I try to live my life in a “feel the fear” way and am constantly amazed at just how good it feels, (although just like everyone else I have to practice every day otherwise I lose this great feeling). This was brought home to me yet again at my most recent workshop in July of this year.
I was contacted by a young mum who wanted to book for the workshop. She has already read Feel the Fear and was starting on End the Struggle and Dance with Life, another one of Susan’s wonderful books. We exchanged a couple of emails and she booked for the July workshop, however just before the workshop I received an email from her saying that, due to her relocating, her benefits for that week had been stopped so she wouldn’t be able to attend the workshop. We were both disappointed to say the least, and there was something nagging me inside, telling me that it was really important that she should attend. So I contacted her and offered her a 50% discount in the hope that this would help her situation. She replied to me telling that she had £1.53 in her purse and that she was sorry but she just couldn’t possibly attend. I knew by this time that she had a little girl and I just couldn’t stop thinking of her and wondering how she was going to cope and how I would feel if it was one of my girls in this situation.
This is when the “giving it away” well and truly kicked in! I got in touch and said she could come to the workshop free of charge (the voice was still nagging me, telling me that it was really important that she attended). She was delighted and said she would love to come. I organised for Mike, my lovely partner, to pick her up from her home address and bring her to the workshop and also my daughter, Becky and her partner Rob had gone and bought her a week’s shopping to keep her going till she got her money sorted out. Mike went off to get her and dropped the shopping off at the same time, and by the time she arrived at the workshop I felt like I had known her for a lot longer than a few weeks.
The workshop was great and she really opened up and was very honest and about her fears and her past, which was extremely brave of her as it was obviously painful for her to do. After a very emotional workshop, we said our goodbyes and she promised to keep in touch.
A couple of day later I received a beautiful card from her, which I have attached to this article, and I am sure you will see you how much she gained from the workshop and from a little bit of kindness. The best was yet to come though as not only did she apply for her first job in a number of years, I found out last week that she got it! I cannot begin to tell you how proud we all are of her; she really did Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway.
It’s a wonderful feeling to realise that through my workshops and living in a Feel the Fear way, that Mike, my girls and their partners have also adopted this way of living and gave their time and love so effortlessly to someone they didn’t even know…….. and of course the best part of it all was the wondrous sense of wellbeing we all experienced as a result of “giving it away” – phew I felt like I could fly.
So remember to give it away, it doesn’t have to cost anything, go visit someone who is lonely, spend time talking to people, invite someone to dinner at you home…… anything at all it doesn’t matter how great or small the action, believe me when I tell you that you will experience the biggest high when you do and you will want to do it again, and again, and again.