Increase Knowledge, Lower Fear (Shawne Duperon)

Last week, my kids had the week off. Spring Break. What a different meaning "Spring Break" has now. It used to bring excitement, possible travel and no school. Now it means, no sign of Spring and no break. Phfftt.

 It was a little taste of summer vacation with the kids. Minus the warmth. Minus the tanned skin. Minus the swimming. Minus camps. Minus dry ground. Ok, the only thing it had in common with summer vacation is that the kids are home 24/7...and the kids were sick of each other within the first five minutes of coming home the friday before vacation...and if I let them, they would spend all day playing video games ...and they (and their friends) trash the house...and they eat everything in the house...and they stay up past my "ME" time at night... and they wake up before I've had my coffee. And, I love being home with them and wouldn't change a thing.

I wouldn't trade being home with them for anything. Is it hard sometimes? Yes. Is it boring sometimes? Yes. Do I dislike keeping the house up everyday (which I don't keep up)? Of course. I won't even ask this question... yes, I hate laundry. But, it is what I do. I love it more than I don't. I don't judge anyone for their choices to stay home or work. You do what works for you. All that I hope for is that everyone makes their children a priority regardless. No one needs to be perfect but love your babies.

Now, this authoring thing I've started is becoming a job and balancing it with my family is challenging and I am not even in it full force yet. I have to be careful not to let it take over. Balance.  Part of my new adventure in authoring included attending a two day Media Bootcamp with Shawne Duperon (Shawnetv.com).  I didn't realize it landed at the end of my kid's vacation week until 3 days before. oops. I frantically called our parents and lined up a Gigi/Papa day and a Grandma/Grandpa day. Thank goodness we are blessed with parents who help on the spur of the moment and lovingly. I vow to do this for my kids someday.

So, I spent two days in, well, therapy. It was a Media Mastery Networking bootcamp that was created to teach us how to get the most of social networking, how to deal with the media and basically how not to look like an idiot. To start, most of us looked like idiots or at least felt like one for much of the 12 hours there.  I spent a great deal of energy managing fear. It has not always been easy for me to meet new people, go places alone or worst of all, stand up in front of people. Put me in a room of children, I'm good. No problem.  Over 10 years old, puke in the mouth. Sorry, TMI.  My blood pressure rose and fell so many times the first day, my name could be changed to Michigan (temp, rise, fall, ok, whatever). I can intellectually tell myself that nothing will happen to me but my first instinct is to panic. I am learning to control that. On the outside, you might think I am confident. On the inside, I am fighting that little girl who would rather slink back into a corner and go unnoticed. The more I am learning, the less fearful I am.

I've come a long way and I am still coming. I am determined to overcome my fears. Shawne helped us identify with those fears and manage them in different situations. It really works. We did a lot of breathing, "Breathe in.  Breathe out." We were also put in awkward and uncomfortable situations over and over which lowered our fear level and taught us how to deal with those situations when we are confronted with them.

"It's not that deep" is one of Shawne's mottos. Really, it's not that deep. The more knowledge we have, the less fearful we become. We become more in control of our emotions, situations and how we interact with people.   In the scheme of things, we are all in the same boat. Most of us don't want to admit that when we don't trust people. When we put our guard down, we realize that we are all a reflection of one another with small distortions. It only takes one person to make the first move in making a connection with another person.  If the other person is open to it, a relationship can develop. If they don't respond, you can't take it personally. It is who they are for whatever reasons. You actually may have made a connection that you will never know about that made a difference in that person. Who knows.

So, all in all, it was a great week with my family and a great week "with me". I am a better "me" for myself, my family and for you.

"Manage fear, master life. Increase Knowledge, lower fear." Shawne Duperonhttp://www.shawnetv.com