365 Inspirations—232: Facing the Fear of Falling

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."—Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Last night I dreamt that Yoon climbed the highest diving board in the world and promptly put on his fins (don't ask me why he needed his fins for diving) and leapt into the air with a deep, deep lake below him.

It took him a very long time for him to come down and my heart was in my throat watching him. He was falling and I did not know if he would make it up safely from his plunge. But it was too late for worries and there was nothing I could do to help him land safely.

 While mid-air, the wind picked him up and caused him to spin and twirl with legs splayed out and fins like bird wings. Sometimes he was head-first and other times feet-first. He struggled to keep himself straight in the air, but then just surrendered and ended up taking the plunge head-first.

I held my own breath as I waited for him to come up for air. On his landing one of his fins flew off his foot and bounced across the lake. He finally came up and said, "I'm fine...that was GREAT!"

I stared at him in disbelief and said, under my breath, "No way would I do that in a million years."

I have absolutely no desire to dive from the highest diving board in the world. I jumped from the high-dive on Lake Washington this summer and that was enough.

I think this dream has more to do with the fear of falling in another sense—falling from grace, falling from one's position or imagined security, falling or failing in the eyes of others, falling from a relationship...maybe even falling in love?

It's the unknown, isn't it?

What if we lose our position, our security, our loved one, our relationship, our freedom or anything else?

There's the fear of what will happen to us. The thing is—nothing is really known. We have no idea what will happen in any given second, so why not live?

One of my biggest fears is not about falling, but failing. I'm afraid of what that might look like. I spend a lot of time focused on the positive and inspirational and it's really served me well to have this outlook on life, but I still could fall or even fail at any given moment. I could lose everything.

I used to believe that in order to manifest what one wanted in life one should wipe out all thoughts of falling and failure, because if we focus on it it just might happen. I still think this is true, but I also think it's good to make friends with the other side of things.

I'm reading a book called The Translucent Revolution: How People Just Like You are WAKING UP and CHANGING the world by Arjuna Ardagh. It's a 500 plus page book, but the author writes about things I've never considered before and I'm starting to view things in a very different way.

I love this quote:

"Only when we are willing to be both good and not good and everything in between does our feeling of being separate relax and all the goodness of all life begin to flow through us."—Arjuna Ardagh

There are many things I fear, but I'm ready to face those fears. Falling and failing are two of those fears...maybe dying is in there too. The thing is, we all have to die one day, so why not face the fear of falling or failing and actually LIVE while we are still here. I'd rather take risks to fulfill my dreams than die with my dreams and hopes still in me.

Are you afraid of falling or failing? Do you take risks in life?