Humans can be amazing! We are capable of more than we think we are.
But we tend to spend most of our lives in self doubt; until certain moments roll around and we are suddenly vindicated to ourselves.
You hear the stories all the time of mothers lifting cars off of their children, or fighting off vandals with a single punch. Anything is possible, if we try hard enough.
That's why we need to take our moments to relish in the "Damn! I'm good!" We are!
Redditor u/pikachu2_opwanted to hear about the times people surprised themselves by asking:
What's your "damn I'm a bad@ss" moment?
I often find myself surprised by... me. And after each and every time I deem myself worthy again I immediately fall back into self doubt. It's my life cycle. I could cure cancer and I'd still be like "meh." I need to start recording my "greatness" moments.
Savior
Choking Sign Language GIF by Sign with RobertGiphy"I saved my husband's life using the Heimlich maneuver, on the first try, never having done it before."
Ramped Up
"Not as cool as some of the others here, but I was running through a building, down a ramp with polished cement floors, and I somehow ended up falling down on one knee. With my high momentum I managed to slide all the way down the ramp (it was very long) and then kick myself back up into running again. It all happened completely smoothly and it felt like an action scene."
In Kauai...
"I went on a snorkeling trip off the coast of Kauai. There was a newlywed couple there that I could tell weren't good in the water. We're out in the water and they're off by themselves and I can see that the wife is crying and the husband has a panicked look on his face. Turns out they didn't realize that skin contracts in water and he lost his wedding ring off his finger. I scan around for a while and find it 30 feet down or so. I run down and get it and give it back to them. They were thrilled."
The Champion Chucker!
"Chucked a piece of cardboard at a recycling bin at work, it was about 30 feet from me. A draft caught it and took it 40 feet up and it did a double loop before slamming directly into the bin. One old lady saw and went "wooow!" Felt like a freaking champion all day."
Leaks
shower GIFGiphy"I just relocated and extended the outdoor water tap for my 70 year old widowed neighbor, and when I turned the water back on nothing leaked. Felt kind bada**."
See there, now that is cool realness being served. We need to appreciate our own actions, big or small. That feeling of bada**ery is like none other. Why not try to emulate it instead of taking a pill to fake it?
Back Up
fun video GIFGiphy"I went to a shop to buy a new bike... and I went there on my old bike. I came back home riding my new bike and by holding the old one with one hand."
"Everything was going fine, until the bikes abruptly turned sideway and sent me flying over the handle bars. I ducked forward, landed on my shoulder and in a continuous roll, I got back on my feet and did a thumb up to appease a startled passer by."
Survivor
"I didn't think how cool/good it was at the moment, but when I was like 5 or 6, a woman covered in blood crawled to my childhood house door and started banging on it, I woke up from the noise and went to open it. When I opened it, I just saw her in cuts, scratches, bruises, etc... Apparently her boyfriend was trying to actually kill her and she managed to escape."
"She asked to be let in for safety and I let her in and went to go wake up my mom. When she came out she was shocked to see her and went to clean her wounds a bit and later called the police and ambulance, I didn't fix her wounds or anything but I'd like to think that I saved her life that day."
Lockdown
"Start of UK lockdown my dishwasher broke down and since shops were closed, I was looking at minimum three months of doing the dishes by hand. Forget that. Went to YouTube, watched a bunch of videos, took the pump apart and found a piece of broken glass which was messing it up. Put it back together, worked perfect, forget you entropy and washing dishes."
Things That Are Normal Where You Live But Crazy Anywhere Else | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
In Yellowstone...
"I got lost alone in Yellowstone, after sunset. But I'd come prepared with a headlamp, kept my cool & found my way back to my car alive. My detour added several miles to the route, and it was & still is the most I've hiked in a single day, probably just under 14 miles."
"I could barely move when I got back to my car. I had to just sit for about 20 minutes before I was able to drive. But I got the most amazing view of the Milky Way of my entire life along the way. Totally worth it for that alone. Any mishap you survive becomes an adventure."
A New Shape
Working Out Richard Simmons GIFGiphy"Obese most of my life. Worked really hard, lost 100lbs. Took up running, and decided to run a marathon."
"I've never felt more like a bada** than when I crossed that finish line. The training and the race itself were the hardest things I've done in my life, and there were many times throughout where I really wasn't sure I was going to make it."
"Crap. That guy is an IDIOT!"
"I share mine with my dog. Did the adrenaline pumping, car lift thing. My idiot neighbor was trying to change his own oil, and didn't have the jack in the proper place. Whatever metal it was on, bent, and the car lowered onto him. Him which had his body positioned perfectly so the front tire would crush his dumb butt."
"My dog was out back and started going insane barking, so I bolted outside, wondering what could be wrong (he only barks when something's wrong, like my kid left the yard or something) I see my neighbor's legs sticking out from his freaking tire, race inside screaming for my brother, then bolt back out and try to lift the car. My brother comes out and as I somehow manage to lift the car just enough, he pulls the neighbor out. I was expecting him to be dead, but he stood up, coughed a few times, and said thanks."
