Sometimes we have to stop listening to the fear in our heads and instead hear the universe when it’s saying, don’t worry I’ve got you. We had the opportunity, in Episode 70 to chat with the incredible author and traveler, Laura Vaisman. At the start of a global pandemic, Laura lost her job. As scary as this event was, Laura recognized this provided her with a second chance. Forced to be at home after years of traveling, Laura made the adjustment by not only getting married, but also taking the time to sit down and write her second book. She put her personal struggles with anxiety into a fiction book to help young pre-teens/teens called, Penny Panic: A Young Girls Journey with Anxiety.
Before we talk more about the present, let’s flashback for a moment and catch you up to speed on all the great things Laura!
Laura began her journey as a travel blogger in 2008. She was afforded the opportunity her late teens to have a solo travel journey to Europe. Following that adventure, Laura’s travels spanned over 10 years and 14 different countries!!! Laura was taking so much personally from these explorations, that in 2008, she began documenting her journeys on her personal travel blog. Laura shared that traveling allowed her to embrace her anxiety and love herself again. To accept the good, the bad, and the ugly life has to offer. She highlights her travels in her first book, Spiritual Nomad: A Journey Within and Abroad, published in 2019. This book is a completion of a more expanded view of her blogs along with her personal struggles with anxiety.
Laura was consistently writing for her blog in 2008, which when we think about it, really was the start of the blogging community. She acknowledges the bumpy road ahead for her though.
“Coming into blogging I just didn’t understand what was going on at the time. I guess I just didn’t have the education and I just didn’t understand why things were not picking up like they used to.”
Laura goes on to share that she made what she calls a mistake, by changing her blog and her whole brand to her name lauravaisman.com. This shift made Laura lose everything. She lost her entire following and had to start at zero to try and gain back what she used to have. Laura knew the tough road that was ahead of her, but she also knew she didn’t want to monetize how other travel bloggers were at the time. She didn’t have an interest in making courses on how to be a writer or how to travel. That just wasn’t for her and she lost the consistency.
There are so many beautiful pieces to Laura’s story, but one in particular is her ability to share her past experiences with anxiety. Laura went through a period where she felt like nothing was working for her panic attacks and anxiety. She said, you kind of have to go through some of the really tough times to really get to the other side. Sharing that at one point she didn’t leave her house for a month, she had to regain her focus and states therapy really worked for her.
“…it’s like when you’re in it it, it really sucks to hear like it’s a practice and it gets better and it’s temporary ’cause you don’t want to hear that when you’re in it. You just want it to stop but you kind of have to go through it and kind of have to understand where it’s coming from.”
Laura may still have anxiety at times and she does talk about it often in her writing, but she does not identify with it. You will never hear her say, “I have an anxiety disorder”. She recognizes herself as a strong ass woman and doesn’t like to label herself. Instead she recognizes these are moments she goes through. It’s very situational now and she believes it’s a gift. She shares she’s very in tune with herself and calls her anxiety an evolutionary tool we’ve needed as humans back in caveman days to survive. Overtime, she learned you have to really practice and you have to really be disciplined to handle it. There’s so much more to her than her views / struggles with mental health. Her first love is travel and writing. She loves learning from other cultures other than her own. She loves to cook and having deep conversations.
Laura had been working on Penny Panic for awhile but took a lot of time off from it. However, losing her job and a conversation with her celebrity mentor Gary Vee she states she was provided a second shot and found the momentum to finish it.
You have to catch her Tea with Gary Vee interview that in itself was divine timing for Laura and a perfect reminder for anyone who needs it that you CAN do uncomfortable things! Check it out here.
Laura came up with Penny Panic because of her stepdaughter. She was watching her struggling with anxiety at the time and hearing stories from her friends when she realized they were going through so much stuff.
She couldn’t believe how young they were and dealing with all types of crap. Laura wanted to create a resource that would help because through all of her research, all of the books she was finding out there were too clinical. She also shared many of them had such a negative connotation to them. She said other books described anxiety as a monster inside of you. They made anxiety out to be bad or a problem.
Laura wanted her story to be different. She didn’t want to tell a kid their anxieties are wrong or there’s something inside of them that’s evil. Penny Panic is Laura’s own way of looking at anxiety. She said she thinks the story needs to resonate with the teen first. If the story connects with them then you can have have hidden messages of those clinical things in it where they can still learn. Rather than it be a lecture, she wanted it to have moments where they were reading and saying, “oh yeah my friend’s been through that or I’ve heard a story before that’s similar. Penny Panic is a unique look at anxiety and is written from a place of love and understanding. Her book is less daunting and designed to be more supportive with a reminder that they are not alone and will get through this too, even when it feels absolutely impossible.
If you or you have or know a teen that is struggling with anxiety, Penny Panic could be just the book to add to your / their personal tool box of coping mechanisms.
Laura is on a mission to show people they are stronger than they realize. She reminds us all that we are a constant work in progress and we definitely don’t need a label to define us. There is so much reward on the other side of fear.She knows because she has done it scared enough times to prove it to herself – despite the fear and anxiety, her intuition always knows best.
Laura’s Red Bra Moment:
In 2017, while working as a mental health counselor, Laura experienced strong moments of anxiety again. The job became extremely stressful and she was burned out. She had some of the most severe cases of anxiety and would sit in her car before entering the office to psych herself up. She would coach herself and say after you meet with your Clients you can leave; this practice actually inspired a future chapter in Penny Panic.
Finding the strength to leave her mental health job is Laura’s Red Bra Moment.
She didn’t have anything lined up, but she told her boss it’s a matter of her own mental health at this point. Even though she didn’t have a plan in place, Laura states, “It felt good to be like, I’m done”. She didn’t care that there wasn’t a paycheck or benefits coming her way anymore because she had to lookout for herself. She takes from this experience that she is never going to put herself in that situation again because nothing is more important than your own health.
What a pivotal moment for Laura and such a powerful Red Bra Moment in her life.
Loving what you have read so far?
Please share Laura’s story with someone who needs it in their life. Thank you so much Laura for opening your heart, vulnerability and story to us. We know it is going to inspire & support many people (and teens) out there who NEED your guidance in their life.
Here’s where to connect with the inspiring Laura Vaisman:
Traveling Jersey Girl YouTube Channel
Penny Panic – A Young Girl’s Journey with Anxiety (Signed Copy)
Episode 70 – Proof That Reward is Always Waiting On the Other Side of Fear with Laura Vaisman on The Red Bra Project YT Channel
Laura’s Photos By:
Ashe @asheh and Jesus Baez @baez_photo
Thank you for stopping by, you are so appreciated! We hope this story inspired you or someone you know on some level. We know it did us, please share away. Always wear that red bra underneath it all and make sure to join the party over @theredbraproject!
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The Red Bra Project
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