Why Am I Afraid?

What if I told you it is genetic?

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $4,000 Vacation + $1,000 VISA eGift Card

The Ultra High End - 3-Channel 4K Dash Cam

The Superpremium - Samaria Gorge

The Premium Core - EmeTerm

The Accessible Core - Why Am I Afraid?

The Affordable Luxury - Housekeeping

The Everyday Luxury - BBQ Social Announcement

The Bespoke

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $4,000 Vacation Voucher + $1,000 in VISA eGift Cards [ARV $5,012]

• Odds: For every 660 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) vacation bundle Prize

• Contest Period: February 28, 2024 at 10 AM CST to April 5, 2024 at 10 PM CST

See Issue 1 for more content about The Bespoke Prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner for Issue 17 is HONG from Arlington, Texas! Congratulations on winning the Spring Cleaning $200 Gift Card! Here is her submission for “a picture of the perfect sunny day activity”:

Best of luck with your Spring Cleaning! Worst case scenario, you have $200 to buy a green screen to make it look like you cleaned up. Best case scenario, you clean your place up without using the $200 and now you have groceries for a week!

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: Vantrue 3 Channel 4K Dash Cam [ARV $208]

• Odds: For every 140 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) dash cam

• Contest Period: March 20, 2024 at 10 AM CST to March 26, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is mental wealth. There are many ways to be mentally resilient like meditating, breathing exercises, support groups, and more. However, many times we need something physical to be in-place so we can protect our mental wealth, this is the “peace of mind” items. Items like cameras, locks, family, lucky charm and pets.

For this week’s contest, the “peace of mind” prize I am giving out is a dash cam. Driving is integral to our everyday lives but also a dangerous thing. Accidents happen too often and when you least expect it. The last thing you want to do is to have to prove your innocence when you’re physically, mentally and financially hurt from a car accident.

This dash cam records front, rear and inside your vehicle to cover all the bases when it comes to accidents. It’s also in 4K so you can get plates, faces and details that may be crucial to your incident. It is battery-powered so there’s no wires hanging in-front of you.

Personally, I would use the inside camera a lot since I have kids, it’s not just a safety net but I will be saving a lot of the funny moments that are happening as they grow up. This dash cam will be both “peace of mind” and memories for my mental wealth.

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Samaria Gorge. This natural wonder is located in Crete, Greece. It is the longest gorge in Europe (about 10 miles)! It also has a long descent just to get the base of the gorge. This hiking trip was part of my itinerary when I went to Greece and one of my favorite hikes ever.

The gorge is not available to hike year-round because it is flooded during rainy season and the gorge rock walls are as high as 1,500 ft. It is open between May-October during dry season. This hike isn’t recommended for beginners as it is quite long and does have some steep ups and downs; however, if you plan to hike it, make sure you have 6-8 hours for the hike and another 4-6 hours for commuting, exploring and resting.

Just for an example, I’ll give you a run-down of my itinerary that day:

6:00 AM Wake up, get ready and eat breakfast

7:00 AM Head out to Samaria Gorge (1-1.5 hours)

8:30 AM Arrive at starting point (Xyloscalo), gather supplies and take pictures

[6 hours of hiking, exploring, taking pictures and resting]

2:30 PM Take last pictures of the hike and drink some refreshing orange juice at the little village at the end of the long hike (Agia Roumeli)

3:30 PM Take boat ride to Chora Sfakion (30 minutes)

4:30 PM Take bus back to lodging (1-1.5 hours)

6:00 PM Arrive home (12 hours after waking up for this memorable hike)

Even though this was a long day for just a hike, it was the one of the most memorable hikes and trips I’ve ever had. You quench your thirst with the natural spring water throughout the gorge. The area that has water is crystal clear with a few man-made bridges to walk over. The towering rock walls make it feel so tiny and the wildlife and vegetation throughout the hike is beautiful.

Like most hikes, be prepared for some chilly mornings and hot midday rays. There were areas to run around, climb and explore and other areas where you will hike in a single line. There are many hikers when we went but the gorge is so vast that you really only run into other hikers, not in your group, at watering holes and the rest areas.

