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John Graham

👤 Person
228 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

But to answer your question, yeah, I'm on the stage and I'll be 100% honest with you. I've done all this internal work. But when I was on the stage, I felt the lights. It felt like 90 degrees in my suit. I felt the adrenaline surge through me because I realized I'm in front of 400 million people. I heard all the noises of the crowd. I saw the cameraman in front of me.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

But to answer your question, yeah, I'm on the stage and I'll be 100% honest with you. I've done all this internal work. But when I was on the stage, I felt the lights. It felt like 90 degrees in my suit. I felt the adrenaline surge through me because I realized I'm in front of 400 million people. I heard all the noises of the crowd. I saw the cameraman in front of me.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

I saw the models walking in front of me, holding stuff. I heard the translator through my earpiece that was, I actually draped it over my shoulder because I didn't want to hear them in my ear. I felt and I heard the voice in my head, right? All this stuff, all this stuff that every normal human being experiences. But with the work that I've done, I was able to handle all of that. Here's the thing.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

I saw the models walking in front of me, holding stuff. I heard the translator through my earpiece that was, I actually draped it over my shoulder because I didn't want to hear them in my ear. I felt and I heard the voice in my head, right? All this stuff, all this stuff that every normal human being experiences. But with the work that I've done, I was able to handle all of that. Here's the thing.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

Most people resist it. They don't even realize they're resisting it. That's where anxiety comes from. That's where pressure and all these things is because we're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to feel this. Put it away. Stop talking, stop voice, like you try to halt it. If you halt the voice in your head or you push it away, you're resisting it. And that actually strengthens it.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

Most people resist it. They don't even realize they're resisting it. That's where anxiety comes from. That's where pressure and all these things is because we're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to feel this. Put it away. Stop talking, stop voice, like you try to halt it. If you halt the voice in your head or you push it away, you're resisting it. And that actually strengthens it.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

So I've learned how to allow it, which sounds super simple, but it's not. You have to allow all of this stuff, all of this voltage, all of this voice to happen, to do whatever it wants to do. You can't do that in that moment. Like you have to cultivate that. And so all of this stuff's happening.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

So I've learned how to allow it, which sounds super simple, but it's not. You have to allow all of this stuff, all of this voltage, all of this voice to happen, to do whatever it wants to do. You can't do that in that moment. Like you have to cultivate that. And so all of this stuff's happening.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

But again, I'm bringing my attention back into what do I do so that I get right back into the zone and I know exactly what to do with these numbers and with these items and how to memorize it. It's no problem. It's just if I get distracted in my mind, in my body and resist it, it's going to create problems. Yeah.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

But again, I'm bringing my attention back into what do I do so that I get right back into the zone and I know exactly what to do with these numbers and with these items and how to memorize it. It's no problem. It's just if I get distracted in my mind, in my body and resist it, it's going to create problems. Yeah.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

Well, I can tell you it's not a puppy wagging its tail. It's highly uncomfortable when emotions show up, the real wrong ones. But you're exactly right. They will come up stronger. It's like kicking a can down the road. You kick the can down the road because you have anxiety, but you meditate it so you feel calm and you feel, okay, distracted. But really, you just kick the can down the road.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

Well, I can tell you it's not a puppy wagging its tail. It's highly uncomfortable when emotions show up, the real wrong ones. But you're exactly right. They will come up stronger. It's like kicking a can down the road. You kick the can down the road because you have anxiety, but you meditate it so you feel calm and you feel, okay, distracted. But really, you just kick the can down the road.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

The next day, you're going to have two cans in front of you. It's going to get louder and louder and louder. For me, it got to the point where I was having panic attacks. I was having panic attacks every single day, multiple times a day, just completely debilitating because I was resisting so much. And really, that's what anxiety is, is you're resisting the flow of life.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

The next day, you're going to have two cans in front of you. It's going to get louder and louder and louder. For me, it got to the point where I was having panic attacks. I was having panic attacks every single day, multiple times a day, just completely debilitating because I was resisting so much. And really, that's what anxiety is, is you're resisting the flow of life.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

At the deepest root, I had all of this suppressed emotion. There's not one moment in my life that caused all this, right? It was just an accumulation. It was a pressure cooker where I wasn't letting anything out. I was resisting it all. Just like you said, I was upstairs up here where I am now laying in bed with my daughters outside playing in the yard, wanting daddy, but I couldn't handle it.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

At the deepest root, I had all of this suppressed emotion. There's not one moment in my life that caused all this, right? It was just an accumulation. It was a pressure cooker where I wasn't letting anything out. I was resisting it all. Just like you said, I was upstairs up here where I am now laying in bed with my daughters outside playing in the yard, wanting daddy, but I couldn't handle it.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

If you've never had a panic attack before, There's a range. There's a spectrum. They can go from a surge of adrenaline. Oh my gosh, what's wrong with me? To I'm going to die. I know I'm going to die. One of the times my arm went numb or constricted. I thought I was having a heart attack and I started getting busy. I started feeling my heart rate go up.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

If you've never had a panic attack before, There's a range. There's a spectrum. They can go from a surge of adrenaline. Oh my gosh, what's wrong with me? To I'm going to die. I know I'm going to die. One of the times my arm went numb or constricted. I thought I was having a heart attack and I started getting busy. I started feeling my heart rate go up.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

One time the left side of my face went completely numb and I thought I was having a stroke. So people who think like you're in your head, it's just anxiety. No, it's like It mimics these physiological things. It's terrifying to believe you're going to die. So there was a time I was at the chiropractor office to answer your question, and I started feeling a panic attack come on.

Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Crippling Anxiety: How I Beat Panic Attacks to Become a 3x USA Memory Champion | John Graham | E75

One time the left side of my face went completely numb and I thought I was having a stroke. So people who think like you're in your head, it's just anxiety. No, it's like It mimics these physiological things. It's terrifying to believe you're going to die. So there was a time I was at the chiropractor office to answer your question, and I started feeling a panic attack come on.