4 Ways to Stay Calm When You’re Stressed: This Life Advice Will Change Your Future

I have been dying to tell you what happened when I was in New York City a couple weeks ago. The elevator doors close as she's going, "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on," and the elevator goes down. My heart began to sink, and Kendall drops her head and puts her hands over her face, and then she pulls her hands by her side with two fists and lets out this bloodcurdling, "Aah!" scream. (clock ticks) Hey, it's Mel, and I have been dying to talk to you, because I have the greatest story to tell you, and I don't know how to say this without sounding like it's a big flex, so here goes. I'll just say it. Our daughter Kendall was invited to sing at Carnegie fricking Hall in New York City, and that's the beginning of this crazy story that I wanna tell you that involves so many cool, hilarious things, like how to stay calm when you're stressed or the benefits of screaming in an elevator, the world's coolest pair of pants, and why you should never, and I mean never try to film a performance at Carnegie Hall on your iPhone. You are gonna love this story. You will laugh at my expense and adore the four life lessons that I learned that random night. These are four lessons that are gonna help you act confident when you're stressed, be fearless under pressure, reach your potential, and unlock the magic in your life. So get ready for four lessons I learned recently on one random night in New York City. Let's do this. Hey, it's your friend Mel. Welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. I am so glad you tuned in, because boy, do I have a doozy of a story to share with you and four things that I learned on this random night that I spent in New York City, and I'm gonna get to that in a moment, but I just wanna acknowledge you for something before we get started. You could be doing a million things right now, and yet you chose to listen to something that could help you make your life better, and I think that's so cool, and you are gonna love, love, love today's episode, because you're gonna love the story, and you're also gonna get something out of it. I have been dying to tell you what happened when I was in New York City a couple weeks ago, and it's a story about how you can stay calm when you feel like you're about to throw up from stress. I'm gonna talk about the benefits of just randomly screaming in an elevator. Who knew? You'll also hear this incredible thing that happened, it's about the world's coolest pair of pants, you're gonna know what I'm talking about in just a minute, and why you should never, and I mean never try to film a performance at Carnegie Hall on your iPhone. You are going to love this story about what happened in New York City to me, but more importantly, there are four life lessons that I learned that night, and these are lessons that will help you, number one, act confident when you're feeling stressed out. It will help you be fearless when you're under pressure. These lessons will help you reach your potential, no matter what situation you're in, and unlock the magic that is in your life. Oh, I love this. All right. So, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well, how did, how did this all start? What story? What happened in New York City?" So here's what happened. Well, our daughter Kendall is 23 years old, she's a singer-songwriter, and she lives out in Los Angeles, and earlier this year, she released her very first single on Spotify. And I gotta say, you showed up, I mean, this podcast family, you are the best. Thank you, thank you, thank you for listening to Kendall's single Pastime, for sharing it with your friends. You helped that song take off, and it's been exhilarating to watch it happen, because she's been working really hard and it feels like now her career has officially begun, and it's so thrilling, because it seems like she's got a lot of momentum. Because of the success of the song, all kinds of cool things started to happen. People in the music industry are reaching out to her. And so as I've been watching all this go down over the last couple weeks from the East Coast, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, she is riding the wave." She is also back in the studio working on some new songs, because like, you know, it's not just one thing that you do that's gonna make you successful, you gotta keep on doing the reps, and so I'm over here on the East Coast while she's on the West Coast and I'm like, "Yeah, go, go, go." And then all of a sudden, she gets an email, check this out, inviting her to come to New York City and perform her new single Pastime at Carnegie Hall. Holy freaking cow. Oh my God. Can you believe this? And you're probably thinking, "How the heck did she get invited to sing at Carnegie Hall?" Well, that's a great question. See, a year ago, she met a bunch of incredible musicians at the Newport Folk Festival and she kept in touch with them. One of them reached out and invited her to join them at this incredible concert called The Piano Recital at Carnegie Hall. It happens