{"id":16645,"date":"2016-09-20T02:45:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T02:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/?p=16645"},"modified":"2023-10-28T13:15:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T20:15:34","slug":"fear-of-heights-skydiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/blog\/fear-of-heights-skydiving\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Go Skydiving If You\u2019re Scared of Heights?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Many people don\u2019t think they can skydive because they\u2019re afraid of heights. We\u2019re here to tell you that–as weird as it may sound–fear of heights doesn\u2019t matter a bit on a skydive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re, like, that\u2019s impossible<\/em>, then calm down, Wiggum. It\u2019s true! It might surprise you that being on a ladder will always feel more precarious than being in the door of a plane. It might also surprise you that skydiving will do nothing to directly cure your fear of heights–though it will help you address all kinds of fears, albeit in a systemic sense. If you\u2019re ready to enter the weird and wonderful mystery house of skydiving and fear, we\u2019re happy to take you on that journey. Just follow our lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Confirmed: It\u2019s Not Maybelline. You Were Born With It<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Snakes? Circus clowns? Zombies? Presidential candidates? Make no mistake, my friend: those are after-market fears. However, literally, every healthy human being was born with a fear of heights. It\u2019s basic to our makeup. Whereas every other fear (except, interestingly, the dark) was added on afterward, we come out of the womb freaked out about high places. It\u2019s called acrophobia, and the struggle is as natural as breathing. Evolution decided that dark and heights are the two things that humans need to be careful around from day one, hour one of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n

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How do we know? Because of this classic acrophobia study<\/a>. In it, scientists perched brand-new crawlers on top of one of two tables. These tables were set up a couple of feet from each other, with a sheet of crystal-clear plexiglass to form a table-wide bridge between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The baby\u2019s mom was standing on the other side of the opposite table, encouraging baby to make his\/her way across into her waiting arms. Even though the plexi was more than thick and wide enough crawl across, none of the babies were into it. Even that early on in their lives, with no previous experience of the feeling, their little brains already ordered them to stop. Baby ducks, however, didn\u2019t even compute the difference between walking across an opaque solid object and a clear solid object. (Wings, therefore, are apparently the only scientific cure for a fear of heights.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Making A Skydive Is A Lot Like Making That Crawl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the thing: jumping out of a plane is a lot like taking your place on one table and making your way across the plexiglass. Statistically speaking, even though it doesn\u2019t feel like it when you\u2019re standing in the door, you\u2019re going to be just fine. With that first hesitant step, you\u2019ll literally feel the support under you. And when you land, you\u2019ll look back and think: Wow. That was way easier than I thought it would be. …I wonder what else in my life I\u2019ve been unnecessarily hesitant about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The Fear Isn\u2019t What You Think It\u2019s Going To Be<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Think you\u2019re going to freak out and freeze up? If you\u2019re like most folks, no matter how scared you think you\u2019re going to be, you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n\n\n

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You see: From the open door of an aircraft cruising along at 12,500\u2019 above the Southern California skies, the landscape below looks pivotally different than it does from that aforementioned bridge or cliff or building. In actual fact, it looks much like a Google Earth map. Since it\u2019s the sense of depth that triggers acrophobia, and depth doesn\u2019t exist from that angle, your fear of heights is going to remain essentially untriggered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake, however: you\u2019re going to have feels. The sounds and sensations of putting on gear and going to altitude are very powerful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. It\u2019s Going To Stay With You\u2013As A Help Rather Than A Hindrance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Guess what? That fear of heights, which was carefully built into the structure of your brain, isn\u2019t going anywhere. And that\u2019s a good thing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you start talking to skydivers, you\u2019ll notice that many of them are very keenly \u201cafraid of heights.\u201d These are the guys who can\u2019t comfortably stand at a low bridge railing, who hesitate (or refrain) from walking close to the edge of any cliff, who even think twice before venturing up to the observation deck.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The difference is that the height-spooked skydiver is using their fear as a tool for personal optimization. Every time they walk to the aircraft door, they know that they\u2019re up-leveling their confidence, optimizing their physical response to fear and building healthier perspectives on life\u2019s daily challenges. Add all that up, and you\u2019ll see the massive proportional benefits they\u2019re reaping from their fear of heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So–how does all that strike you? Are you ready to strengthen your fear muscle and use it to move your personal mountains? We\u2019re standing by to help! Book a\u00a0tandem skydive near Los Angeles<\/a> with the experienced team at Skydive Perris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many people don\u2019t think they can skydive because they\u2019re afraid of heights. We\u2019re here to tell you that–as weird as it may sound–fear of heights doesn\u2019t matter a bit on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":23788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,1],"tags":[75,72,74],"class_list":["post-16645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-time-skydiving","category-skydiving","tag-first-time-skydiving","tag-is-skydiving-scary","tag-tandem-skydiving"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16645"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26253,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16645\/revisions\/26253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}