Why Does Everyone Smile in Freefall?

Why Everyone Smiles in Freefall

There are moments that can change how you view everything. At these various pivotal junctions in your life, you are bound to begin to question the decisions you have made that led you to that point and the choices you are making that are continuing to push you forward past it-a moment where your mind is reeling, and all you can think is "What in the world am I doing?" It seems safe to assume several of these moments of trepidation are going to be concentrated around your first skydive. There are many instances where doubt and fear may begin to make you question your resolve: that first step when you schedule your skydive, or when you check in at the dropzone, maybe when you begin gearing up, or not until you board the plane and the aircraft ascends to altitude, perhaps when the door opens and you feel the tingle and breathe in the chill of open air thousands of feet above the ground your feet are, usually, firmly planted on, but most especially, that moment as you look out of the plane before you exit onto a blue plain speckled with puffy white clouds and down at a ground that looks a bit like a patchwork quilt, and all that beauty aside, you realize you are about to join the handful of death-defying loonies that test gravity and tempt fate by jumping out of a "perfectly good airplane."

You Are About to Plummet Towards Earth...

After all, you are about to plummet toward the earth; really, nothing could be more unnatural or petrifying. This skydiving thing is scary, right? Surely, it is a hair-raising, spine-tingling, nerve-wracking time. Or is it? Every skydiver, at some point, started from scratch-with no experience, the strange compulsion to fly, and a bit of fear. We can all remember those moments of fear before our first skydive. But if it was so terrifying and death-defying, why would so many continue to take to the sky?

The Exhilaration of Freefall

Truly, once you exit the aircraft, what you find outside of the assumed 'safety' of the plane is not terror but, rather, awash in exhilaration, you can find sixty seconds of solace. In part, the feelings of euphoria and the heightened senses, no pun intended, that individuals experience from skydiving are the result of the production of natural hormones released by the body's adrenal glands. But on a more metaphysical level, in what many assume is the danger of falling through the air, there is freedom. It is an experience that provides separation from a barrage of obligations, no worries about work, and a brief respite from the steady nagging of the stress that accumulates from living day to day in modern times. When you leave the plane, you find a moment of mindfulness. You find an opportunity to be fully present in an experience apart from everything else. When you jump and leave the fear of skydiving behind, what you feel is bliss, and what you find out is why everyone smiles in freefall. You realize after you skydive that there are moments if you had not taken a leap of faith, you would have missed out on one of the most fulfilling experiences of your life.

Life is about experiences, after all, think about booking your skydiving experience today and try out smiling in freefall.