In this informal livestream titled “Suicide Prevention Saturday,” the host opens with a stark statistic that two‑thirds of gun deaths reported by the CDC are suicides, framing the need for mental‑health awareness and collective action. The session has no pre‑planned agenda; the host invites viewers to suggest topics, then pivots to personal coping tools. She discusses how music helps shift her mood and announces an upcoming breathwork session with guest Jessica Brace, a Tony Robbins fire‑team member. The bulk of the talk centers on firewalking—walking over hot coals—sharing vivid memories of her first firewalk at a Tony Robbins event, subsequent experiences, a mishap that burned her toes, and the broader lesson that firewalking demonstrates personal limits and the power of belief. The host links this to everyday resilience, describing how breathing techniques (deep inhalation, CO₂ exhalation, pause) serve as mini‑meditations to lower stress, especially in shooting practice, and critiques a common marksmanship cue to hold breath. She reflects on procrastination, the value of doing tasks one doesn’t want to do (gym with her teenage daughter, shooting range lessons), and the importance of giving oneself credit. The livestream concludes with reminders about upcoming events, gratitude to sponsor Cape Gun Works, and a call for community engagement.
Chapters
Hey everyone, it is Suicide Prevention Saturday. So that means tonight is Saturday. It means it's 9 PM Eastern. And why are we here? Uh, because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths they talk about in the news from the CDC are suicides. So if we actually want to save lives, we have to pay attention to mental health and we have to decide that we each can have an impact because alone no one can get anything done, but you and I together, We can move the world. Anyway, hi everyone. We have no actual topic for today. Mike White apparently is not going to help me because I did put it up earlier, what do you all want to talk about tonight? And he's like, I have no idea. So one of the questions I got back to him over on the YouTube side was, but if you did know, what could it be? So for those of you who are joining, anything you can think of. Let me know what you would like to talk about tonight. I was really all together for the last 2 months. I put out these Suicide Prevention Saturdays topics and everything 2 weeks in advance, or no, 2 months in advance, and then life got ahead of me or behind me or away from me or something like that. I'm sure none of you have ever had that challenge because obviously everyone is better organized than I am, right? Yes, this is how we think often. Um, But no, I just, I absolutely just, we all have our strengths. We all have our weaknesses. Organization sometimes is an amazing strength that I have, usually for other people though. Like if you need me to organize your stuff, awesome, because you can tell me what you want organized and I will organize it. But when I have to organize my own stuff, there's a little work in progress here in the office that needs to be taken care of. So anyway, All right, so in preparing for tonight, other than putting up the what do y'all want to talk about tonight, um, I was listening to music because music for me is what helps me change my state. So since we don't have a lot of suggestions over here in the comments section, I'm gonna go with that because that's what I got. Oh, and before I forget, uh, oh, my calendar is not there right now. I'm trying to update my calendar, which is part of why my life has gotten away from me. Um, in 3 weeks, the last Saturday I'm pretty sure of this month, I'm going to have a special guest and we're going to talk about breathwork. If you don't know what breathwork is, ready? Take a breath in, let it out. We've done this before, a little bit different times, different ways, all of that sort of thing. My friend's name is Jessica Brace. And she is a Tony Robbins fire teamer. And if you don't know what that is, that's okay. But basically, those of us who've worked with the Tony Robbins crew, we help build a giant big fire at this event called Unleash the Power Within, and then everybody walks over the hot coals of the fire that we built. And that's the short version of it. So let's talk about fire walking. Hmm, how about that? How's that for a segue? All right, so fire walking. Have you ever done it? Have you seen anyone do it? I got to see Oprah do it in Jersey. Um, that was a long time ago, 2000, 2001, I'm not really sure. So what is fire walking? Fire walking— and I actually have a friend who's doing a fire walk tonight, so I think this is what we shall talk about tonight. So fire walking is literally walking over a bed of hot coals. Who does that? I've done that. Yeah. And