once a year. It's produced by Ramey Eagan. And if you hadn't heard about it, no big deal. The Piano Recital is a bunch of renowned musicians, like the biggest name there, Mandy Moore. And side note, Kendall grew up listening to Mandy Moore. I mean, she calls Mandy Moore her, quote, "musical mom," because she had Mandy Moore's album Wild Hope on repeat, I mean, played that sucker into the ground. So at The Piano Recital at Carnegie Hall, all these renowned musicians show up, they perform two of their original songs, but get this, the only instrument that accompanies them is a piano, hence it's called The Piano Recital. It's this super cool, intimate, stripped down thing. And so when Kendall told me, my first reaction was like......portal is open, universe is conspiring. Holy smokies, I cannot believe it. And the second that she called me, I mean, you can already guess what I was like. I was like, all over it. I was so excited for her. I was ready to book her a plane ticket, invite our friends and our family, and make dinner reservations. I started to change all of my work commitments so that I could drive down, and obviously be in New York when our daughter steps on stage at Carnegie Hall, right? 'Cause obviously, she was gonna jump in and do it. And this was happening in seven days from the email invitation. Like, this was game on, we are in the starting gates, let's frickin' go. And so of course, I'm like, "Yeah." She's gonna reply immediately with a, "Yes, thank you," because these were all of her friends and musicians that she had met the summer before, and they were asking her to do this event. And in fact, one of them in particular, his name is Phil Cook, I'll talk about him a bit in this story, he's been like a mentor and a friend to her, had already greased the wheels because she had said, "Hey look, dude, I've already arranged Pass Time for you on the piano. We're good to go. I'll send the arrangement to you, I'll accompany you on stage, it's gonna be awesome." So the second she told me about the invitation, I'm like, "Game frickin' on. Let's frickin' go." That was not her reaction. Her reaction was not, "Let's go." It was, "Oh, hell no." And she let that invitation of a lifetime sit there unanswered for 24 hours. What? Wh- what? I- I was speechless. I- I couldn't even understand how anyone could stop and think about an opportunity like that. I mean, you're a singer-songwriter, you get this invitation, like your friend is ... W- w- why wouldn't you just say, "Oh, hell yes. Oh my God, thank you. I'm on it. Let's frickin' go. Mom, book the plane tickets, get some reservations, call our friends and family." And I wanna slow down this part of the story and truly unpack this moment with you, because it's a moment that you've experienced before. So I'm really gonna describe it so you can see it. It's a moment where someone in your life isn't reacting the way you thought they should to what you think is good news. It's a moment where someone in your life isn't jumping all over something that you see as this incredible opportunity. I know you've been there with someone that you love in this moment, and maybe it's happening in your life right now. Someone in your life, you know, they're looking for a new job, and you just met the perfect person for them to network with, and so you give the contact information and the email and the phone number to this person that you love, and they do nothing. Or someone in your life wants to get in shape, and you've asked them, oh my gosh, you're so excited, you're like, "Let's do this 30-day challenge together," so you text them and say, "Here's the start date for the challenge." Maybe you've sent them this awesome personal trainer that you love that you stream classes from, or you told them about the CrossFit box that is in your community that people love, and they do nothing. Or the person in your life says that they wanna cut back on their drinking, and yet there they are at dinner, "I think I'll have a, uh, bourbon Manhattan." Or maybe the person that you love has said, "Oh, I w- r- really wanna go back to school. I wanna apply to nursing school," and you forwarded them this email about this really cool program that you saw, and you can't understand why they haven't acknowledged it. Why haven't they done it? Why is this person that you care about, that you see all this potential in, why are they not moving on this opportunity? And the more time that passes, have you noticed? Huh, you're now in the deep end emotionally, because you start to get frustrated, and you have all these opinions about what they should do. And the opportunity to just grab life by the horns and try out for that travel team, or apply to that program, or do that thing, it's right there, and they do nothing. When are they gonna do something about this? I mean, isn't this what they wanted? And let's really play this moment out. Someone you love turns to you and says to you, "You know, it's time. I- I need to find a new job." And that declaration, "I need to find a new job," it opens up this window of time. And a day goes by, and then a week