Looks can be deceiving

In general, I’m a pretty happy guy. I have a wonderful, healthy family. I do work that helps people, and that I genuinely enjoy. Here’s a picture of me just before doing an interview with Gene Levanchy for Fox News’s Zip Trip travel segment.

I look pretty happy, right? As they say, ‘wait, there’s more.’

Every summer, we spend time in Chatham, Massachusetts. It’s a wonderful place with a great community of kind, fun-loving people. And I was about to plug my book on a TV segment everyone I knew would see.

Happy? I was terrified.

I used to hide those feelings, which made them much, much worse. So, 30 seconds into the interview, I told Gene–and all his viewers–how I was feeling. I talked through the emotional and physical symptoms I was experiencing, using my Anxiety Toolbox in real time on live TV. I told him that within about a minute, I’d be fine, and I was.

Letting the unpleasant feelings come, knowing they would feel bad, but that they couldn’t really hurt me, made the difference. It was a short segment, but I went through an anxiety and healing cycle and got to show everyone that it works, and how to do it, and that was a special opportunity.

By the time we were done, the way I felt inside matched the picture you see above, and it felt great.