Once I decided to walk on fire, I felt a profound shift inside of me. Because I'm often like a friendly Saint Bernard that goes around licking everyone on the face, I know my exuberance can be a little overwhelming. In the past I would purposely squelch my enthusiasm in order to make those around me more comfortable. That seems impossible now. I want to share. I want to not just share my excitement, but I want others to experience this too. But why?
A few of the things that have had a profound impact on my personal empowerment have been extreme: kayaking, skiing and climbing (although I never got very good at climbing). When I did those things, the activity broke loose self doubts, because I was doing such extreme activities and conquering them (at least completing them without dying). An aspect that I didn't expect was how the empowerment translated into other aspects of my life. Of course kayaking would empower rafting or swimming, but what about public speaking or other seemingly unrelated activities? The truth is, it was ubiquitous. Skiing made me a better teacher. Kayaking made me a better writer. How?
By challenging myself to do what I was scared of I shrunk my fears and emboldened my courage. And what I discovered through that was that fear and courage are really at the crux of whatever we want to do. Do we lean on the fear side or the courage side? And to what degree? If you've faced down the fear of death in class V whitewater, giving a speech in front of your department chairs becomes undaunting.
So what? What does this have to do with faith, let alone fire? Here's what. When I did those various things my faith developed over time that I could do it. Practice, and execution over time gave me the confidence that I could do those things, but it was in the extremity of the action that I found the real catharsis. It was in exposing myself to my fear where I discovered my power. Learning to do those things had value. I don't want to diminish that. It fills you with a sense of accomplishment. But the catharsis of facing down your fears happens in a moment. It's a moment of do or die. This is powerful. This is transformative. This puts all of the meetings with crusty faculty heads into perspective.
This is why I'm so excited by the firewalk. The idea of walking on fire has the same principles of confronting a gnarly whitewater rapid or a ski slope with no visible bottom, but the required skill is, well, faith. You have to simply have faith that you can walk on fire and it will be okay. It's similar to the idea of skydiving in that the skill is faith, but the faith you have when you skydive is in the parachute. You have faith that the device works. With firewalking the faith you have is in yourself. The faith you cultivate comes from seeing that people have done it and those people aren't more amazing and magical and skilled than you are. They simply had the faith that they could do it, and they did it. It's easily witnessed on Youtube. People have been doing this for eons. I'm sure that any of us, with a little effort, can find someone we already know who has done it. And if we look around to find the people who have done it, we probably won't be surprised at who they are: they are the adventurers. They walk with confidence. They spend less time being tripped up by the trivialities of life. They are emboldened. The question becomes, are they me?
Namaste bitches
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Does there come a time when your faith in yourself is solid enough that you no longer have to take on challenges just for the purpose of proving that you can overcome fear and self doubt? At some point do you know that should you decide to do something that you will, without a doubt, do it?
ReplyDeleteAt that point does doing something become a question of the value of the act itself, rather than it being an opportunity to prove to yourself that you can overcome doubt and fear?
Without the challenge of overcoming doubt and fear, what is the point of firewalking?
When a person no longer has anything to prove to themselves, do they move to a different level of functioning, operating from a place of making decisions based on the value of the activity, rather than using it as a vehicle for self enhancement?
Do we really admire adrenaline junkies? BASE Jumpers? Bungie jumpers?
jr, I suspect that there is a point when that is true, and I feel like your confidence grows on a continuum. But as far as enough? I'm not sure about that. I do feel like emboldening ourselves only enriches our lives. And certainly there is a diminishing return. After kayaking class V water many times you just CAN'T get the same rush. However, there is still value in doing it and there is value in sharing with those who haven't that it can be done, kind of the legacy responsibility.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would also add, is that people take various routes to self discovery and inner mastery. For some the path is raucous and turbulent. For others, the path is serine and gentle. The key is that we are finding ourselves. And for many, the placid life of routine has left them with a contempt for their safe, riskless choices. Doing some of these extreme endevours allows them to rattle the crust off their cage. And I certainly don't think these things are for everyone, but sometimes, there is an inner yearning and we just need someone to nudge us, to set the example, take our hand, comfort us into the fire and we go to the edge and learn that we can fly.