July 2006, friends and I met up with others in Ft. Lauderdale and went on to Bimini, Bahamas. There were around five boats in all.

      While in Bimini we enjoyed fishing and snorkeling. On one of the snorkeling trips (of course, we'd snorkel before fishing), about a 10 ft reef shark swam past us going the opposite direction.

·       THEN I remembered, from Discovery Channel's Shark Week, that it's best to avoid cloudy water.... well.... there'd been some rain and the water was rather murky, we were already far from the boat … so that boat had sailed…

·       THEN I remembered, scenes from Jaws and my heart felt like it would beat right out of my chest as I envisioned the shark making a 'Uey' to say "Hello".

·       THEN I remembered how sharks are attracted more to people who are panicked and tended to leave the 'Just hanging out' people alone. I tried some meditation.... but thoughts of the 'u-turn attack' kept intruding.

·       THEN I asked the right question (Anthony Robbins, Joseph McClendon III & Steve Linder are correct when they say... it's all about asking the right questions). I asked myself, what would I need to do to enjoy my wonderful surroundings and not worry about what the shark might decide to do...?

·       The answer: Enjoying all these sights at the Baltimore Aquarium (I love that place... the food courts are wonderful)... What would I need to imagine I was as safe as I am in the Aquarium? I thought.... imagine that the glass of my goggles completely surrounded me and, like the aquarium, protected me from possible deadly aquatic creatures.

        My heart rate slowed, and luckily I'm a natural floater, when I snorkel, I can move rather fast, arms at my side, barely moving my legs and hardly making a ripple with my fins. So I feel like I made a smooth getaway.

        I’ve learned while we have a tendency of awaiting possible negative outcomes by focusing on the negative… we still have a choice to change our focus on the positive… we get what we focus on. It’s such a simple truth, yet requires a conscience effort. As Tony Robbins' says... Ask any race car driver... if in a spin, you don't miss smashing into the wall by looking at it, in the beginning they must train and work hard to force themselves to look at where they want the car to go... not at the big wall coming up fast... the car will go where their focus is.

     Robbins also points out he's not talking about becoming Polly Anna’s, or an 'Al Franken' character (SNL)… just inversing the importance and focus of possible outcomes... be aware and even prepared for the possible negative outcomes... and put your emotions and focus with the possible positive... as if it's happened and, while not guaranteeing, you do increase your odds that it will happen.

     After my ‘Shark Encounter”, this process of a change in attitude and focus, happened in a matter of seconds, the seminars and audios really have paid off. Once I had my heart rate down, I started enjoying myself again; I was already out in the water, far from the boat, I paid attention, even enjoyed, my surroundings, and went through my memories of Shark Week of what to do if attacked... it was a mental process not an emotional one... as I said I inversed the mental and emotional propotions of the possible outcomes. When just the desire to do so didn't work, I then remembered the importance of asking the right questions... What would I need to believe for this to work... or be true?

        Now... back in the water... Talk about a paradigm shift, I realized I had the water proof camera wrapped around my wrist, and missed my opportunity to get a picture of a shark encounter.... then I kept my eye out, even hoped for, another encounter... as uneventful as the previous encounter.... so I could get a picture, I even insisted on everyone boarding the boat ahead of me, I kept putting my head under water, hoping for a great shot.... but it didn't happen... oh well.

       The picture of the shark we caught, then released, looks like the kid brother of the one I saw it's about half the size.

      There are more pictures, maybe even video, just need to locate them, I thought they were all together. I spotted many, what I referred to as ‘gangs of barracudas’ there were so many in small groups, brought to mind pictures of gangs hanging out on the street corners (as seen on TV)… but even they no longer worried me… I wore no shiny jewelry and didn’t approach them. I’ll upload the pictures when I locate.