other weird people, I suppose. Oh, I have to bring Mike's comment up here because sighing is a great stress reliever for me, without a doubt. I've actually found in my world that I will do this and someone's like, what's the matter? And I'm like, nothing. I just forgot to breathe. —like for real, I feel like I've been holding my breath and I'm like, "Oh yeah, huh, I should actually breathe." And this is part of why here at Great Start Shooting School, I really do teach my students to breathe. It's not like a rifle where breathing has a huge effect on your marksmanship skills. With handguns, it has some effect but not as much. Breathing in general is definitely the how to lower stress in your body. One of the courses I teach is called NSSF First Shots, and in their little booklet they say take a breath in, hold it, and pull the trigger. I do not suggest that we do that because as soon as you hold your breath, your stress response goes up because your body's like, why aren't you getting more oxygen? What's going on? Your little, um, is it the amygdala? Anyway, um, I'll get into brain chemistry another day when I'm actually prepared. So instead, take a big breath in, let it out, and that pause in between the breaths at the bottom where you just filled up your lungs with oxygen, you just let all the CO2 out, which is good because you don't want it in you, and you have that minor pause. That is a mini meditation. I know we've talked about that before, but I digress, or I'm off, you know, chasing squirrels again because you know that is what I do on a Saturday night from time to time. So fire walking, walking over a bed of hot coals. Yes, I have a friend who's doing that tonight. However, when did I first see my first fire walk? I'm going to say 1999 because 1999 was a really busy year. I bought my first house. Well, sorry, my husband and I bought our first house, but we weren't husband and wife yet. So we bought our first house, then we had our wedding, and then we went to a Tony Robbins event out in Colorado. And I did not know there was fire walking at this event. So, uh, I was just all excited, um, because Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within event is a lot of rah-rah, let's go, and what is possible in your life and what you are capable of. And I think all of us need to be reminded of that from time to time. But then we're like, all right, everyone take your shoes off, leave them by your, uh, chairs, and, uh, follow me. And I'm just like, what is this? And, uh, so I just remember going out there, and it was one of those things where you're like, are you ready? I'm like, okay. And I went and I walked over a hot bed of coals, and I didn't feel a thing. Not warmth, not hot, just go. So your brain kind of melts a little bit at that point. She's like, I, I just remember getting to the other side of the 10 or 15 feet of coals that I just walked over, and I'm like, that can't be real. Is that real? Oh my goodness. And the thing that I learned at this event was a lot of the people who were working were volunteers. And so I'm like, wow, how do you volunteer at this thing? And so I started volunteering at Tony Robbins events, and my first volunteer event I went and I worked what was called fire team. And in 1990 and '99 and 2000, it was a very small fire team. There were, I want to say, 8 or 10 of us. It was very small. We needed lots of help. It was lots of hard work. And remember how I told you I got over the first firewalk and I'm like, wow, this doesn't seem real. So then I went and did the firewalk the next time, and my brain was like, hmm, is this real? So guess what? I did burn my toes. So be careful what you ask for. Sometimes getting validation on stuff you're not sure about is not awesome. I didn't get burned bad or anything, but I know it was because of my doubt from my first firewalk. So, um, that is what firewalking is. It is showing yourself what you can do that you may not believe that you can do. And there's— I don't know, it's just kind of crazy. I've done it a bunch of times. I couldn't tell you how many times I've walked on fire. Uh, being part of the fire team, we also worked on eating fire. I had a really cool picture for a long time of me like this eating fire, but I lost it. So, um, I'm very sad for that. I wish I could find that. So that is walking on fire and eating fire. Who needs to do these things? I don't know. Anyone, everyone. It just doesn't matter. Um, or does it matter? Because what are you capable of? What is something that you have done that you are surprised you were able to do? My husband and I were actually having a conversation earlier tonight about, um, what we accomplish on a daily basis. How much credit do we give ourselves for the things that we do on a regular basis? And