Kim and I have a phrase that we talk about in our marriage book: Name it to tame it. It’s the idea that when you say your fears out loud you take away some of its power over you. And this is backed by science as well.
One of the most fascinating studies around this was done by UCLA. They took 88 people with a fear of spiders and asked them to approach a large, live tarantula. The 88 participants were separated into 4 groups. The first group was encouraged to talk about their fears. The second group used language to belittle their fears. The third group discussed other topics and the fourth group discussed nothing. A week later they were brought back and asked to touch the tarantula. The first group did far better than all the others. They named the tarantula.
Kim and I have had our fair share of naming the tarantula. (I even talked about this study when we were competing on The Amazing Race.) It was the inspiration for today’s podcast about naming what you are afraid of.
Name The Tarantula
Another inspiration for today’s podcast was a recent video we did about Halloween costumes in the 80s. I have a fear of clowns (wait until you hear about my time hanging out with Ronald McDonald) and when we asked our followers for their throwback photos we realized: EVERYONE WAS A CLOWN.
Whyyyy?
And these weren’t just any clowns, they were total nightmare fuel. Who was designing these costumes?! Listen as I name my tarantulas (without getting too heavy) as well as other strange phobias.
What are you afraid of? Name your tarantula and tell me in the comments!
