How to beat our fears?

Eating in the complete darkness experience in Lyon!

We all have some fears and each of us have different ones. I learned not to judge people on what they are scared of since we’re all different and something so simple for us might be very difficult for others and other way around. Once I stopped comparing I got more energy on actually looking closer into my fears and thinking how I can overcome them. Logically, I thought I need to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ which is one of the strategies smart people recommend. But I also met an amazing person who told me: you don’t need to beat the fear, you can actually try to live with it and realise that the fear is not as scary as you think…

I think that we can actually combine those two clever attitudes toward fears and find our own way…we should try things to change what we can in our own peace because there is nothing worse than comparing our lives to others and expect the perfectionism in everything we do. Anyways I could talk about it a lot yet I want to tell you about my interesting experience in Lyon to beat the fear, to learn something new about ourselves and to do something completely unusual in Lyon! Are you ready…let me tell you about Table en braille – eating in the dark experience.

Table en braille is an concept offered by Comptoir JOA restaurant located in the Cite Internationale in Lyon. It’s a nice restaurant which offers food, drinks and nice atmosphere and you would not expect that it has a hidden big room whole in dark.

• This room is opened only for the chosen ones- the ones that booked the experience in advanced as there are few seances offered per week. Why? Because the table en braille concept is very unusual:
• You come to total darkness
• You cannot take with you any shiny things: no watch, no phone… complete darkness
• You are being guided and served by the blind waiter. Abdel was an amazing waiter who served us whole evening making us feel comfortably and less scared. I had a lot of confidence in him and he didn’t break it.
• You are not alone. There are other people with you, allowed for a seance. It’s nice to share the experience.

 

Now, there’s no ‘ run away’, you sit down in a complete darkness and you need to learn and get familiar with the situation. It feels terrible, unsettling, scary, uncomfortably, at the beginning, not to be able to see. You are scared of:

• What is around you
• The darkness
• The unknown
• The unpredictable
• The lack of control
• The food you are going to eat and how you are going to eat
• The fact you can’t see your partner/ friend who you care about and love
• And few other things….

Then you take few deep breaths and you think that there are people who live like this every day and they manage and so you can at least try… what’s the worse can happen? Once you became calmer and opened your mind for experiencing new reality. You can start enjoying it… because the food experience is also interesting. Not knowing what you are going to eat, in which portion, in which order you discover the tastes in your mouth is incredible and funny in many moments.

I would say this is an amazing experience which I recommend for anyone to try once in their lives! I know this concept exist in different countries. I discovered it in Lyon and here I need to say that the restaurant overcame my expectations:

• The quality of food was very good
• The staff was very welcoming
• Our blind waiter was incredible
• Lastly, the location was good and all was smoothly organised.

How about you? Have you ever tried eating in the complete darkness restaurant? Are you thinking about doing it? I’m very happy I tried. I learnt more about myself and eaten very good food. I tried to overcome the fears, I faced them and now I am going to live with them as I realise they are not as scary as they seem to be…