In episode four of "Breakthrough" with Tony Robbins, Scott and Mandy Smith experienced a unique kind of loss. Their young daughter was in a serious accident when she drove a Go Kart full-speed into a parked car in the driveway. The girl stopped breathing, her pulse stopped and she turned blue. She died.
And then, miraculously, she came back.
The moments Mandy Smith thought she had lost her daughter became permanently seared in her nervous system, to the point where she was living every single day trying to make sure she didn't lose her daughter again.
Mandy had continuous panic attacks, and did not even trust her husband with their children. She pushed him away until their marriage was on the verge of ruin.
Loss -- of a loved one, of a job, of finances or of a dream -- is something every person experiences in life. It's an emotion that completely overcomes us, and many of us are familiar with the feeling of being suck in the pain of the past, immobilized, unable to move forward.
"The truth is, nothing real is ever lost," Robbins says in the video below, where he explains the story behind episode four of "Breakthrough" (watch the full episode here).
The type of loss we're familiar with is a temporary loss -- the loss of something tangible -- but not a true loss. If you can take what you think is loss and turn it into hunger, growth, caring, etc., that loss with turn into a greater gain, Robbins says.
Many people cling to their loss, and subconsciously hold on to the things that come with it. In Mandy's case, the panic attacks she experienced represented a cry for attention. In the case of Mandy's mother, she was using her daughter's weakness as a way to feel needed, and not alone.
"That's why a lot of people hang on to their problems, and they can't get over it," says Robbins. "The theme of this show was to show you that you can rebuild anything, but what you got to do is find the good in anything."
"If something 'horrific' has happened, then something extraordinarily good has to come from that," he says.
WATCH Robbins's advice on how to turn the losses in YOUR life into gains:
A year later, Scott and Mandy Smith discuss living without fear, and helping others. WATCH: