Total Recall at a Bar | Kyle McMurray Coaching, LLC

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We’ve recently talked about vacation and usually when you return, people, friends, and co-workers usually ask “Did you have a good vacation?”, “What did you do?”, “Where did you go?”. I’ve been back just long enough for me to observe something about myself… You see, I try to implement this stuff we talk about in my life. This isn’t just a situation where I spew how you should live your life, I have things to learn too. I’m observing how I answer those questions and I want to share those with you today. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is Episode 105 and today we are talking about Total Recall at a Bar.

So there we were, on vacation, at a bar. Yeah, it may sound like the intro to a joke, well, okay, it is, but it really happened.

So, there we were, on vacation, at a simi-locally-famous bar and restaurant. Inside, the place was a little busy. There was a wait time to be seated. So after putting our name on the list, we decided to go to the side entrance to where they had some picnic tables and lounge chairs set up in the sand, they had a cool little stage with a PA, there were people that cruised up to the shore of the bay in their boats, and where the restaurant dock was to listen and there were people just enjoying the music and playing in the sand, and in the water, and just having a great time. The guy’s set list was really good and he was able to play a couple of current requests on the charts and he still knew some old stuff.

You know, there is nothing like a place like that and having just a mediocre musician, but this guy was really a decent player. Anyway, we were really enjoying the evening. The sun was going down on the water, boats were going by, some light waves were coming in from the bay, it was picturesque.

Now, I’m really not rubbing your nose in the fact that we had a great vacation. What I’m doing is giving you a personal perspective on an event. Well, part of the event. The part of the event that I WANT to tell you about. You see, there is a whole other side of this story, a continuation rather, at this same place. But I’m choosing to remember this portion of what happened rather than what I’m about to tell you.

You see, we were a little bummed when we received the text that our table was ready. That meant we had to go inside and be civil. Well, little did I know, that was about to be tested.

We were seated and so far, so good. It didn’t “feel” crowded. There were a lot of people there, don’t get me wrong, but they did a good job at arranging the tables in such a way that you still felt connected to the outside where all the fun was happening. (BTW, there wasn’t any dining outside, that’s the only way we could get a table.)

Oh, one little detail I forgot to mention to you. Inside, it was loud. . .

Okay, it was really loud.

I’m not talking about the PA and the music. That would’ve been so much better.

Allright, I’ll get honest. Let’s put it this way. It was so loud…(how loud was it) It was so loud that there was a Little League Baseball tournament that was probably the largest in the western hemisphere going on, and it was obvious to the entire populous, that the team, possibly team(s) plural, of 9 year old boys that were inside the restaurant, won their games for that day and they were celebrating. May I add that it was also obvious, well, hopefully obvious that the young, pre-teen boys were celebrating away from their parents. Like, without supervision or ability to order food, or not have sword fights with the butter knives, or chase each other while trying to pop each other with the cloth napkins, or. . . you get the picture.

Wouldn’t you know it, all of a sudden, there came a thunderstorm. It was fast. I mean this thing popped up quicker than it took little Garrett to throw an olive across the room into Connor’s mouth. This thing was fast. Before we knew it, the waitstaff was pulling down the plastic covers to cover the patio and scurrying to protect everything and everyone from getting wet. It started raining fast and heavy.

Well, I’m no acoustician, but because we were now in an enclosed area, and after the initial shock was over, those boys just got even louder than before.

After our meal, when we were paying our check, I felt my chest get tight. I remembered thinking, I didn’t have anything spicy. What’s going on? My chest started to hurt. Like my shoulders were moving in, towards the middle of my torso. It felt as if the chunky bat boy in the corner was sitting on top of me. I couldn’t breathe, I started to get light headed and the room was starting to spin.

I remember thinking “Hey, I’m a Certified Life Coach, I’m having some kind of panic attack. I know what to do.” That’s when I felt my legs lock. It was like I was strapped down to the chair. It was awful.

In a spurt of energy, I looked at my wife and said “I’ll go get the car!” She knew something was wrong. I got myself outside and walked a few hundred yards to the car. I got inside and started to do some grounding exercises. Pretty soon, it was all over. Like nothing ever happened. Everything was back to normal.

I picked everyone up and we took off to enjoy our next adventure with no problems at all.

Here is what I learned:

Anxiety is personal and
you don’t have to have a history of it, to have an attack. Maybe that’s two things in one.
The tools WORK. Use them.
If anyone ever tells you to just tough it out, they have no clue of what they are talking about. They aren’t able to see outside of their own experiences.

The main thing I learned about this was after we returned home.

We were floating in the pool after work and we were remembering that evening when we were sitting in those padded lounge chairs, sipping and singing along. It brought smiles to our faces.

Then, Tammy reminded me of the other half of the experience. I completely forgot about that. Like, I was actively choosing not to remember it in that way.

Then the thought occurred to me, “I wonder if we took that approach on other events in our life?”

How different would it be?

How much easier would forgiveness be?

How much more, would we be willing to try new and different things?

How much more adventurous would our lives be?

How much deeper we could be Living the Freedom Life?

Questions to contemplate.

It depends on how we “see” the situation. There is much more to talk about this topic but we are out of time today.

If you want to hear more, reach out to us.

Until next time, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle