My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and it’s  got me thinking about all the usual birthday questions like:
“What presents will I ask for?”
“Where will we go out for dinner?”
“Will I ever be ready to have kids?”

The simple stuff.

But it’s also got me thinking back to last year’s birthday where I thought it would be a great idea to go to a nearby adventure park, the kind that has the platforms up in the trees and they’re joined together by flying foxes and rope ladders and all kinds of fun things like that.
So hubby and I went off to this mid-morning and we started out on one of the more simple courses, all done up in the safety harness after the lessons on how you have to “hook on” and “hook off” and make sure you’re always connected so you don’t fall to the ground and die right? Fun!

You have to climb up a ladder to the first platform in the tree and I am shaking so much I feel like I’m completely weak and all the energy has just drained out of me but I’m also determined so up that ladder I go.
I get to the first platform and the first flying fox so I hook on my wheel on the rope and I’ve got to push myself off the platform out into thin air. Sounds pretty simple but it was freaking scary! I made myself do it because we’d only just got there and there was no way I was going to chicken out and go home.

So we did it and each obstacle got, not easier, you just got a little bit used to it. We went through the first course and then the second course and then I was a bit tired and we cleverly hadn’t taken anything to eat or drink with us so we decided we’d just do the third course and then we’d go home.
So we get halfway through the third one and there’s more people on the course so we’re having to wait for longer as well so it’s taking much longer. Then we get to one really really difficult connection between the trees where there were stirrups hanging on ropes. I was knackered and I really couldn’t do it but I tried.

And I fell.
By falling I mean literally my legs gave way and my arms couldn’t catch me and I was caught by the security ropes hooked onto the main rope. So of course you don’t fall very far but there was that moment where I remember looking at the ground and thinking “Am I going to hit that?”

And I was just terrified. I let out a little scream when I got caught by the safety harness and I remember looking up at my husband and I was kind of cranky about all this trauma I was going through and I remember saying to him
 

“They don’t teach you how to fall!”
In the safety briefing at the start, they don’t teach you how to fall. He just gave me this look that was so meaningful and I heard what I just said: they don’t teach you how to fall.

No one teaches you how to fall, how to stuff up or how to fall off the high ropes course, you just learn that as you go. Then you have to learn how to pick yourself back up and hopefully you’re lucky enough to have someone like my husband who helped haul me across to the next tree platform and made sure I got off safely.

I remember that moment when I fell and I was terrified and then I was relieved and then I was embarrassed. It was a great way to spend my birthday!
I came home and got straight into the bath because my body was aching and stayed in the bath - I kid you not - crying and eating an entire block of chocolate because it was all I was capable of, I was so traumatised.

I made the decision there would be no more adventurous things on my birthday. The most adventurous I’m getting is going to a day spa next year! So if I start talking about wanting to go horse riding or something crazy just remind me of the little adventure from last year and we’ll see if I still want to get out of my comfort zone on my birthday.

You don’t need to know how to fall, you just need to know that you’re going to be able to get back up again afterwards. There’s always someone to help you, even if that someone is you.

So keep that in mind next time you head outside your comfort zone and do something adventurous.

You don’t need to know how to fall, you just need to know that you’ll be able to get back up.

And you will.

Katie Ryan

Courage & Intuition Specialist
0407 257 076
www.katieryan.com.au

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