Oprah's Step Out of Your Box Challenge with Ali and Oscar® Winner Hilary Swank

OMG

Of all the shows you've done Oprah this one has touched me the most. I am all of those women wrapped into "ONE" I've lost my job as a nurse due to injury, got divorced, became an empty nester and gained 50 pounds. I live alone in constant fear of taking a step out of my box. I have no confidence, I have no water in my cup. I have no hope, no dreams. I feel like i'm just waiting to die and i'm only 39 yrs old. I've raised my 2 sons and now I feel like there's nothing else for me to do.

Your show touched my soul. I'm not crazy, i'm not lazy, i'm not ugly and i'm not a failure yet as hard as my mind tells me these things my actions beg to differ. All of these events have left me lost and confused as to how to start over. It's so easy to remain here stagnent, it's safe and I feel like i'm protecting myself from further hurt by staying in my little box.

All I know is that I want a change. I want to live.

Debra,

I am in the same boat with you. I have always lived my life to serve others and this past year with so many exits of the ppl in my life that I cared for......what do I do now? I don't know how to do it for me. I lost my job last year Oct. worked as Activities Director for elderly. A job that is centered around caring for others and not widely found job where I live. I'm still without a job or direction.

Debra you and I need to go to Community College and take a class we have always wanted to explore. Who knows this maybe just what we need to get back on track. Hang in there!

Stacey

Small town Georgia

I give those ladies kudos!!! for coming out of their own inhibitions and fears. They are better women than myself. I realize that going through life constantly being afraid of everything is no way to live. I thank you Oprah, for continuously finding ways to empower us women. You are a wonderful role model and hope you continue through life's journey with more of the same!

Oprah, congratulate the roller skating/sky diving crew for me. I watched these women yesterday and today and I'm sitting here shaking on their behalf. I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday, and today I even got more anxious as I watched: first my knees got weak when I watch them roller skate, and then come sky diving time, my stomach turned and I became paralised with fear couldn't get up to go the bathroom and at the sight of the height my stomach turned again and I wanted to throw up literaly. CONGRATULATIONS LADIES. I like what I'm hearing about how you felt afterwards so I'm going to find myself a "step out of the box," challange and do it. One thing is certian, it will not be one of the above challanges and it will not be speaking in public.

I loved this show. It made me remember when we were in Hana (in Maui) and we got to a trail that took us to a nude beach below and even though the only two people down there were probably young enough to be my kids and would have cared less, I didn't. This was 5 years ago and I still can't believe I didn't and still wish I had.

As for skydiving, Oprah, I am with you.

When I get back to Maui, I WILL find that beach and just do it

What an amazing show.... It was a roller coaster of emotions. I cried, laugh, and all in between. There are so many of us who feel that we are disappearing in front of our own eyes. How we used to live, the things that we did, how we dare ourselves to achieve whatever we set our minds to have become anecdotes or fog memories. Amazes me how from overachiever and feeling I had the world and life figured out now I feel lost, stuck and with no clear North. Seeing what all of those incredible ladies were capable of overcoming have touched my soul. I will love to experience that. Thank you so much for the inspiration to not only step out of a box, but to make it a permanent address. So, please note that I will be willing to embrace all the challenges that Ali will share with us. But, here is my biggest fear: diving with Sharks, will Ali be up for it?

Dear Oprah, please keep doing shows like this one. It was healing to say the least.

I have done some stepping out of the box and highly recommend it.

I am female, in my late thirties, I got pregnant as a teenager, married the baby daddy, got divorced when my daughter was 8, was a single mom, went to college and got a diploma while working full time. Did a stink in the corporate world & started my own web site business (doesn't make much money but contributes to the greater good of society). My daughter is now on her own which has allowed me to do some things that I could not do before. I quit my corporate job, bought a backpack and went traveling thru Central America for 4 months (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica & Panama) by myself. I didn't speak Spanish (really bad basic Spanish), I took the local chicken buses, stayed in hostels and "local" hotels, rode in the back of pick up trucks.

It was scary and the first couple of weeks I really wondered if I had lost it. How could I possibly think I could do it, what was I thinking? It was one of the best experiences of my life. I met some incredible people, both locals and travelers, I took Spanish emersion classes and I learned a lot about other cultures. The people in many of the areas are very poor but they are some of the happiest most giving people I have ever met, a life changing experience. I am planning another trip to South America for 3 or 4 months in February and can't imagine ever squeezing back into the box. It's a big exciting world out there and I am going to see and experience as much of it as I can while I am here.

I absolutely would!! I loved this show, it looked so fun and empowering. Hats off to all the women- I wish I was with them.algrnbsn

I applaud those courageous women. I, too, have trapped myself in a box of fear which seemingly has no door or window. While I absolutely would have skydived, I would not have done roller derby or skinny-dipping in the ocean--the roller derby because of health issues, and the skinny-dipping because of body-image issues (though I did do it once, years ago). No, those things are a little frightening, but my box of fear is much bigger than those daredevil stunts. I fear people. I have absolutely no friends who are not family because I am not able to get out and meet people; I fear their judgments, disapproval, whatever--I'm not able to really put a name to it. After many years of sexual abuse as a young girl, abusive marriages (yes, that's plural), single-parenting 3 beautiful children, a diagnosis of MS in 1998, severe depression beginning years before that, I have zero self-confidence or self-esteem, in spite of completing a college degree summa cum laude, and the course-work for an MA with a 4.0 while raising my children. I know I need to step outside this box, but the fear paralyzes me, even after years of counseling for the sexual abuse issues. I would love to conquer this fear and start living before it's too late; and I would love to have good female friends. I'll be 56 in a month and a half, I've lived too darn long with fear.

Just had to comment on the woman who said that after four kids and over 10 years of mariage that her husband said "he just can't take it anymore" and hoped that she came home different. Well, after four kids and a job doesn't he expect things to change. I'm so sick of husbands telling their wives that there isn't a "spark" any more. Well, did he think of this when he created this family....of course we are going to change! We have babies, and dinner and laundry and soccer and parents and PTA and homework and dogs and cats and yards and cars that break down!!! We are not like the single coworker in the cute skirt in the next cube! We are your wives!!!! The box we are stuck in is one the two of us built!!!!! I think women really need to think before they have large families and all that goes with it. I've always told my husband if he leaves me he is taking the kids! That sure as hell shocked him! If he thinks he is going to walk away and be the nice guy visiting on the weekends, he's nuts! If more women said this, I'm sure there husbands would think twice before needing more "spark"!! Stand up ladies, it took two to build the box, tell him if he wants a spark, then bring on the match!

I think I would have the guts to do all the challenges that were on the show, except for the roller derby. Basicallly because I don't know how to skate and I have a fear of breaking a leg.

I feel I am stepping out of my "box" by going back to school. If I pass my placement test on Monday (11/30). I will be going back to school in January 2010. I will be going for my Associates of Art and hope to go on to Nursing school.

This is a huge step for me. I haven't stepped into a classroom since 1985, aside from going to my son's school. I am excited and terrified at the same time. I love learning new things, but when it comes to taking tests, I freeze up. But I feel it is time that I finally do something for myself and also help others in turn.