It’s time for another Behind the Lens post and this week I am super excited to introduce to you one of my very good blogging buddies – Tracey from One Frazzled Mum. Tracey is a single mum to her daughter Olivia and lives in the Wirral. We’ve not met in real life (yet) but she will be heading to London for the third time in June where we will hopefully finally meet!

Tracey has chosen a photo of her last trip to London to share with us today. Have a read below.

“Do Something Every Day That Scares You”

How many times have you said to yourself, ‘I can’t‘?

You can’t have that other slice of cake, or you can’t wear your bikini around the pool. Maybe you said you couldn’t ride the rollercoaster at the fair because it absolutely terrifies you.

I say I can’t do stuff all the time. I’m more of an ‘I’ll hold the bags and watch‘ kinda girl. A little bit scared of most things and 100% anti-daredevil if ever you’ve met one. It’s kind of limiting. To be scared of a lot of things. And I….. I’m scared of a hell of a lot of things. Escalators, eggs, falling, you name it, and chances are I will be scared of it or have shied away from doing it. Even more likely is I will have told you hell will freeze over before you get me on x,y,z!

But what if the time comes when, indeed, the metaphorical hell did freeze over? Like when you told your sister all those years ago there was no way you were ever going on the London Eye. Ever, ever, ever. But then you had to because you knew your daughter really wanted to go on it and you were 100% certain that if you didn’t take her on it that one day you visited London, you might possibly regret it for the rest of your life.

Life’s too short for regrets, especially over things like being scared of standing in a glass and metal pod 175m over London. I mean, you only live once, right?

I am always doing my best to encourage Olivia to try new things, do something new, and try different foods. But what is the point in all of that if I am showing to her that actually, I am too scared and set in my ways to try anything new?

Taking her to London on my own was absolutely terrifying. I have only ever visited once in my life. What on earth was I thinking taking her there myself? Yet I did. Just the two of us. Surely, the London Eye couldn’t be that scary – could it? I talked myself into thinking it wasn’t really. Until I found myself standing under its imposing structure one Saturday morning as it loomed against the bright blue London sky.

It was then my courage seeped out of my body, and apparently so did Olivia’s. “We can’t go on that mum. We just can’t,” she said, backing away from the crowds queueing for their turn. “We have to,” I said. I had purposely agreed to review it, so we couldn’t back out. “Just email the lady and say thanks very much, but we didn’t make it” I eyed her suspiciously.

Truth be told, I would need to convince myself before I convinced her. There was no way she would agree to it whilst I was frantically trying to stop my train station breakfast from making a reappearance. My mind was blank. I swear the only thing going through it for a good five minutes was “holy crap”.

There was only one thing for it. I turned to her and said “Do one thing that scares you” Of course, she looked at me like I had actually gone insane. I was thinking the same thing. In my head, I remembered the time I went up in a helicopter with one of my nieces – I was petrified. Like glued to the spot, pee in your pants scared. I had to force myself to even look out of the windows, but I did despite feeling like I wanted to throw up and pass out simultaneously. Was I glad that I did it? Yes. Would I do it again? Never. But surely this couldn’t be that bad, I told myself.

So I grabbed Olivia’s hand and marched her straight to the ticket line before either of us changed our minds again. Less than 30 minutes later, we made our way through the line and set foot into a capsule, ready to be taken to the skies.

Did I enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? I think I would. Olivia loved it. I had a wobble as it reached the top, but honestly, it wasn’t half as bad as I had worked it up to be, and the views were breathtaking.

Take it from me, the woman who is quite possibly scared of everything, including her own shadow; sometimes, you just need to do something that, quite honestly, scares the living daylights out of you. Why? Because it may just be the best thing you have ever done.

For me, that is what this photo represents. Overcoming our fears and doing that one thing that really did scare us!

You can find Tracey online:
Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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