By LAURA LEONARD
Doctor of Chiropractic

I recently became an empty nester and decided that it was time to challenge my cautious self with a small dose of fear in my athletic pursuits.

I was a groomer girl in skiing and an avid road biker. Naturally, as a beginner these activities are going to cause fear. I have been participating in these things long enough that they are now routine. Same old is good right?

If you are comfortable and stick to a routine, you won’t risk failing. To our brain this is an excellent strategy, which allowed us to survive. Our monkey mind tells us safe is good and safe is survival. Our primitive brain structures are wired to identify and memorize danger so that we are able to survive when we encounter these things again.

For our ancestors this was extremely useful but for us not so much. Today we have much less danger yet, our monkey mind still chatters away telling us to stick with the status quo and what feels safe. This is why using fear by challenging ourselves with new things is something that can change our lives and our self-concept for the better.

Fear and failure in reasonable doses are a good thing. Trying new things, failing and working towards new skills allow us to gain confidence, learn persistence and gain inner peace.

So … what constitutes reasonable doses of fear and how do you find flow? Turns out it hinges on balancing skill level with challenge. Psychologist Mihaly Robert Csikszentmihalyi defined “flow” as a mental state where we are calm and highly focused on the task at hand. Flow is found in things that we are passionate about. Flow is found in things that we excel at however, if we get too comfortable, things become boring. The key is finding balance by forcing ourselves to move out of our comfort zone by trying new things.

If we push too far above our skill level however, we have anxiety and quit. Nothing like a negative experience to get the monkey mind yelling at us to stop. Note to all the boyfriends, dads and husbands out there, this is why the double black, toughen up strategy rarely works and often ends up badly.

I’m two ski seasons and a year of mountain biking into my fear experiment. I have had some falls, large bruises and scrapes to say the least.

From a full yard sale on giant moguls under the Kachina lift at Taos to several face plants off the mountain bike, I have pushed too far beyond my abilities and I have also acquired many new skills both mental and physical. Am I a Jedi? Heck no! What I have now is the accomplishment of some stuff I never thought possible.

I learned I will never be perfect and not to quit when things get frustrating. With both these sports there is unlimited opportunity to explore fear because here is always something harder available.

The best thing of all is I am calmer and less attached to caring about failure or how I look. Of course, you don’t have to try extreme sports to find flow. Just find something that scares you a little bit, step out of your comfort zone and give it a try.

“Confronting fear is the destiny of a Jedi.” –Luke Skywalker

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“Do the thing you fear and continue to do so. This is the quickest and surest way of all victory over fear.” –Dale Carnegie

Don’t fear risk! Trying new things, failing and working toward new skills allows you to gain confidence, learn persistence and gain inner peace. Courtesy image