goes by, and then a month goes by, and then there they are, standing in their boxers eating a waffle at 9:45 on a Wednesday morning, and you're thinking, "When are you gonna get going on this? I mean, why do I care about this more than you? Why are you eating a waffle on a Wednesday morning when you could be looking for a job?" And your anger is rising, and you're getting judgy, and you're biting your tongue, and you're kinda angrily washing the dishes. You've done that before, right, where you're trying to, like, signal to somebody that you're mad that they haven't done something in a month? Like, it's the worst.And for 24 hours, that was the moment with me and our daughter. This opportunity was there, and I could feel the judgment and anger rising up. I mean, "Why are you not replying yes to this email?" And with every hour that goes by, I'm getting mad. And I'm trying not to send a text, you know, those texts where you're like, "Just send a da, da, da. Just reply this, come on. Ju- just jump in." You're like, "Stop." Because I'm thinking over here, "You gotta be kidding me." And it begs the question, why am I getting mad? I'll tell you why I'm getting mad. It's the same reason why you get mad at the people that you love, because you see the potential. You see the possibility. You believe in them. You know how great they are, and it's a bummer when somebody that you love is not rising to the occasion with the same confidence in themselves that you have for them. And so, I bite my lip, and I did a really good job. You would pat your friend Mel Roberts on the back, because for 24 hours I didn't say anything, and then I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't stand it anymore. And now, I'm starting to get texts from her friend Phil, like, "Hey, I can't wait to see you." And I'm like, "She hasn't even responded yet." And so I called her and I said, "Are you gonna respond to this?" She exploded at me. Just like your husband would explode at you as he's standing there in his boxers eating a waffle on a Wednesday morning, and you're like, "Are you gonna send out that resume?" He would explode at you, because everybody hates being called out. And you're not even calling them out directly. What everybody hates is being reminded that you're bigger than your fears. What everyone hates is being reminded that you're avoiding something that you know you want to do. And my daughter, no different than anyone else. And you know what she said? She's like, "Stop pressuring me. I- I think you want this more than I want this. I think you dream of me being a successful singer because you want this for me. I think this is about you." Whoo. "You're arguing with the wrong person." I was like, "Whoa. Wait a minute. I am living my dream already. I thought this was your dream, to be a singer-songwriter performing your songs on some of the biggest stages in the world." And then she said, "Well, the problem, Mom, is you just assumed I would say yes." And I'm like, "Of course I did." And then I said the two most important words: "I'm confused. I'm confused. Please explain to me how it is that you've always wanted to be a singer-songwriter. You do all of this work to get into the number one program in the world for this, the popular music major at USC. You do all of this work to write, record, and release your own single, Pastime, as an independent artist. You have all of this incredible momentum. You are doing all of the work. You get an invitation from people who you love, who are here to support you and help you, and even arrange the piano part of it so you can sing your new song at Carnegie Hall. I'm confused. How is this not a yes?" She had a very compelling answer. It wasn't a yes because she was afraid. Intellectually, it makes no sense, right? Emotionally, it makes all the sense in the world. That's the disconnect. Intellectually, you see somebody's potential, but the person that you love isn't living intellectually. They're living in their emotions, and she felt unworthy of the opportunity. She wasn't sure she was ready. It wasn't lack of desire that was in her way. It was fear and the paralysis that it creates. And then she started to explain, like, all the stuff that was going on in her mind and in her emotions, like, "I don't deserve this. What are my friends, who have been working so hard in their music careers, gonna think? Like, why did this happen for me? What if I screw this up? I don't think I'm ready for this. Like, this is happening too fast." And this was an enormous takeaway for me and for you about relationships, because you and I easily see the potential in people that we love, and we forget that the people that we love are so overwhelmed by their fears and insecurities. We're the same way. People that love us see our potential. There are plenty of things that you know you should and could be doing, but you're not, and just like you're frustrated with the people that you love standing there in his boxers with the waffle, not sending out their resumes, there are things that you have said that you've wanted in your life that you're not working on