To Fly, I had to Jump!!!

As Helen Keller said, “Security is mostly a superstition… Life is either a daring adventure or nothing”

It was 2009, when I accompanied my adventurous husband to Singapore and Malaysia for his advanced sky dive lessons. This crazy obsession initially seemed quite irrational and reckless to me. Nonetheless, I was so thrilled to witness him go through the entire drill, fly up in a fancy aircraft and jump off, look like a bird in the air, then land so smoothly with a huge colorful parachute and grin with excitement of a small child. That was the day, when I also felt like trying this at least once in my life too. Post-holiday period we again got sucked up in the rut of life. My crazy husband went crazier and travelled to different countries to jump off the aircraft, exhausting most of his saved money and I being a tolerant wife tried to ignore 😊

A month ago, we were contemplating a vacation. Last two years of pandemic reiterated the importance of living each moment. So, despite the few COVID restrictions we decided to travel abroad. We virtually explored numerous destinations and homed on to a place which seemed different than the frequently travelled West. It was Dubai. Dubai boasts of several unequalled and superlative man-made wonders in the world. My husband was more excited to jump off the plane and view one of the most beautiful drop zones on earth – but this time he planned it for me. I was so excited and thrilled but at the same time, also scared to the core by imagining as to how does it feel when you jump off from 13000 feet and there is no ground below you and gravity pulls you down towards mother earth at lightening speed . I decided that life is now or never. If I don’t go for it now then probably the ability to gather such courage will keep declining. Moreover, I was always fascinated whenever I used to see my husband doing this. I too wanted to fly. But for that I had to jump!!

We planned a week’s trip to Dubai this year in May, to celebrate our little girl’s 12th birthday. We fell in in love with the city and the way it stands tall as far as the architecture of various buildings is concerned, is truly commendable. My Sky dive was booked for the last day of our trip. Though I enjoyed every day in Dubai, my mind was aware of the final day where I had to gather all the courage to jump off from a height of 13,000 feet!!! Since the time, my sky dive jump was booked, I had started training my mind to not think about it at all. The moment I thought about it, I could hear my heart racing. I thought to myself that it’s a matter of few minutes and I just need to take a leap of faith.

Finally, the day arrived when I had to jump. I had a very disturbed sleep the night before and kept checking the clock if it was time to wake up. We reached Sky Dive Dubai and I could listen to my pounding heart, loud and clear. The entire place was buzzing with trained Sky Divers and anxious people who were waiting for their first jump. I reported at the counter where they checked my BMI and other necessary documentation. I was asked to wait till my name was announced.

That irrevocable moment arrived and there I was with my instructor and camera man, listening carefully to the detailed instructions of what and how to conduct myself during this entire activity. We were a group of 6 people in the aircraft. Once the flight began, the real scare began. Looking out at the beautiful sky line of Dubai from the window, I started mentally preparing myself. The door was opened and a cool gush of air hit us. People in front of me started jumping one by one and were falling off like small stones which made a shiver run down my spine. I could feel butterflies in my stomach. But, there was no looking back and I must mention that my instructor was so good, he comforted me a lot and consistently asked me to relax.

We were at the door and were to jump next. Time froze completely. When I jumped out, that was the very moment reality hit me.13000 which was just a number, showed its true impact. The camera man who was literally walking with ease in the air was asking me to smile. The force of the wind was so high that I was not even able to close my mouth. My cheeks were moving and so was the entire body. The view from that height was just so mesmerizing. Dubai sky line, Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Al Arab, the blue ocean everything seemed so tiny and yet so beautiful. I had goose bumps, when the parachute opened. In the middle of the dive, my instructor asked me if I could swim. I answered in the affirmative and realized that it was my mistake, when he said that we were about to land into the ocean. I was speechless. It was relief to know that he was joking…!! I was trying to withhold all the beauty that surrounded me. No words can do justice to describe my feelings at that point in time. That was the moment, when I truly thanked my husband for encouraging me to go through this experience. The landing was as smooth as butter.

I have learnt very important life lessons through this extreme adventure, which is why I chose to write about it. Here they go:

1) The psychological effect : In retrospective, I realized that I actually trained my mind not to be anxious of the jump and stop over thinking about it. How often do we over think about situations which are inevitable and we don’t have much control over them . I have myself gone through this so many times and over thinking or over analyzing or anxiety has never helped me. Rather it has messed up my mind and spoiled those moments. After this experience I realized that one can train the mind to an extent wherein extreme situations can be handled calmly. I wanted to go for this adventure and at the same time I had terrible fear of height. I had two choices - to overcome my fear or to regret it later.

As Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw once said that if one says that he is not afraid of death, he is either a liar or he is a Gorkha. Iam not a Gorkha and of course I was scared to death with the idea of jumping from 13,000 feet. I did not analyze the entire process until I actually was in the air and experienced the dive. Since I had psychologically trained my brain, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. So, it’s basically a mind game. Many of you must have experienced that if you have to wake up early the next day, say to catch a flight, you may wake up around the time you have set in the alarm clock. This has happened many times with me. So it’s all in the head 😊

2) Regain Balance : When I jumped off the plane, I didn’t realize the impact of the strong wind and gravitational force. I felt topsy-turvy but within few seconds I was balanced. Beyond doubt it was my instructor’s skill. When life throws certain things which off centers us, how often do we try and avoid or resist them only to get more miserable. Rather than resisting, if one is calm and chooses to find ways to re-center and regain balance in life again, life would be simple.

