I remember watching the movie Jaws as a child and being terrorized.  It was the most horrific thing I had ever seen and I had nightmares for at least a week.  For years, I would shudder just at the mere mention of the word “jaws”, I felt the fear throughout my entire body, and cringed.

Then last week, while eating a slice of pizza in a small Upper West Side restaurant, I had a wonderful experience.  They had a TV mounted on the wall, and I watched some show where a couple of kids were in a small boat.  Then the scene flipped to a close-up of Roy Schneider.  In that instant, I realized I was about to be subjected to my nightmare movie.  Somehow, though, I couldn’t stop watching.  I stared at that TV as two arrogant teenage boys flirted with two girls on the dock, trying to entice them aboard.  Their 9-year old brother, who is with the boys in the small boat, is forced to leave by some adult who comes by to collect him.  Of the two girls, one is seductive looking, the other more “Plain Jane”.  The blond jumped in the boat, but the Plane Jane character accepted an invitation from the nerdy guy next to her and they wonder off.  I started thinking, “Was that a setup?  Small child gets hoisted off boat, and conservative girl not going to be killed?”

I continued watching.  Off went the boat, and, eventually, there’s Jaws making a b-line….for the boat where a  blond is about to have sex with her boyfriend, only Jaws hits their boat and the boyfriend gets knocked off.  So, now my thoughts were, “is there a message here that it’s bad to have sex as a teenager?” and I laughed.   Next, Jaws pulled the girl and her boat far away from her boyfriend, and as Jaws circled back, the girl screamed to her boyfriend, “Hurry, swim faster!”  and watched him.  I couldn't help speak some of my thoughts aloud, “Are you kidding?  That’s the best you can do?  There’s no oar in the boat?  You can’t try and paddle the boat?”  Of course, the boy got eaten, and then the TV station went to a commercial break.

By this point, I was so disgusted with the pathetic behavior of the girl, and the idea that any teens who have sex are going to become fish food, that it took me a moment to realize I wasn't afraid.  To know this fact was completely empowering.  I declared to myself that “I’m not afraid of the movie Jaws anymore!  In fact, it’s kind of funny, and the special effects look fake!”  I felt released from a childhood experience that I no longer needed, and I haven't had any nightmares since seeing the show last week.

What former nightmares and bad experiences are you still holding on to from years ago?  In thinking about them now, are you still afraid, or can you look at them from a different viewpoint?  Can you realize that you have grown past the fear, and then release the hold it’s had on you so long?  Try it today, you may be pleasantly surprised!