either. And that's why, when you love someone and they've declared their goals, or their dreams, or their desires, or their wants to you out loud, whether that's getting a new job, or being healthier, or cutting back on drinking, or running a marathon, or growing their business, or building a music career, if someone tells you what they want and they're not doing anything about it or they don't seize the obvious opportunities in front of them, you have a right to feel confused. And I'm here to remind you and ask you to hold space for what your loved one wants, to be a loud advocate for what they want so that you can help them push through the fear. I want you to remind them of their potential and of the possibility and why it's worth it to push through the emotion and work for it, and this is a very different way of approaching it than pressuring somebody. This is not about telling somebody what to do.I mean, I know from experience, and I'm sure you do too, that pressuring somebody or telling somebody what to do is the fastest way to get them not to do it, right? They will do the opposite. So I've already given you a phrase that you can use to help bring clarity without judgment to a situation where someone that you love has declared what they want, but you don't see them doing anything, or you see them backing away from the opportunity. Use the phrase I used: I'm confused. Lead with that phrase. Because when you come from a place of confusion, you're not attacking someone else. You're basically putting the spotlight on you. "I'm confused here." You're gently pointing out that their behavior is not matching what they said they wanted. Here's an example. "You know, I heard you say you wanted to find a new job, and I'm confused, 'cause I don't know what you're doing about it. Do you need some help?" Or here's another example. "I heard you say that you wanted to lose 40 pounds, and I'm confused, 'cause I haven't seen you exercising in the last few weeks. Do you need some support?" And then let them talk. And here's a piece of advice when you let them talk after you say, "I'm confused." I want you to imagine that they're literally gonna throw up on you, because you've just poked the beast. And if fear or insecurity has paralyzed the person you love, the fear and insecurity is gonna come out of their mouth first and attack you. So when you go, "I'm confused," you're gonna hear, "I'm so blah blah blah." It's gonna be like, "Blah," excuses, defensiveness. "I'm busy. How dare you? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah." And just keep going, "Anything else? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. That... You have been busy. Yep. Anything else? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Anything else?" Because what finally will come out is the truth, and the truth is that either they know what they want but they're scared, or they know what they want but they don't know how to get started. I mean, that was Kendall's response. She was drowning in insecurity, imposter syndrome, and fear, and when somebody is in the deep end emotionally, you need to throw them a lifeline, and here's how you do it. And this is life lesson number one from this random evening that I spent in New York City. Four words: It's not that deep. It's not that deep, because somebody deep in their emotions needs to be yanked out of the emotions. And so, I want you to use those four words, "It's not that deep." See, when Kendall started talking about her fear, "It's Carnegie Hall, oh my God, it's New York, it's this, it's in seven days, blah blah blah blah," you can hear how you start to just swirl, right? "Kendall, it's not that deep." "But Mom, it's Carnegie Hall." "Um, I'm still here to say it's not that deep. It's an auditorium that happens to be on the corner of 57th and 6th in a town called New York City. It's not that deep. In fact, you didn't even know that the piano concert was happening until you got this email. It's not that deep, 'cause no one else knows about it either. And by the way, if you don't post about it on social media or invite any of your friends and family, nobody that you know will be there. It's not that deep. And besides, you've been performing in front of audiences for 15 years. It's not that deep. One of your mentors is performing. It's not that deep." And as I kept saying this phrase, "It's not that deep," she laughed (laughs) and she's like, "You're right. I'm letting my emotions get the best of me. It's not that deep." And she wrote them back and said yes. And this is a reminder that every situation in life doesn't need to be so damn serious. Everything that you face doesn't need decades of trauma therapy to get through it. The stakes don't need to be so high all the time, but it is so easy, isn't it, to get yourself all worked up in the emotional deep end of your own mind and body? And that's why you need this lesson number one, "It's not that deep." And I have to credit Kendall, because she's the one that actually taught me this phrase, "It's not that deep, Mom. It's not that deep," and now I'm using it back on her, which