Michelle Obama helps college students face their fears

As Michelle Obama celebrated her 58th birthday Monday, BET aired a special called Becoming: Michelle Obama in Conversation, during which the former first lady sat down with actress Yara Shahidi as well as a group of college students for a heart-to-heart conversation to discuss themes from her bestselling memoir such as mental health, diversity and inclusion. Not surprisingly, Michelle had a lot of great advice, particularly when it comes to fear.

After one student asked her, "What would you say to Black girls who are stuck in that small space? And how would you encourage them to grow as the world around them gets bigger and bigger?" Obama shared, "Fear is this wonderful concept, right? It's very useful, right? Especially if you grow up in the hood, you need a little fear just to get through the day, you need to be looking over your shoulder, you know, fear keeps you alive in a lot of instances, right? Keeps you safe. But also, fear can keep you stuck, right?"

"My advice for people, what allowed me to step outside of my small, six-block area, it was practicing pushing through that fear," continued Obama. "Practicing transition. Practicing facing that precipice, that thing you feel in your stomach, that thing in your brain that tells you to hold back when your heart and soul tells you to go ahead, and you're right at the corner of that."

While discussing pushing through fear, Michelle also recalled the moment Barack came to her with a big idea.

"Treat fear as a challenge, you know? As a muscle. Breaking it is a muscle that you need to develop, right? And that's how, shoot, my husband coming to me, saying, 'I'm gonna run for President, how do you feel about that?' My logical mind said, 'No! No, no, no, no, no, I am very afraid of all of this.' But I had all this practice over my lifetime of jumping over hurdles and using those tools that got me over to say, 'I can do this. I can do this with you. I can do this and keep my children safe. I can do this and be a use to the country, so let's go for it. And if I had said no, I wouldn't be here today, you know? There's a lot of good stuff on the other side of fear, if you, you know, if you learn how to maneuver it."

Video Transcript

MICHELLE OBAMA: Fear keeps you alive in a lot of instances, right, keeps you safe. But also, fear can keep you stuck, right?

KYLIE MAR: On Monday, Michelle Obama celebrated her 58th birthday. And later that night, BET aired a special called "Becoming, Michelle Obama in Conversation," during which the former first lady sat down with actress and activist, Yara Shahidi, and a group of college students to discuss themes from her best selling memoir such as mental health, diversity, and inclusion. And not surprisingly, Michelle had some great advice, particularly when it comes to fear.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Treat fear as a challenge, you know, as a muscle. Breaking it is a muscle that you need to develop, right?

KYLIE MAR: While discussing pushing through fear, Michelle recalled the moment Barack came to her with a big idea.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Shoot, my husband coming to me saying, I'm going to run for president. How do you feel about that? My logical mind said, no, no, no, no, no, no, I am very afraid of all of this.

KYLIE MAR: But luckily, Michelle said she had a lifetime of practice for jumping over hurdles.

MICHELLE OBAMA: And if I had said no, I wouldn't be here today. You know, there's a lot of good stuff on the other side of fear if you, you know, if you learn how to maneuver it.

KYLIE MAR: Viewers loved the entire inspiring conversation Monday, and took to Twitter to immortalize some of her quotes on social media. One fan simply tweeted, "Michelle Obama dropped some serious gems of advice on the show tonight."

MICHELLE OBAMA: The more you practice pushing beyond that point of comfort, the easier it gets.