I'm not afraid to Fall

When my daughter was 4 we took her to a fantastic classical roller rink with wooden floors, a organ and the distinctive smell of grease, wood and slurpees in the air. They had a beginners lesson with the kids before the regular skate time where they taught them mostly how to fall well and how to get up. Everything else comes with practice. Flash forward about 6 months later we are on our way to our first family trip to a ice skating rink. I had heard about how its common for children to get their fingers severed after they fall on the ice. I’m trying to block the image from my brain when I hear my sweet girl proudly exclaim “I can’t wait to get there and start falling!!” My mommy brain exploded “what?!? Why?!?!?” She proudly and patiently answered “because that’s how you learn, you can’t learn without falling and I already know how to get myself up”. That memory has come to me when I felt afraid to fall or didn’t think getting up was worth it.

Since then I have learned how incredibly important this pivotal choice can be. When I stretch myself beyond my comfort zone knowing I could fall, I open myself up to potential success as well as the all important opportunity for growth. The trick is in the mindset. As my genius daughter illustrated, expecting to fall as part of the growth process and perceiving falls as actually part of the win rewires our brain to not only accept a fall but celebrate it and use it as a stepping stone.

For more on this, Zadra Rose Ibañez further describes what happens to our brains when we alter our mindsets towards celebrating the win in her Blog . If you are feeling like the only one who fails or falls and has trouble getting back up you can go to the museum of failures. To literally learn how to get up after falling on the ice go here. Finally, for a catchy earworm that will hopefully move you towards taking healthy risks this week, please take a listen to Get up by Superchick .

Facing your fears of falling or failure is one of the steps to resilience training I cover in my groups. Next one is forming in the Spring of 2020. I would love to hear the areas in which you are pushing past your fears of falling.