15. Fire-walking.

People actually get burnt?

I attended ‘Unleash the Power Within’ a four-day full immersion Tony Robbins event with a couple of girlfriends in Sydney. I counted this as an 18 day challenge because just sorting my life out to get there, juggling work and family was a challenge in itself!

Each day was 10-12 hours long and it felt like being at a continuous rock concert along with periods of intense emotions and self-reflection. Sharing the experience with 8,000 people was one of the most connected experiences I have ever been through. If you take a neuroscience perspective there was oxytocin and serotonin mixed with heart-pounding adrenaline oozing out of every pore of Sydney’s Q-dos Arena. Never before have I high-fived and hugged so many strangers!

When we arrived at registration a couple of ladies who had attended the event last year told us to soak towels in water and freeze them to prepare for the ‘firewalk’ at the end of Day 1. The idea being that when you get home you can soothe your ‘hot’ and ‘blistered’ feet. To be honest before this moment I thought the ‘fire-walk’ was a gimmick, no-body gets burned, just a mind over matter trick. Fair to say “this sh__ just got real”. Talk about changing ‘emotional state’. I could feel my heart beating a million miles an hour as the doubt, fear and anxiety filled my body and mind. The pitch in our voices raised and comments started pouring from our mouths, “Do people actually get burnt?” “I can’t afford to get burnt!” We knew we were going to fire-walk but we hadn’t considered burning flesh. My friend was worried that if she tripped, she would become the ‘coal face’ of the event.

After a day of preparation with Tony getting us into ‘state’. At night outside in the darkness, chanting ‘step up’ with tribal drums playing in the background, we walked across those burning coals without even a little blister feeling like ‘superstars’.