I love even more. And even hearing myself say those four words, "It's not that deep," it gives me the space when I said it to her, "It's not that deep, dude," that, "Look, Mel, it's not that deep. If she doesn't wanna go to New York this coming week and perform at Carnegie Hall, she doesn't have to do it. It's not that deep. There will be other opportunities. You don't need to worry about this. It's not that deep." It relaxes them. It relaxes you. It lowers the stakes. It allows rational thinking and support to step in, because the fact is, if she's not ready, she shouldn't do it. If she doesn't want to do it, she shouldn't do it. And if she decides not to do it, it's not that deep. So it also helped me relax into the idea that this is her decision. Let's just get the emotions out of the way. And there's one more thing I wanna point out about this first lesson and why, "It's not that deep," will really help you. No one needs pressure from you. They already feel enough of it. Like, let's take the example of looking for a new job. That is a stressful experience, even if you're excited to find a new job. And if you've been laid off and you're looking for a new job, that's even more stressful.So, you need the phrase, "It's not that deep," so you can lower the stakes and keep your composure, and your productivity, and your momentum, and your clear thinking. And you can use, "It's not that deep," to push yourself forward when you start feeling paralyzed, like everything is so high stakes. No, it's not, dude, it's just a resume, it's not that deep. It's just an interview, it's not that deep. It's just a job offer, it's not that deep. And I can't allow myself to get into the deep end or I'm gonna screw myself over, that's why you gotta say, "It's not that deep," so you keep working towards something and not paralyze yourself. And also, so that you can keep your wits about you when things do start to work out, so you don't blow up the opportunity by getting too emotional. Same thing's true with dating. Yes, it can be very demoralizing to be out in the dating world and to find yourself asking yourself, "Why is everybody I'm meeting such a loser? Why does everybody else have a significant other and not me? When is it gonna be my turn to love?" Why don't you start saying, "You know what? It's not that deep. The fact is, uh, you haven't met the person who's good enough for you yet. That's why you're still single. See? It's not that deep." All right. So lesson number one, the phrase, "It's not that deep," it allows you to take these moments a lot less seriously. But you know what I take really seriously? Our advertisers, because they support this show and allow me to bring you this awesome, awesome podcast at zero cost. So let's take a quick listen. But don't you dare go anywhere, because when we come back, we're moving on to lesson number two, which is the shocking power of a good scream, and wait till you hear the story about where this good scream happened. Stay with me. Welcome back. It's your friend, Mel. I'm so thrilled that you are here with me. I am excited to continue telling you the story about what happened when our daughter was invited to sing her new single, Past Time, at Carnegie Hall, and the four life lessons that I learned on that random night in New York City. I've already shared lesson number one, where we talked about using four simple words, "It's not that deep," to unhook yourself emotionally when you start to feel upset that someone that you love is not seizing an opportunity or moving forward and working toward what they want. And you can also use, "It's not that deep," to unhook yourself when you're the one that's paralyzed, to push yourself through the fear. So now that you're moving, let's keep the story moving. And where the story picks up is that she replies to the email, and now we're gonna fast-forward seven days to the day of the piano recital at Carnegie Hall. And on the day of the recital, it's a Friday, I'm driving down from Vermont and Kendall has flown, uh, in the night before and she's staying with some friends from college in New York City. And as I'm about to get to the city, she calls me, it's like around 2:30, and she says, "Hey mom, will you pick me up down in the West Village at my friend's apartment and then drive me up to Carnegie Hall? I just think it would be so cool to see you." And I was really excited about this because I just assumed I wasn't gonna see her until after her performance 'cause I didn't want to stress her out, but I was like, "Yeah, I can pick you up. We got plenty of time." You know, and she reminded me that her call time at Carnegie Hall was 4:15, and the sound check was gonna happen at 5:30, so plenty of time. And honestly, I was just absolutely thrilled. So, I'm driving down the West Side Highway, I pull up to the apartment, she jumps in the car, we brace each other, it was so exciting. And what immediately struck me was she was just cool as a cucumber. And we were talking up a storm and she had had a great night the night before, and we're driving uptown, and this song comes on that she loves, and