Do you have skydiving anxiety? Cool. That means you have a brain and a pulse, and a brain and a pulse are prerequisites for enjoying a skydive. We’re off to a great start.
Of course, managing that skydiving anxiety is going to come into play when you’re preparing for your first skydive. Luckily, learning how to manage your fear of skydiving isn’t just something that’s going to help you on the day of the jump…it’ll help you with pretty much everything in your life that’s worth doing. How’s that for a value-added benefit?
1. Go in with the right baseline knowledge.
The more you learn about skydiving equipment and procedures before going in, the calmer you can expect to be on the morning of your first skydive. Beyond that, knowledge has the kinda-magical ability to turn anxiety into excitement! Embrace the nervousness and get schooled up on what skydiving entails (as well as key safety features). You’ll be glad you did.
Did you know every skydiving rig has two parachutes inside it? And that the “reserve” (backup) parachute has been packed and inspected by a professional rigger every 180 days? Also, there’s a bit of technology involved. There is an automatic activation device (which we abbreviate to “AAD” when we’re talking about it) that will deploy that parachute if for any reason at all the instructor is unable to deploy it her/himself.
2. Love your fear. It’s a very good thing.
Fear is helpful! It’s an adaptive part of our evolution. Fear is one of the most basic elements of our psychological makeup. It makes sense to be afraid of what might hurt us; to consider the results of our actions. An animal that goes through life without fear is unlikely to survive long enough to reproduce.
That said, not all fear is created equal. Being afraid in the face of a wild and angry bear and being afraid in the face of a big presentation are obviously two different things, even though they’re physiologically remarkably similar. Where you’d undoubtedly be better off getting the heck out of the bear’s way, you’d be well advised to rise to the occasion of that presentation with your best war-face on. Are we right? Yeah. We’re right.
3. Strengthen your fear-fighting muscle.
Living a good life is basically about facing fear in a smart way and reaping the benefits. Take a minute to think about all the opportunities you’ve had to approach fear from an empowered place and the riches you’ve reaped from doing so.
When we’re kids, this happens pretty much all the time. Think about it: balancing on a two-wheeled bicycle for the first time; going down the really big waterslide; walking out on stage for a part in the school play. Unfortunately, these moments tend to get fewer and farther between as we get older.
As we get to be adults and the frequency of important-little-scary-experiences decreases, the psychological muscle that we use to hold fear in its correct place has a tendency to, well, get weaker. When it does, we’re less capable of the daily braveries that enrich our lives. Most grownups shift their focus away from adventuring and zoom those energies in on maintaining what they’ve got. Where that’s utterly normal and noble, life’s scary disruptions are much harder to recover from when the person being disrupted isn’t quite strong enough to face it down.
4. See skydiving for what it is: A gym for your mental and emotional toughness.
Weak fear-fighting muscles? There’s an obvious fix for that: Squeezing in a good workout. Skydiving is statistically safer than commuting, so it’s a great place to do take your nerves out for a run and a few burpees. Over time, you’ll probably notice that you’re less reactive to adversity, more measured in your responses and generally calmer when everything’s going full-on pear-shaped. That’ll have extensive, profound effects in your life at large. Doubt us? Don’t. We see that magic happen every day.
So: Are you ready to conquer your skydiving anxiety? Great! You have nothing to fear but fear itself. Get in touch with us! We’re looking forward to helping you get excited about your big day.
