocampus which as I
said holds all of our most precious
memories including when our children
were born or our wedding or even an
important talk that we said
but seriously hearing what my fear could
do to me was really scary and I knew I
needed to take action right away so
first I looked to military officers as
they have to deal with life in that
situations all the time they had to have
some tactics that they used to push down
the fear and pull up the courage I found
that they used laughter and
self-motivation we’re all used for that
voice who talks in the back of our heads
we’re all also using the fact that this
voice is kind of horrible it’d be great
to have an inner motivational speaker
telling us we’re great and everything’s
going to be fine but more often than not
this guy’s telling us we’re horrible and
we’re doing bad this is the real thing
in times of stress our brains create
talk that can dramatically increase our
feelings of fear our minds soldiers
fight back against this by repeating
words like faster so that they can go
faster I mean you can do the same thing
in your everyday life right now I’m
doing it during the speech in my mind
I’m saying keep moving forward so if I
mess up the keep moving forwards are
always right there to fight back against
that voice so what else did military
officers use laughter it’s so simple
anybody can do it laughter let’s see-oh
Platoon James Walters know that
everything’s going to be okay and it’s
all gonna work out and a Stanford study
revealed that people who were told to
laugh when they saw disturbing images
did much better and had a much healthier
reaction than people who weren’t given
the chance I realized I’d subconsciously
use this technique when I went with my
friend Stowe horror movie believe me I
hate horror movies I almost hated as
much as I hate sharks
but they convinced me and I almost had
to be shoved in the theater but once we
were in there we were cracking jokes
about the plot here and there and we
were all laughing but the horror movies
turned out to be a comedy now I learned
what military officers could do but I
skipped over the most important person
who could help me psychologists they
have to deal with patients who need to
overcome their fears all the time and
many of them have a multitude of ways of
helping their patients do this but the
way that all of them had a common thread
was to gradually push my comfort zone
until I finally overcame my fear so
that’s exactly why I decided to do I
started out with just an easy task for
myself just looking at some videos of
people shark diving pretty simple just
go on youtube and watch them in only a
couple of days I was completely fine
with this and moved on to my next step
which was having a remote controlled
flying shark in my house yes this is
supposed to be a fun toy and look at
that kid right there he’s having a great
time but believe me when I say this this
was no fun at all
I woke up in the third morning to have
it floating right above my bed and it’s
not very fun to have a five-foot object
right above your head I almost had a
heart attack but by the end of the week
I walk talk walked in the door from
getting home from school and I’d greeted
it as as it was just some normal thing
to have in my house okay now I overcame
my fear of the helium shark but real
ones
so I knew I needed to go to Long Island
aquarium in Riverhead New York to
overcome my fear first I started at the
shark tank
I started it outside and I stood maybe
about 10 feet away then as time moved
forward I slowly inch myself forward
until I got to the glass then I was on
my second to last step which was now I
knew I needed to do some type of touch
exhibit so I went to the shark touch
tank and I just dipped my hand in the
water again as time passed I slowly made
my way to the Sharks back the tiger
shark and just slightly rubbed it then I
got into more a little bit like more
comfortable rowing so after this I
couldn’t do anything else other than my
last step which was jumping in a tank
with these shirts yes I know it’s crazy
I definitely did not want to do it but I
knew it was the only thing I could do to
fully overcome my fear of sharks I put
on a wetsuit and an oxygen mask and I
Tim idli dropped in and as the bubble
started to lift oh my a huge huge shark
just glided past my face I wanted to
scream every curse word imaginable and I
would have if it weren’t for the
microphones in the mask so I kept it PG
with the holy beliefs and the oh my gosh
but at around the five-minute mark I was
finally calmed down my hands started to
let go and I was actually breathing at a
normal pace at this point I knew my fear
of sharks was finally gone because my
hippocampus must have remembered me
touching the sharks me having the helium
shark in my house and me looking through
the shark tank I was so happy that my
fear of sharks was fine
they gone now I want you to think about
your fear you don’t have to say it just
think I mean it might be a little bit
embarrassing for you now use this fear
and think of one way that you could
gradually overcome it execute this and
you just made your first stride toward
fully overcoming your fear I believe in
you and you should believe in yourself
because if I a kid a 14 year old kid who
barely make his own peanut butter and
jelly sandwich can overcome my fear of
sharks why can’t you thank you
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