she grabbed my hand and she started to cry. And she's like, "I just can't believe this is happening," and I'm like, "I can't believe this is happening either." And so, I was just thrilled to be in the moment. And honestly, to have a little bit of time with her before the show began, and before some of our family and friends started to arrive in town to see her perform. And I had booked a hotel that was next door to Carnegie Hall, like I'm talking, the building is next door to Carnegie Hall. So we pulled up to the hotel at 3:45. Plenty of time, right? We drop our bags at the hotel, we walk into the lobby, and boom, her grandmother was standing there. Her grandmother had flown in from Florida to surprise Kendall. There's crying, and squeals, and hugs, and now, wow, game on. Excitement is really building. It's starting to feel real, you know what I mean? Like, this is actually happening. So we get into the elevator and it's me, and it's her grandma JJ, and, uh, JJ's, uh, boyfriend John. And so we're going up, the four of us, and I'm starting to feel Kendall's pre-performance anxiety kicking in. How do I know? 'Cause I can spot the way that I feel in these moments where I'm about to do something big. She's darting around the room. She's getting frustrated. She can't find her water, she can't find her this, she can't find her lipstick, she can't find her pants. She's got the wrong pants and she's starting to get, you know, short, like, people are like, "Well, can I help you?" "No, you can't help me, I can fi-" Like, so you're getting, you've been in that situation with people that you love, right? So now, it's 4:00 PM and she starts going, "We gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go." And she has shoved all these clothes into her, in her bag 'cause she doesn't know what she wants to wear. "We gotta go, we gotta go." And I'm trying to calm her down and reassure. Wrong thing to do. I'm like, "We got time, honey. Carnegie Hall's right next door. I've seen the entrance to the stage, the backstage door, it's literally 90 seconds from here. I saw the security guard, I saw the metal detector, I checked it out. We're gonna go through it, easy-peasy." I don't even think she heard me, like she's now in that state where she's ramped up. So we get into the elevator. Now, mind you, we now have an 86-year-old grandmother and her 85-year-old boyfriend tagging along. And so I'm starting to realize, "Okay, the last thing Kendall probably wants right now is an entourage." And so I start saying, "Hey listen, we don't need to come with you to sound check."...seriously. Like, if you just wanna go and deal with this yourself, I will go hang out." And she grabs my arm. She says, "No, mom. I-I really want you to be there." So I say, "Okay." And so, her grandmother's like, "Okay, well, we'll just walk you to the door." So we all head out to the hotel. We turn to the right. I see the stage door. It's open, right on 56th Street. And I point and I say, "Honey, it's right there." And she goes, "No, it's not. No, it's not. You don't have the information. I have the information. It's on another street. I have the information. Come on, we're gonna be late, we're gonna be late. I hate being late." And she takes a right and cuts through the building between the hotel and Carnegie Hall, and speed walks through the lobby in the wrong direction, and I'm trying to tell her grandmother, "Okay, you guys go. I'm gonna go catch up with her." Anxiety is now in full charge. She is speed walking like she's at the Olympic speed walking finals, and I am now running after her, and she's pumping her arms, and now she's out the lobby and taken a left on 57th Street. I don't even see her anymore, so I'm running through the lobby. I get out the building. By now, she's at the corner, and you can tell she's upset. The scarf is flying. She's like, "Ah, where is it?" And I'm like, "It's back there, it's back there." And she darts around the thing, and I'm like, "We got time, we got..." And she... You can just feel it, and none of the doors are open. And so, as she goes to every door at Carnegie Hall and kinda grabs on, (grunting) they're not opening, and so that's increasing the thing. And so I start to break into a light jog, and I round the corner on 57th and 6th, and cut down 6th in the front of Carnegie Hall, and then I go back down 56th to the door that's right next to our hotel. We have basically sprinted around a New York City block to arrive almost exactly where we were when we walked out of the hotel. And she keeps saying, "I hate being late. I hate being late. I hate being late." And I'm like, "We're still on time. We're still on time." It is 4:13. "We should've been 20 minutes early." I'm like, "You're right, you're right," but it, we're just, we're okay. We go through the metal detector. She asks for directions. The security guards are wonderful. They say, "You gotta go up to the second floor." She is still repeating in a huff, "I hate being late. I hate being late. I hate being late." We round the corner, we hit the up arrow on the elevator. (Panting) Looking at the watch, "It's