Firewalking Your Fears Away

A Firewalk Is Scary As Hell. Until You Do It…

Do you want to know the scariest part of walking on 1,000+ degree hot burning coals for 15–20 feet…?

My husband Jonathan Chew and I have always wanted to attend the Tony Robbins seminar Unleash The Power Within. At the end of the first day, you can choose to participate (as most attendees do) in the firewalk, where you walk across fresh hot coals placed down in front of you from a blazing fire.

I wouldn’t ever recommend doing this at home or without the supervision of someone fully trained to help you. In fact, Tony told a story about someone who literally copied his seminar word for word (even telling personal stories from his life as if they were actually Tony Robbins himself) and at the end of the night, this fake Tony put a ton of people in the hospital when it came time for the firewalk.

FEAR:

Forget Everything And Run? or False Expectations Appearing Real?

The whole day we had practiced getting into what’s called “peak state” where we would influence our emotions by changing the way we moved our body (as Tony said, “emotion is created by motion.”) There were lots of dance moves involved, a ton of empowering gestures, and other various techniques Tony taught us that would help us prepare for both the firewalk and any obstacle or challenge we wanted to tackle in life later.

When I heard the story about all the people getting hospitalized I immediately wondered if my peak state was, well, peak enough! Would I be like those people who got hospitalized because they obviously weren’t mentally or physically prepared? Was I engaged enough? Was I strong enough? Suddenly I was envisioning my feet burning with bloody blisters, I was envisioning getting rushed to the hospital, I thought about tripping and falling on my face across the blazing hot coals…And I definitely kept recalling that horrific time my family went camping and my brother accidentally fell into the fire while we were roasting marshmallows.

And in that moment I gazed around the stadium, looking at all the people eagerly taking off their shoes to prepare for the walk of fire, thoughts entering my head like:

Are all these people crazy?

Am I crazy?

Am I drinking this Kool-Aid, about to go to a massive fire death?

And then something amazing happened. I set my energy on fire (pun intended). I jumped up and down with the crowd and told myself I was going to do this! I started to put the reality of it into motion. I even sent a text to my husband telling him I would see him on the other side of the fire (Tony had strategically partnered everyone with strangers for the firewalk so that we were less likely to talk the people we came with out of doing it!)

The time came. There were helpers all around pumping us up. Any time my head started to drift down to take a peek at the red hot coals before me they would yell “Look up! Look up!” Once they were sure I was in peak state they let me go across the coals. Just me. Me and the firey coals…

Your State of Being Determines How You Feel, Which Determines What You Do, Which Determines What You Get.

Now that I’ve done the firewalk everyone seems to ask me the same questions. Did it hurt? Are you burned? What did it feel like?

Well…

It felt like being a rock star. It felt like climbing Mt. Everest. It was a feeling of pure elation, like I could do anything in the world.

And somehow my feet felt fine, like I couldn’t feel anything but excited energy beneath them. Pain was absent, even when I finished the walk. I looked down and there wasn’t even a blister on my feet.

It’s amazing what we can do when we look up, when we convince ourselves we can conquer something and get to the other side.

I celebrated with all the people around me. We were all jumping up and down and hugging each other. Tony told us to make sure and do this because when we celebrate we condition ourselves to do more things like it. Things are only scary when we let them be scary.

Focus = Power

If focus is truly power, like Tony says, then we should focus NOT on what we DON’T want (ie: getting burned), we should focus on what we DO want (ie: celebrating and accomplishing something cool!) In other words, we should begin with the end in mind…the BEST end we can imagine for ourselves!

Our thoughts, our bodies, and even our language all determines our experience. Focus is both inward and outward. We can empower ourselves mentally and physically for any challenge ahead by getting ourselves into a rockstar state of mind.

So let me ask this again,

Do you want to know the scariest part of walking on 1,000+ degree hot burning coals for 15–20 feet?

(Honest Answer):

The thoughts in my head beforehand…

How often do we go through a challenge and think, “wow that really wasn’t that bad!” or “I was worried for nothing!”

The firewalk really lit up this revelation for me…

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. —Mahatma Gandhi

More often than not, fear and worry will handicap our chances to grow, to achieve, and to succeed in the areas we want to. We talk ourselves out of things before we even try. We make ourselves into who we are, every day by what we think we can do.

We Live What We Believe We Can Do

One of my biggest takeaways from the event is that people can do absolutely amazing things. But what people will actually do is defined by their state of being.

We have to set ourselves up for success, for achieving, for doing…and the first place that starts is not just in the mind but in the body as well.

Next time you’re afraid of something just remember that the scariest part is probably just the part inside your head. Change your state. Give someone a high-five. Put on some music and dance. Breathe deep and enriching breaths. I guarantee it will make you feel better.

Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect, Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

You can also practice and prep in your mind beforehand, envisioning whatever you need to accomplish. The trick is practice it in your mind perfectly. That’s what Roger Bannister did when he ran the world’s first 4 minute mile, when the world told him it was impossible. And that’s what we did before we went out and firewalked our fears away.

And that’s what you can do too…

Don’t just hope you will be in a great state of being, actually put yourself there, make your wonderful positive thoughts a reality.

Remember that life is just a series of firewalks. Go out and tackle them!!

Have any of you been afraid to do or try something and then made just one adjustment to your body or mind and found it was easier to conquer? I would love to hear about it in the comments below!

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Always Remember, Chews Joy!