EDITOR IN CHIEFJoan Herrmann—ASSOCIATE EDITORLindsay Pearson—CREATIVE DIRECTORMatt Herrmann—GRAPHIC DESIGNERSChris GiordanoAndrea ValentieOliver Pane—CONTRIBUTORSLorie Gardner, RN, NBC-HWCSean Grover, LCSWGayle Gruenberg, CPO-CD, CVORick Hanson, PhDJoan HerrmannMark Hyman, MDLinda Mitchell, CPC
FROM THE EDITOR—Courage involves facing our fears, butit is also about resilience, grit, and havinga built-in BS detector and knowing whenand how to use it.I recently had a conversation with EvyPoumpouras, author of the book BecomingBulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People,Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly,in which we discussed how we canheighten our natural instincts to movefrom fear to fearlessness.Evy was raised in a low-incomeneighborhood where struggle and crimewas the way of life. She believes that twothings come from that type of upbringing:either a person becomes more afraid, orthat person rebels against fear. She chosethe latter.According to Evy, research shows thatkids who grow up in inner cities, in rougherenvironments, tend to be more resilientlater in life than those who grow up in amore protective environment. Reflectingon her life, she agrees.“When you grow up in a difficultenvironment you’re used to dealing withproblems and adversity and so from ayoung age, you begin to problem solve,you begin to start figuring out how tosolve an issue or problem,” said Evy. “Butwhen you’re too cocooned, when you’renot dealing with a lot of obstacles, whenyou’re growing up and extremely shielded,it does you a disservice because later inlife when things do happen - you don’t getthat job, you get fired, you break up in arelationship, you’re not getting the thingsyou thought you should get - you struggle.Evy shared with me lessons andinsights that she learned from protectingpresidents and working in the most elitesecurity force in the world.Evy is a former secret service specialagent who is the recipient of the UnitedStates Secret Service Medal of Valor Awardfor her heroism on 9/11. She has beenpart of the protective details for formerpresidents Obama, both Bushes, Clinton,and Ford, and is the costar of Bravo’s SpyGames.Listen to my conversation with Evy:https://spoti.fi/38RrMry— Joan Herrmann