Do you have a fear of heights? A real phobia of heights is one of the most common fears for someone to have, and you might assume it would mean zip line adventures are out of the question. That’s not entirely true. Empower Adventures is dedicated to personal empowerment, as well as team building and fun. Part of your empowerment is overcoming your fears. To get you started, we’re going to go take a look at some basic steps for facing a fear of heights.
Get Ready
If you’re getting ready to face a real phobia, you need to take the time to prepare. However you intend to go about it, make sure others know and are involved in the process. For those who suffer a full-blown phobia, the sensation of fear or panic can be overwhelming. This can be dangerous without the right preparation. Involve family or friends who want to help. Have them help you plan out how to address your fear.
Take It Slowly
Don’t rush into things. As we mentioned, a real phobia is likely to induce panic if you’re unprepared. The same goes if you do too much, too soon. With your support network helping you, set up a plan to expose yourself to heights over a length of time. This is similar to a form of therapy often used to treat irrational phobias, called Immersion Therapy.
The basic idea behind Immersion Therapy is to gradually expose someone to their fear enough that the fear response eventually stops. A fear of heights gives you a pretty clear roadmap to follow: start simple with something like a step ladder and gradually work your way up to something big like a zip line ride.
Breathing Exercises
There are some simple things you can do as you scale up to keep intense feelings of fear in check. Breathing exercises are effective at calming you down and giving you something to focus on while slowing down your body’s panic response. Take deep breaths in through your nose, hold for four seconds, then breathe out slowly through your mouth.
You could also try grounding, which involves looking around yourself and mentality checking off each physical object you see. It might sound strange or silly, but grounding yourself in your surroundings can be extremely effective at stopping your brain from leaping to wild fears induced by panic.
Don’t Judge Yourself Harshly
Lastly, it’s important you don’t judge yourself for how long it might take to overcome a phobia. A phobia is often deeply-ingrained, and your fear response is not something you can easily overcome. Remember that conquering a phobia isn’t about feeling no fear at all but being able to carry on in spite of it. Beating yourself up about not conquering it quickly enough isn’t helping anyone. If you’re putting that much pressure on yourself, you’re also risking pushing too hard and giving up much sooner.
Take Your Next Step with Empower Adventures
This is just some simple advice to help you get started in facing your fears of heights. Riding a zip line can be an effective, safe, and memorable way to finally conquer your fear. If you’re looking for a zip line adventure in Tampa, Florida, contact the zip lining experts at Empower Adventures.