True Story
Skydiving is a really interesting confront with fear.
You go out the night before and you drinking with your friends and somebody said, “Yeah we should go skydiving tomorrow.” And you go, "Yeah, lets go skydiving", while you are drunk too. And you're terrified. You keep imagining over and over again jumping out of an airplane and you can't figure out why you would do that. So you get there and then you have the safety brief. You're listening and the guys explain to you what to do if the shoot doesn't open. And you think, "What's going to happen if the shoot don't open!"
So you get onto the airplane and you're sitting there. And you know it's extra coz you sitting on some dudes lap, some stranger trying to make small talk. "Yeah man, so you mean you be jumping with people all the time." So you fly and you go up to 14,000 feet and somebody opens the door and in that moment you realize you never been in airplane with the door open. Terror, terror terror!!! Then people start jumping out of the airplane and the guy walks you up to the end of the door. You're standing and your toes are on the edge and you're looking out down to death. The guy counts down to two, and he pushes you out the airplane because people grab the sides on three. Immediately, you are pulled out of the airplane and in one second you realize that it's the most blissful experience of your life. You're flying!!! There is zero fear, the point of maximum danger in the point of minim fear.
This was a good lesson for me cos I realized why was I scared your bed the night before. What do you need that fear for anything. Up to the point of stepping out of the airplane, there's actually no reason to be scared. And in that moment, where you should be terrified, is the most blissful experience of your life. God placed the best things in life on the other side of fear. That was my experience with with skydiving and fear.
~ Will Smith on Skydiving in Dubai ~
Fear is a powerful emotion when it is used for what it is actually meant for - in an emergency situation. However, it can have detrimental effects on you in a non-dangerous situation such as an exam. When unwarranted fear grips you, it can have a disastrous impact on your life in areas such as your ability to eat, sleep, study, focus and even enjoy life. Fear can be so overwhelming that it has the capability to make people want to avoid situations and can make you stop living life to its fullest.
Fear is sometimes a taught behavior that is developed in childhood due to abuse in the home. This type of trauma can be difficult to change and even more difficult to understand and control. If childhood trauma had lead to more events which caused more scarring, this can compound in adult life. Compounded fear can create anxiety, feed depression, create unwanted scenarios, unhealthy relationships, inability to communicate feelings, unable to deal with tough situations at work and deal with conflict situations.
Fear looks like either of the following:
Your heart beats faster and feels irregular
You breathe faster as if running
Your muscles feel weak
Your mind feels like drained
You sweat a lot
Your stomach churns or your bowels feel loose
You find it hard to focus
You feel dizzy
You feel frozen to the spot
You can’t eat
You have hot and cold sweats
You get a dry mouth
You get very tense muscles
If you avoid certain situations, then you may start avoiding things that you actually want to do. This pattern of avoidance can also cause anxiety problems. In order to learn more about your anxiety, keep a journal to record what has happened to you in the past. Set small goals for yourself to achieve in order to reduce your anxiety. By doing so, you can help the underlying beliefs that are causing it.
Remember to Be Strong, Be Authentic and never allow the past to influence your present or your future.