A snake at my shoulder ||| Experience to overcome fear ||| A transforming Moment

A snake and I

Hello Everyone! Hope you are all pretty well. Here,i would like to share my experience with snake and also about how to overcome my fear

Before I faced my fear, the same was happening again and again... Snakes... anything related to snakes basically led to a mental breakdown. No "what-ifs", no critical thinking, only biological reaction: my body was freezing, racing heartbeat, sweating, dilated pupils, shuttering, shaking hands, trembling legs, and no breathing... Videos, pictures, stories, zoos, let alone encountering anything snake-like-shape in the real world... Nightmares with snakes were regular...

A big Challenge
if we don’t know how it feels and what it takes to overcome own phobias? So for me facing a fear of snakes was both an individual challenge and a professional growth opportunity

• "What to do with it dammit?"

• "Expose yourself to your deepest fear."

• "Okay... How?"

• "The simplest way to overcome fears is by taking one small step or action."

I had to face the fear of snakes.

The first steps were small. I studied snakes... I read about them, looked at their pictures, watched documentaries, observed them in zoos. These were in fact educational and electrifying steps out of my comfort zone. It was a cyclic process. Yet handling a living snake seemed impossible... I never actually purposely looked for real interaction with a snake, it happened unexpectedly. During one of my visits to somewhere with friends I found out that there was a guy with snake looks like zoo type place where visitors could play with different cute fluffy animals. This is what was advertised. I didn't expect any snakes there, no snakes have been mentioned anywhere before I actually came there, but surprises happen. It turned out that there Were snakes, moreover, I could "play" with them... I understood that was the time to... PLAY WITH SNAKES... And this experience was transforming.

Snake at my shoulder

✓ The first 15-20 minutes "fight-fly-freeze" response was dominating. The body was freezing, racing heartbeat, sweating, dilated pupils, shuttering, shaking hands, trembling legs, and no breathing...

✓ The next 20 minutes were very uncomfortable... But already manageable.

✓ The last 20 minutes were even entertaining! the snake and I started to express curiosity in each other, no signs of anxiety, stress, discomfort were present. I genuinely started to like the snake and enjoyed my interaction with it both emotionally and physically.

And for my own surprise, it took me less than an hour of individual close contact with snakes. Of course, to completely consolidate results several more real-life interactions with snakes are needed.

I will be happy to answer questions about fears and other mental discomforts