"We called EMS to get him checked and they took him to the hospital. He had some internal injuries, but survived and recovered fully. What I remember most is flopping to my butt in the driveway, thinking, "Crap. That guy is an IDIOT!" It was my brother that said I'm a bada**. And as the real hero, yes, doggo got all the pats and scratches and treats."
"I was at a party and apparently some guy had a problem with me (I didn't even know him). I was sitting with friends and from across the room he yelled something to me, but with the music I couldn't hear what he was saying. So I said "What??" And he yelled it again. But again, I couldn't hear him."
"So I stood up and said (more forcefully) "WHAT?!" His face dropped, he shrunk back a little, said "never mind" and sat down. My friends laughed their BUTTS off. I genuinely thought this dude had a question. But I had inadvertently backed him down. My bad@ss moment was an accident."
High Five
High Five Teamwork GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"When I was like 9 years old, I choke-slammed the neighborhood bully, full WWE style."
"It was directly under a streetlight, and there were people all around to witness it, because I think someone was having a party. I ran away because I thought I would get in trouble, but the adults (actually teenagers, but being 9 I thought of them as "adults") just wanted to give me high-fives. And don't worry, the kid was totally fine other than being shaken up."
The Perseverance Award
"I signed up for an archery merit badge at my boy scout camp a few years back and I sucked terribly at if with the lowest average for the whole damn week, but toward the end of the trip I crunched it and spent my entire free day with the bow at the archery area and sank them center left and right. When it came time to announce awards at the end of the week, the counsellor in charge of the range stepped up in front of the bonfire and gave a speech about the scouts he worked with that week."
"He gets through most of the names and I'm feeling pretty down on myself because I figured I was overlooked but I can still recall what he said."
"...And the last award is something very special, the camp barely hands it out because only a few kids here are cut from this cloth. The Perseverance award goes to a scout I watched tirelessly fire down the range until his hands were red and covered in blisters. He started off with the lowest average of this summers group, but ended with the highest I've seen while working in the ranger. The award goes to (my name), congratulations, you earned it."
"I was beaming for like 4 months after hearing it."
- Hazeunix
Middle School Days
"Middle School. I stood after school to play basketball with some other kids. I was just sitting on a bench taking a break when a younger kid — I think it was one of the other kid's little brother — comes up to me and tries to start something for no reason. Little kid throws a punch at my face, and without missing a beat, I move my arm from resting on the table to catching his fist inches away from my face."
"Idon't say a word and I just let the kid think about what just happened. It takes him a moment to process and then he just walks away like nothing happened. Felt really cool in the moment but none of the other kids saw it."
- Dijirii
Save the Girl
"Leaving work at a big box store a little after 1am and I'm next to my car in the parking lot and changing out of my work shirt into a t-shirt. There's a couple benches outside a few random people around. I see a car swerve toward one woman and then brake hard and knowing a couple people out there I figured it was just a very bad joke."
"But then I see the car lurch forward and brake hard again and can see a woman in the headlights with a terrified look on her face so I start running as fast as I can toward them. A ridiculously muscled guy gets out of the car and starts moving toward her. I wasn't the first person there."
"The first was a 14-year old kid who was very short and skinny. The kid shoves the guy and then the guy knocks him down and gets right on top of him. The guy hits him three times before I get there and hit him in the back of the head. This dude was hella drunk and got off the kid to take a couple swings at me that I was able to avoid."
"One of the others in the crowd yells that the cops have been called and he books it out of there. Thankfully the cops got him before any more damage happened. He pled guilty and went to jail for a bunch of charges. I don't think I was the most bad@ss because the kid took those hits like a champ and saved the girl, but I still felt pretty awesome."
A Critical 2 Minutes...
"Possibly saving a life. I saw a motorcycle crash in a parking lot late at night. No one but me went to check on the guy, everyone else was just standing around looking. Dude had a compound fracture on his leg and blood was pouring through his jeans onto the ground. I used my belt to tourniquet the leg. The ambulance didn't arrive for another 2 minutes so I might have saved him from bleeding out."
"I can do this, I was in the girl guides."
amazon fly GIFGiphy"Once, at a party, a friend of mine got trapped in the bathroom accidentally when the doorknob fell off."
"Despite being plastered, I got her out with a pair of scissors. The quote, still remembered a decade later among our friends was "I can do this, I was in the girl guides." Took perhaps five minutes."
I Am Woman!
water bottle woman GIFGiphy"I'm a relatively petite woman and I changed my flat tire without any help in a snowstorm. It was a struggle, and my hands were scraped and bleeding by the end, but I felt really proud of myself."
Bravo and Cheers to all! None of that was easy to pull off, and more times than not it's even more difficult to share. Go forth y'all and lean into your inner BADA**!! Let the inspiration lead you.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.