Fear: the great motivator. For some, it motivates them to shut themselves in and be as careful as possible (and to miss out on life!). For others, fear pushes them outside their comfort zone into the realm of growth and limitless possibilities – and that’s where a fear of skydiving comes in.
Doing something like going tandem skydiving helps you realize that you can conquer even your biggest fears: a fear of heights, a fear of falling to the earth at 120 mph, a fear of letting go and trusting your instructor, a fear of accepting that you want to live life and not fear FEAR! One thing to remember about fear is that it's just a state of mind!
Read on so that you can shout “What skydiving taught ME about fear” from the rooftops (or, better yet, the airplane door)!
Not exactly. The beauty of skydiving is that it allows you to experience fear, and enjoy it! The whole point of going skydiving is to feel a little bit of fear so that you can know what it means to overcome it. And learning how to manage that stress will help you long after you land from your jump.
Dealing with the fear of jumping out of an airplane and completing a skydive builds self-confidence that will spill out into every other aspect of your life. Suddenly, everything else seems easy when compared to staring out the open airplane door into the sky and deciding to go for it. Forever after, when you find yourself in stressful or scary situations, your mind and body will recall how you handled your skydive and employ the same techniques to manage your fears.
It’s not so much that skydiving eliminates fear as it teaches us how to manage our emotions and channel them into something productive.
The most common question that pops up around a fear of skydiving is: is skydiving safe? While no extreme sport can be categorized as a completely safe activity, there are many regulations set by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the United States Parachute Association (USPA) that help mitigate the risk associated with skydiving.
Decades of research and development have gone into the rules, procedures, gear manufacturing, and instructor training to bring us to an era of cutting-edge technology and expertise. This is enough to help quell fears around the unknown aspects of jumping out of airplanes and also teaches a valuable lesson: knowledge is power.
The strongest fear of all is the fear of the unknown. Doing research and preparing yourself for whatever it is you’re afraid of definitely helps make facing that fear easier. And, once you have that knowledge, trust your research and trust the process. Learn to let go of what you can’t control and enjoy what you can.
Yes! In the same way that going skydiving will help you learn how to manage generalized stress, it can work on specific fears, too! We strongly advise you to stop and think of how normal it is to be nervous before your skydive. Being scared of the 14,000-foot leap of faith is scary, thrilling, and exciting all in one, whether you’re afraid of heights or not.
Some people skydive every day who are afraid of heights and they will tell you that when they skydive, they no longer have that fear. When you are up in the plane about to jump out, you are so awestruck by the sights of New England around you that you tend to not even realize the height anymore.
But there’s science behind it, too. When you look down, everything tends to be so small that it's harder for your brain to process that exact fear of heights, almost like you're looking down on a toy town of some sort. And when you jump, you don't get that roller coaster stomach-dropping feeling so many people worry about. You're gliding around in the lovely New England air. It can actually be quite relaxing!
Skydiving is an extremely personal experience that impacts each individual differently. But there are definitely some consistencies about what skydiving can teach us all about fear and life. Normal people can be completely changed by facing their fears, as Alex McCarthy shares in her post: “Fear can be the thing that holds you back in life OR it can be the thing that truly sets you free.”
Anyone can be inspired by facing fears! Check out this awesome video that celebrity Will Smith made about letting go of fear and what skydiving has taught him about fear.
Embrace all those nervous feelings and experience one of the most amazing things you will ever push yourself to do - book your jump! Trust us when we say it's totally worth it!