how much do we beat ourselves for the stuff that we didn't get done? And what does it have to do with fire walking and/or fire eating? Because that's also fun. It's that we're always capable of doing more. What we need to do for our own self-worth and not beating ourselves up is giving ourselves credit for the stuff we do get done and understanding, yes, is there something more we could have done? Sure. Does it mean we always have to do more? Only if it brings us joy, kind of, sort of, in that— so my, uh, my daughter and I are going to gym on a regular basis right now My 15-year-old daughter gets up at 5 AM with me and we go to the gym before she goes to school because she wants to get good at volleyball. And on Thursday night, I was not feeling well. I'm like, Nadia, can we just push it off to Saturday? She's like, yeah. And she had a long day planned for Friday anyway, so we agreed that we would work out today. Well, this morning before she goes off with her friends, I'm like, I don't want to work out. And my daughter, my 15-year-old daughter, says to me, yeah, we're going. And so we don't always want to do things that are good for us. And it's one of those things where it's great to have people around you who will pick you up. Are there times when I'm dragging her out of her bed and cajoling her and poking her and saying, let's go, and reminding her why she's going to the range? Or range, sorry, going to the gym. Yes, yes, sometimes I am the one pulling her out of bed, but it was great to have her there to pull me out of the bed. So why am I saying this is because I did not want to go to the range or go to the gym today at all. And yet those days when we do the things we really don't want to do, I find are the ones that we are most happy about. Those are the times that we really see what we're made of. It's when we do the stuff we don't want to. Now, guess what? Who's a great procrastinator? I am. Do I do the thing that's more fun? Yes. Do I want to do the thing that I don't want to do? No. But do I do it anyway and usually feel better? Yeah, apparently I do have the range on my mind. I was on the range this morning introducing one of my students to the joys of revolvers. And she had a great time and she loved them. And it was her second lesson with me and she was just like, why did I say I didn't want revolvers? I'm like, I just suggested you try them before you say you don't like them. It's sort of like food, you don't want to insist you don't like something. But yeah, I definitely have the range on my mind tomorrow. I know my husband and I will be on the range, so I have that going for me. All right, so with that, hold on. I, uh, I put my lighting in a different place, so I have no idea how long I've been going blah blah blah. All right, what do we have? I wasn't planned, but I showed up anyway. We made stuff up because that's what we're good at, and most of us can improvise. Y'all know now what firewalking is and why you do things that you don't want to do and why those are usually the things that serve you best. At the same time, we all need to rest and relax and take care of ourselves. I'm definitely working on that as well. And there's always more to do. The list is never over and don't beat yourself up for it. Do the things you can. I know I often will quote the Serenity Prayer and for those of you who don't know it, it basically— I usually do it wrong, but it's God grant me the ability to change the things I can, the ability to accept the things that I cannot, and the knowledge to know the difference. Maybe you're like, are you an alcoholic? No, I think that's a very good prayer to say because it helps us stay sane. But again, I'm bouncing all over the place. All right, so with that, I will be putting up the next month of whatever this is called events here. I'll make something up in the next couple days and so that everyone will get your announcements, that fun stuff. A special guest on, I believe it's the last weekend of June, Jessica Brace, and we'll be doing breathwork. So hopefully you can come and actually be calm. And for the love of peanut butter and jelly, I have to finally remember to start thanking my sponsor, um, and then my brain went dead. Cape Gun Works. And I'm going to put a link down here in the rest of my upcoming videos. So y'all can check them out because I've never had a sponsor before. So I didn't know how to thank them or anything like that. So gratitude, working on that too. All right. Well, Mike, since you're the only guy who showed up, you're the only one who said hi. Because again, I put this up super late. I know it's only been up for about an hour, but thanks for checking in and I will see you all next week. And yeah, have an awesome week and I will see you soon. Bye-bye everybody.
