In continuation of last week’s post where we introduced the topic of anxiety, I wanted to focus this post more on the personal aspect of it.
I’ve always had the fear of falling as I’m sure most people do. There’s no security, and I like 110% knowing that I’m safe. Recently, I had the opportunity to go skydiving and although I mentioned what I did in the previous two sentences, I thought this was an opportunity I couldn’t miss out on because of how incredible it would be, so I said yes.
In the days and weeks leading up to this moment, I had fears and experienced a lot of anxiety. There were definitely thoughts of backing out. I came up with a few excuses on why I might not be able to go and hoped (not too deep inside) that something would come up to prevent this from actually happening. Despite my hopes, I went through with it.
Skydiving is a whole thing of its own and definitely unlike anything else I’ve ever tried. Everyone has their own thoughts on the experiences they have, and although I don’t proudly or readily admit it, skydiving was not my favorite thing. I could go into detail, but pretty much between the inability to breathe and straps feeling as though they were cutting the circulation off my body, it’s not something I would “jump” at the opportunity to do again (haha get it?). Don’t get me wrong, there were fantastic parts of it also such as the energy that rushes through you and those you’re with as well as the beautiful views. However, not the kind of party for me to attend on a regular basis.
Although I could have listened to my initial thoughts and feelings at first when I didn’t want to go, I’m so glad I didn’t, and wouldn’t change going through with it if I went back. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for me, but I feel like I became stronger because I let myself do something that I wasn’t 100% comfortable with. Another thought I have towards trying new things is that being scared is a reason in itself to do the thing you’re scared of so you can overcome that fear. Tell that fear “no”, it’s not taking control of you or holding you back. YOU are the one in charge. And you will grow from overcoming it.
Another example (more positive) that I have that goes along with this, is I have a friend who used to be deathly afraid of roller coasters. It was kind of a similar situation in that they didn’t feel safe on them. After a long time of trying to get them on a roller coaster, they finally said yes. I wasn’t kidding when I said they were deathly afraid. As we stood in line to get on this ride, I thought they were going to pass out. They were beginning to get sick and I was getting ready to call it quits, but they pushed through. The whole entire ride, I was trying to gage where they were at and how they were feeling but couldn’t tell. When we stepped off the ride, my friend exclaimed how much they loved the ride and how sad they were at missing out on this thrill their entire lives up until now. My friend then proceeded to get back in line to get on the ride again.
I saw an immediate change in my friend that day. Their eyes that were full of anxiousness and defeat before were now taken over by a light of confidence and determination. I felt the energy from them that they were ready to conquer anything. And from that day, whenever they’ve met a challenge face-to-face, they have a little bit more power and strength behind them, assisting them through to the end.
In both of these cases, saying “no” to “no” brought us up on top and gave us great experiences as well as power to push forward in the future. Having opportunities to grow is what we’re meant to do! We’re kind of like a rubber band. A rubber band is meant to stretch to fulfill its purpose. If it sits a long time without trying to fulfill its purpose, it then becomes brittle and breaks. We can’t let ourselves break.
Now I want to hear from you! How did you change after overcoming a fear? Is there something you would like to overcome that you haven’t yet?
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