okay, it's just 4:15 right now." "See, I'm late, I'm late." Oh, see, g- w- we're, we're in the building. And, and, and so now, we're starting to bicker. The elevator doors open up. We race in. She punches the 2 so we can go up to the second floor, where she's supposed to go meet all the other musicians. The elevator doors close as she's going, "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on." And the elevator goes down. It's going to the basement instead of the second floor. And as that elevator dropped, my heart began to sink, and it's just the two of us in there. And Kendall drops her head and puts her hands over her face, and then she pulls her hands by her side with two fists and lets out this blood-curdling, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh," scream. (laughs) I mean, I was shocked. Here I thought she was about to start sobbing. Are you kiddin'? Talk about a badass move. I mean, how often do you have these moments where you are so pent up with emotion that you are about to burst into tears? Or you just stuff it down and you never release it? I mean, this was a primal scream. This was like a cathartic moment where she released everything that had been building up probably for a week since she got that first email, right? This was not a scream of weakness. This was a frickin' lioness roar. And what I loved about it, she didn't care that I was in there. She didn't care what I was thinking. She didn't care who might hear her. What if you gave yourself permission to do that? To release the tension? To just let it frickin' rip, you know? To just, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," scream with all your might. To stop holding it in. To stop trying to hold it together. Maybe you're sitting there in the front seat of your car, just let it, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," scream. I would scream right now, but it would, like, really hurt your ears if you have earbuds in, so I'm not gonna do that. But you could walk into a bathroom stall. You could pick up a throw pillow if one of the kids is sleeping or taking a nap, you don't wanna wake them up. Just walk out the front door and stand in your front yard and just scream it out. Hit the release valve. That's lesson number two, the power of a good scream. Wo- wouldn't it feel so good if you gave yourself permission to just release it all? I mean, Kendall's scream echoed through the elevator shaft. It was like the elevator was shaking, and it not only broke all the tension for her, I'll tell you what, (laughs) it also sounded the alarm because let me tell you what happened. The second she let out that scream and her fists were by her side and she was like, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh," as soon as she was done screaming, it was like, boom, she was back......in control, like it never happened. And it was kind of funny because what, what actually did happen is all of a sudden, we hit the basement, and the doors open, and there's literally a dude who has clearly run toward the elevator. He's out of breath. He's heard the scream because he's like, "Are you okay? I heard someone scream." And she was like, "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I just had a moment, like I just, you know, needed to just scream. You know how you need to scream sometimes?" And he was amazing. He laughed and he was like, "Oh, huh, I totally get it. Happens all the time in here." (laughs) He got on the elevator with us, rode up to the main floor, got out on the main floor, so we're still not to the second floor, but because she had screamed, she was no longer stressed out. She was in her power. It turns out there's a lot of research on how therapeutic screaming can be, and it was such a powerful moment, and researchers speculate as to why. See, after you scream, like with intention like that, the relief that you feel after a big scream or a good cry is because there's this huge rush of endorphins and peptides produced by the pituitary gland and your central nervous system, and they act on your brain's receptors. It increases like the pleasure center, like maybe that's where the control comes from. It reduces pain and stress, and it increases strength. Now, this comes from Dr. Brian Bruno, who's the medical director at Mid-City TMS, a New York City-based medical center that focused on treating depression, and he wrote this big article about it. Dr. Bruno says that as you scream, your body becomes more alert, and you release tension in the muscles that are caused by bottled up emotions. I mean, screaming literally gives voice to your emotions, and transforms that feeling that can paralyze you and keep you like just stuck from something that's silent and creating this inner tension, to something that you physically feel and hear and process. It allows you to release the emotion and take control. That's exactly what I witnessed in the elevator, because as the elevator started to rise from the lobby up to the second floor, and we got closer to the second floor, and you could hear the piano playing in the rehearsal rooms- (piano music)