Empowered Relationship Podcast: Your Relationship Resource And Guide · Dr. Jessica Higgins

ERP 512: The Courage Practice: How Facing Fear Deepens Intimacy and Connection — An Interview with Scott Simon

·49 min·3 clips

Scott says courage is not about becoming fearless, and he compares it to yoga and meditation as a lifelong practice.

1. Empowered Relationship Podcast: Your Relationship Resource And Guide centers this conversation on Scott Simon's "courage practice" for intimate relationships. 2. Host Dr. Jessica Higgins, a licensed psychologist and relationship coach, interviews Scott Simon, bestselling author, TEDx speaker, and founder of Scare Your Soul, because he links fear, vulnerability, and connection. 3. The episode asks what happens when fear is faced instead of avoided, and Scott's answer is that courage can deepen intimacy, strengthen trust, and create more authentic connection. 4. Scott says courage is "the key to a flourishing life and to flourishing relationships," because without it people stay stuck in comfort zones, patterns, loneliness, and isolation. 5. He describes growing up shy, being bullied for many years, and living with shame before an overseas airplane epiphany changed his focus. 6. On that flight, he had a panic attack, pulled out a Mead spiral notebook, and wrote eight words: "do one thing every day that scares you." 7. He says that sentence became a full-year practice while he lived with a host family in a foreign country. 8. During that year he practiced small acts like saying hello, going to the post office, and getting on a bus, which he treats as real steps of courage. 9. Scott argues that many fears are imagined, but they still hold people back in work, relationships, and daily life. 10. He also says that even painful experiences can become gifts, using his divorce from Laura and the shift to single co-parenting as an example. 11. Scott says the divorce led to a functional co-parenting relationship where "our kids were our North Star" in every decision. 12. He adds that the experience brought yoga into his life and later introduced him to positive psychology through a Harvard professor. 13. One of his strongest claims is that courage is not about becoming fearless, because like yoga or meditation it is a lifelong practice. 14. He says the practice changes from day to day, and some days the bravest act may be asking for a raise or having a hard conversation. 15. He pushes back on the idea that courage requires quitting jobs, leaving relationships, or moving countries, and instead emphasizes small daily steps. 16. Scott says those small steps build momentum, self-efficacy, and a sense of agency. 17. He gives the example of a coffee-shop challenge that he has done around 250 times, which still brings uncertainty about rejection or embarrassment. 18. Scott and Jessica connect this to intimate relationships, where he advises people to "go first" when an important conversation is hiding under the rug. 19. The interview is conversational and practical, with Jessica using examples from couples therapy and Scott answering in a direct, reflective style. 20. People wanting concrete tools for relational courage will find this useful, while listeners looking for light entertainment or celebrity gossip may skip it.

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