Here is a link to some pictures of the gorge so you can see. They are not mine since I was too busy running around exploring I did not take any pictures. We had a few people in our group that had professional cameras and they took all the pictures for us.

When I go back to Crete, this is one of those adventures I would do again and hopefully I be able to share it with my family and friends. I hope for those world travelers, this will be a spot in your book of places to visit.

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is EmeTerm Wristband. This was something I had researched recently since the cruises I went on recently. Some people in my family got seasick and medicine was the only help we had, but even then it didn’t resolve immediately since they normally didn’t take it until they got sick.

I looked into EmeTerm as it was a way to prevent motion sickness and nausea without medication. Also, recently I found out my oldest daughter complaining about being car sick. Different forms of motion sickness is common and happens to about 25% of people. That means a good number of members probably have some kind of motion sickness or nausea on a monthly basis.

There are many other benefits, but these wristbands may be pricey to some. Since it has been proven to help, I’ve decided to make it a weekly deal so Ducky Tran members can get access to the EmeTerm wristband.

Deal #1: I am offering a EmeTerm wristband at shop.duckytran.com for only $35 (normally $87). It comes in black, blue and pink and there will only be 6 available so go get yours now if you normally have motion sickness, nausea or dizziness.

I want to be transparent, I do not get motion sickness, so I have not tried this product out. But the reviews and research on these type of products show position signs with most negative comments being about the fit of the product not the function. I know many people in my family would love to have something like this that can help with a vacation-ruining sickness or just daily car commute.

The Accessible Core

Why Am I Afraid?

“Why are you afraid of heights, don’t you fly?”

I get this question all the time when I talk about my military career. Yes, I’m afraid of heights. And deep water. And a lot of other stuff. So many fears that if you didn’t know me you would think I am walking around in bubble wrap.

However, most people that do know me would never have guessed most of my fears as I don’t really show it. So why am I afraid? This question has haunted me ever since grade school. I always hear about trauma making people afraid of fires, heights, green peas and snakes. But many of my fears, I don’t really remember being exposed to any of them before actually being afraid of them, I just was.

Well, I found the best research article about this topic and here’s the simplified version.

1. The largest activation of brain activity during a fear conditioning experiment was largely spread throughout the brain.

2. The largest effect, or response, to a fear is centralized to the “safety-related” areas of the brain.

3. When conditioned in an experiment to a fear, the brain actually lessens the fear as to not trigger a threat response in most participants.

4. Fears that people have that wasn’t conditioned in the experiment created a greater response in the “safety-related” areas.

5. Specific genetic makeup that changes the neural pathway of the fear learning cycle can alter the fears that you have and how they are lessen.

Through this research and other related research and articles, I’ll make some conclusions to make it easier to understand:

1. Not all my fears are learned, but not all my fears are genetic.

2. My genetics play significantly on how I learn, react and forget about my fears.

3. The way my brain develops allow me to protect myself and be safe, so some fears are not actually the activation of a fear but the strong response to be safe, which is genetically determined.

4. Many things we call a fear is just a response from the brain to be safe, that’s why even though I’m afraid heights, I can still do things very high up, because its a safety response rather than a debilitating cause.

5. People can have varying levels of fear to the same topic, because depending on how your neural pathways are made up, you will perceive and react to those fears differently.

6. In conclusion, you may be born with “fears” but its really a safety response. Can “fears” be learned? Yes, depending on your genetics some people will perceive and react to “fears” more than others.

I hope this helps some of you come face-to-face with your fears and realize that it’s just you trying to be safe and there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, because it’s all genetic.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 17 Community Poll Results

The results of the issue 17 will be placed in the announcements in the end because it about the BBQ Social.

This Week’s Community Poll

This week’s poll is to get some housekeeping done.

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

Cattleack BBQ technically won by a single vote, but I forgot that they only open one Saturday of the month (first Saturdays). Hutchins BBQ would allow for a more flexible schedule.

So for the sake of everyone’s schedule and the likelihood that we’ll have more than 3 people at the social, there’s a poll for Hutchins in Frisco, TX on April 27. Depending on that poll, we’ll make an official announcement about the social.

I will put Cattleack BBQ aside for another time and revisit it once we get things ironed out about how to get these socials planned.

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: gorge