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So tonight is class is the second and a two-part series on basing fear, awakening your fearless heart.

And we're really exploring this shift we can make in our relationship with fear.

So we move from being caught up in fight-fight freeze to that space of fearless presence where waves of fear can be there, but they don't dominate us.

And I thought I'd begin with a favorite story that has to do with fear and it also has to do with poodles and I have a poodle.

So I like the story. A wealthy man went on a safari and brought his poodle with him.

One day the poodle was chasing around after some butterflies and found himself totally lost.

And he was trying to find his way back and he saw a leopard rapidly heading his way.

So he goes up, oh. And luckily the poodle noticed some bones on the ground close by and immediately turned his back to the approaching cat and started chewing on them.

And just as the leopard was about to pounce, the poodle called out, boy that was one delicious leopard.

But I'm still hungry. I wonder if there's another one around.

Upon hearing this leopard halted his attack and mid-stried a look of abject terror on his face, he crawled off into some nearby trees thinking, boy that was a close call. That creature really got me.

So meanwhile a monkey had been watching this whole transaction from a high tree and he called out to the leopard and promised some valuable information in exchange for the leopard's protection.

And so of course the leopard's furious to know that he had just been made a fool of him. But the monkey on his back he takes off to find that conniving canine.

Again the poodle saw the leopard this time with a monkey on his back and being a smart poodle they are smart put two and two together and realized he wouldn't have time to escape.

So he sat down again with his back to his attackers pretending hadn't seen them. And just when he came close enough to hear he exclaimed, where is that damn monkey?

I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another leopard.

So I love that because our fear and the conniving and planning and whatever we do out of our fear sometimes is absolutely necessary and it helps.

I mean fear is an intelligent emotion. It has a place in our nervous system on purpose and it's often called nature's protector. You know it protects us.

And yet as most of us know it goes into overdrive and we get over self protective and when it's that way when fear takes over we cannot live fully.

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