No thats not just click bait. And you might have at some point found yourself in a similar situation.

So back in 2009 my husband and I were living in Japan. Because of this we decided to visit some of the surrounding countries. On the list was Thailand. For lots of reasons. One actually being because my dad was stationed here when he was in Vietnam so I thought that would be cool. Plus at the time I was a photographer and Thailand looked incredibly vibrant, diverse in culture, and environment. From the hustle of Bangkok to the rugged coastlines. And the wild life. You could pet Tigers and ride elephants! Seemed like a wild adventure right! We set off for a 15 days trip!

So lets spare you ALL the details I know you just want to know about the Tiger. So we head to the Tiger village. Its like a mini Jurassic park when you pull up. You enter and check in, get a safety talk. There was a whole bunch of rules of things to do, to be honest I wasn’t really listening to it all. I just wanted to get going and figured someone would tell me along the way what to do. They told us we would go in to see young babies, along with 2-3 year olds and then 8 year olds. Ive got my camera in hand, smile taking up my whole face, I can barely stand it.

We go to the baby tigers first. They are SO cute. And people are kinda all over the place while the tigers are sitting in their laps, taking photos and things like that. The Thai people running the show are super friendly and excited for you as well. We sit on the floor and a Tiger comes up and sits on Steve’s lap just chilling there, Steve got his hands back on the floor mostly just letting the Tiger do its thing. (This was in fact one of the rules. You could kinda pet them, definitely don’t try to move them or pick them up). Im snapping photos but, also a little bummed its not in my lap. So what do I do, try to coax it over. Remember I didn’t really listen to the rules. Baby Tiger gets excited. I kinda go to pick it up, immediately Steve says don’t do that, and the Thai people remind me of it as well. Well. Its kinda too late. Baby tiger now sees me as someone who wants to play. It excitedly comes over toward my lap, plops down, still this is pretty cute right. Then he swings his head around and grabs a nice chunk of my side and bites down and not really showing signs of letting up. So I say… UMMM its biting me, can I pick it up now. They take care of it and get him to stop, but now I am in panic mode. If this little guy can just bite me like that actually leave a mark, signs of blood what will the big tigers do?

None of the other tigers bit me, but I did actually get electrocuted when I again didn’t pay attention to instructions. When we entered the next area of tigers, they were huge and excited to see us, I started backing away, I couldn’t hear the instructors and backed right into an electric wire. From there I was no longer present. If we didn’t have photos I would not remember this experience.

The funny thing was both, the time I got bit and electrocuted they told me it was good luck. I don’t see how. And Ive joked about that for years now. Recently I realized why I was lucky. 1st, nothing serious happened to me. 2nd I was SO nervous and in fear that I missed all the safety tips specifically given to me to keep me safe. I was too busy pretending to be really excited, caught up in my head about all the what ifs, worried, worried, worried and trying to seem brave that I couldn’t listen to the safety tips. Don’t pick up the tiger, don’t look them in the eye, watch out for the electric fence and stay up here. Pretty simple ones. I am lucky because I learned a lesson that day. I learned that when I am nervous, to listen through the fear. You may have heard this and learned this as well as some point.

I didn’t stop being adventurous, fear still frequently comes up. But, what allows me to do it anyway is because I know now to listen to really focus on regulating my nervous system, to listen to the safety tips, to really be as prepared as I can. And this goes for everything you might fear, not just Tigers and Electric fences. Ok. It relationships, starting a business, showing up online, chasing after your dreams. Move through the fear. Be present, enjoy the journey.