The great Master Swami Vivekananda said that God I will never pray for an easy life, but I will always pray for strength to rise up when my life throws me off. Sky diving taught me that lack of resistance and a calm mind can help you regain your balance quickly.

3) Release the Desire to Control : One of the toughest things for a novice sky diver is to RELAX during the free-fall. It’s quite natural to get tensed and try and CONTROL the descent. I realized that the more I tried to control my descent the more imbalanced I became. The only way forward was to RELAX and RELEASE the need to CONTROL. That’s what my instructor kept on saying…’ RELAX’. That’s when the body forms the perfect ARCH (Sky dive parlance) and you fall down in a stable position. How often in life do we try and hold the need to control everything. Situations, behaviors, results etc. The more we try to control, the more we tend to lose the control, the more tense and frustrated we become which further prevents our balance of mind and it results into lesser control of the situation . So we keep spinning (inside mind) just like we spin in the air if we don’t have a balanced and relaxed ARCH position. In this situation how can one think of having a safe opening of parachute (akin to thinking of a solution for a problem in daily life) . So, sky diving taught me that it’s not necessary to try to control everything in life. There are some things in life that cannot be controlled, and that is okay. The situations, behavior of people around me and so many other things will continue and will worsen only if I try controlling. The key is to RELAX and RELEASE the desire to control. Servant Leadership in Agile is a classic example of a leader who never tries to control the teams, rather removes their impediments and coaches them.

4) Let Go : This jump has been one of the most liberating things I have done in life till now. That was possible because I ‘Let Go’ my fear. I remembered a quote I read somewhere few months back that FEAR had two acronyms. Forget Everything And Run or Face Everything And Rise. I ‘Let Go’ my anxiety, my apprehension. I just ‘Let Go’ and I jumped. Internet is flooded with messages and articles on ‘Let Go’ but how many times we have actually ‘Let Go’ ourselves and felt liberated. Acknowledging this fact is a huge milestone in living a life full of liberation. In broader perspective of life too, letting go of one’s anger/ resentment/ guilt/fear etc. is the hardest thing is to do but harder than this is to keep holding on to them and live a miserable life.

5) Comfortable with the uncomfortable : How often do we resist the need to step out of our COMFORT ZONE. In personal and professional front, stepping out of comfort zone makes one uncomfortable. The concomitant risks associated with stepping out of comfort zone makes you a fear filled and anxious living being. But the world is replete with examples that life-changing growth happens (both personal and professional) only and only when one steps (or jumps!) out of the comfort zone. You learn more about yourself and realize that you are much more capable than what you ever imagined. Of course, you have to take RISKS when you are stepping out of your comfort zone. Comfort zone is always comfortable but that does not make you successful. In today’s professional world, we are witnessing that it is important to have an organizational attitude wherein a culture of trust is built where people feel comfortable trying things that might fail. Shouldn’t we focus more on innovation (involving risks) rather than optimizing and being safe all the time? More importantly isn’t it time to celebrate failures and learn from failures instead of not taking risks at all? The status quo needs to change. More than often, situations that might cause discomfort are opportunities in disguise to grow to the next level. In our professional front, we take ‘risks’ It’s important to stand by your team and convince them that sometimes it’s right to take risks and it’s alright to make mistakes.

6) Take time to reflect and enjoy the serenity : The few seconds of my free fall, where I was dropping like a stone through the cushion of wind rushing at me at 120 miles per hour were one of the most enjoyable moments of my life. It is beyond words to describe when the calmness and silence that sets after the parachute is opened. Serenity and beauty cannot be expressed in words. It is to be experienced. That is possible when your whole core is concentrating on that single activity at that very moment. During my few minutes of ground training, whilst boarding the plane, when I jumped, when I was floating in air and until I landed, I swear that nothing came across my mind except the sky dive. My heart and soul were completely immersed in those beautiful moments. Neither was I worrying about my household responsibilities, nor about the work in office and not thinking about anyone. I was soaked in that moment completely and I enjoyed every single bit. How often do we multitask and juggle with activities (if not physically, mentally definitely) and lose out the fun of every task? Agile methodology also reiterates that the team’s focus on one project is extremely important because juggling between tasks or multitasking/context switching reduces productivity and efficiency. So sky dive taught me to focus completely, to concentrate and more importantly to enjoy what I was doing.

7) Gratitude : Last but not the least, after the whole experience I could only thank God for this opportunity and this experience. I thanked my family and friends for their support. How often do we take a pause and express our gratitude to all of those people around us who some way or the other contribute towards our endeavors.

One Sky dive has taught me these life lessons which I wished to share with you all through this medium. I salute those brave adventurers who live their life in the sky. It completely humbles you. It makes you realize that you are miniscule in front of this beautiful nature and this universe.

I had always come across the statement that Sky is the limit but my sky dive experience taught me that Ground is also the limit!!

Blue Skies and Safe landings!!!

Link to the YouTube Video : https://youtu.be/F2_zBQKurDE

PS : These are completely my personal opinions and perspective and anyone else may surely choose to differ.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/810072_a8063c85e7c04317a91ec9ae72fa244a/1080p/mp4/file.mp4