Overcoming your fears, one step at a time!

Posted In: Goals August 27th, 2013 divider No Comments »

You might know me as a bit of an adventurer. You might not know about my fear of heights. It’s pretty bad!

So I was out looking for an adventure while in the Halifax area for the weekend to teach a ChiRunning workshop in one of my favourite locales. Well maybe not an adventure as much as I wanted to get home.

It was another day in paradise after eating some wonderful local grub and doing some visiting with some old friends. I wanted to walk home even if it was a bit of a hike as it was such a nice night, and I might have wanted to walk off some of that food.

I knew I had to walk over the Macdonald bridge from Halifax to Dartmouth to get to my hotel but the realizations only kicked in as I was approaching said bridge.

I took a few steps on the bridge and almost froze. I wanted to go back but then realized I had no other real choices if I wanted to get to my bed.

I had to use my yoga breath and go to my happy place while putting one foot in front of the other just to keep going. The first third of the bridge was the toughest as I was climbing and could feel a bit queasy.

Then I just kept on trucking (I even had to put my phone away!) and it was mind over matter. Then it got easier with each step. Then next thing you know, it was over and I had a small smile on my face.

It was very similar to signing up for, training for and racing an Ironman. When you sign up, you’re scared but then you just get to work. And on race day you just want to do this thing!

Such a great lesson (one step at a time) but not one I expected very late on a Friday night on the road. But that’s the thing about adventures…

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And I’m not a doctor but having a bunch of injuries over the years makes you listen to your body a bit more as you get older.

The science is really catching up now and it seems the old RICE adage is getting thrown out. Check out RICE vs MEAT here from CaringMedical.com, pretty interesting stuff!