It's Our Turn to Help Oprah Get Over Her Fear

Leave it up to Oprah to have even her fears be so inspirational, they inspired us to write this post. In the October 2013 issue of O Magazine, Winfrey opens up about her real, and kind of comical, fear of balloons.

In the interview, the media mogul talks about the time her entire staff filled her audience with balloons for her 40th birthday, well aware of her fear. She says that the popping sounds remind her of gunfire and just being around the helium-filled menaces "really freaks me out."

In true Oprah fashion, however, her walk through the audience filled with balloons was turned into a metaphor for facing your fears (hers, in that situation, being the uncertainty surrounding when the first balloon would pop), which also happens to be the theme of O's October issue.

"There are a few things in life, if you allow them to, can really keep you from moving forward," she says, "You really have to walk through it."

We owe it to Oprah, after her many years of guiding us through our issues with body image, men, and our lives in general, to help her through her fear of balloons. We've got your back, Opes! Here's our five-step plan to getting over your own helium-related phobia:

Step 1:

Watch this cute, French bulldog get really excited about falling balloons at least five times.

Step 2:

Hire a clown, or any person really, to make you as many balloons animals as you can possibly think of in six hours.

Step 3:

Watch The Red Balloon and realize how much fun life would be if you could play hide and seek with your pet balloon.

Step 4:

Take a hot-air balloon ride because now that you wish you had a balloon as a friend, you definitely want to ride in one. Also, they're really pretty and majestic and you could see cool stuff.

Step 5:

Create your own balloon tradition and associate the little buggers with good feelings to further squash your fears.

[Images via Gishkishenh/PhotoBucket/Giphy]