Rappelling

“For the first time all morning, as she dangled her little body over the edge of the cliff with nothing more than a harness and rope holding her in place, I thought, “oh no, what the heck did I get myself into?” What could have possibly made me think this would be fun? How can I gracefully bow out? Help! I tried to keep my cool, nodding at the appropriate times during the lesson but my insides were screaming as panic set in. How could she just dangle there like that? I can’t even watch. I thought, there is no way I am strong enough to do this. I should have worked out more these past few months. I’m too weak. I just know I will go plummeting down and crash land below. Goodbye friends, goodbye family. It was great knowing you.”

“I took a moment to be mindful and awareof my feelings: I wasn’t nervous, I had no butterflies, my stomach wasn’t somersaulting. But I did feel something in my body that was telling me, “No, don’t go over the edge!” My preconscious lizard brain was trying to protect me from a perceived threat, I think, and it was tough to push past the evolutionary need to not go over the side of a building and, well, do just that. I quieted my lizard brain and down I went, gripping the rope and inching down the side of the building step by step. About four minutes later, my feet were back on the ground.”

“With a few quick maneuvers, my harness was attached to the belay rope and the main rope with shiny carabiners… but then it was time to back toward the cliff and I started to feel a little anxious… the goal was to let enough rope slowly slide through your hands until your body is perpendicular to the rock placing all of your weight in the harness. Then you slowly walk backward down the cliff. At first, I wanted to hold myself with my arms, but John reassured me that I needed to put all of my weight in the harness and just control the speed of my decent by letting the rope slide through my hands. After that first initial step down the cliff, I found that I really liked rappelling! [...] The view was beautiful as you rappelled down the rock through the treetops and around crags.”