Face Your Fear and Fly

Never say Never. I would never have expected myself to zip line across a 70-foot ravine in the Canadian Rockies, but then I had no idea this was the plan. Often, we mistake our plan as the Divine plan. Needless to say, the Divine plan takes us places we never thought we would go, and sometimes places we never thought we could go.

When I was 15 years old, I found myself cliff diving with a bunch of friends from high school. To make a long story short, there was alcohol involved, and, well, I slipped and fell off a 30-foot cliff. I survived but was badly injured. Since then, I have avoided any sport that involves cliffs.

So when I found myself, many years later, leading a spiritual retreat in the Rockies, I wasn’t too keen to go zip lining. Many of the people who I was leading in an inner adventure were also doing quite a bit of outer adventuring, called hella-hiking. In hella-hiking, you are helicoptered in at 10,000 feet and dropped onto a glacier, where you would traverse various cliffs of monumentally dangerous proportion.

Toward the end of the four-day retreat, I was tired and would have much rather taken a nap than get into a helicopter in the pouring rain to go zip lining, but my guides had another idea. Yes, my guides, or non-conditional light-beings who I talk to and talk back to me, instructed me to go. I argued, knowing full-well that it is pointless, and when I listen to guidance, there is always something better that happens than I could ever orchestrate.

I pulled on what seemed to be endless layers of gortex and boarded the helicopter. I was told this was a level one hella-hiking adventure-not to be confused with the level three, which required mountaineering gadgetry so one could hang off the 10,000 foot mountain and not plummet to their death. I was planning on a harmless romp through the untouched nature, even if it was in the pouring rain.

When we exited the helicopter, we walked about a mile or so, and our guide pointed us toward a 70-foot ravine and said, “We are going to cross this.”

I thought I misheard him and laughed nervously and said, “How?”

He pointed to the zip line, and before I could protest, they were strapping me up. Literally, a strap was being wrapped around me. All I could think was, this will never hold me, I am going to die.

Being the spiritual leader, I couldn’t refuse to go. How could I let my fear dictate my reality? Here I was teaching people how to access their highest vision to live their best life. Even though this seemed like the worst possible thing I could be doing with my life in this moment, I was clear; it was fear that was running my choices right now. The same fear that stops us from quitting a job we hate, or leaving a marriage that is over, or writing that book we have always wanted to... and the list goes on. How could I let fear stop me and not go?

Just as I was about to take the leap of faith off the cliff, in the absolute literal sense, the guide realized the zip line had been tampered with. Much to my relief, he aborted the plan to cross the ravine. To say I was relieved was a gross understatement. I was practically on my knees, thanking God.

“Never mind,” the guide said. “There is another zip line about a mile down.”

“Gulp,” is all I could say because now I knew I was going to die. If this zip line was tampered with, I thought for sure the other one would be. Of course, this time they would find out when I was on it, not before. The mile down to the next zip line was like my own death march. Except a few minutes into it, I remembered my guides. I asked them what this was about. Why was I asked to do this? It became clear to me that this was about confronting my old fears, falling off the cliff at age 15, and my fear of death. I asked myself the question, “What if I were to die today?” My answer surprised me.

Today is a good day to die. I am living my life completely on purpose, doing what I am here to do-inspiring others to awaken their Divine potential. I am at peace with who I am, and I feel connected to God. Death is only a transition, and I am completely okay with it. It took me the better part of the mile to come to these realizations. So when they strapped me up, I was ready to die, and because of this, I was also ready to fly.

Normally if I have any fear, I shutdown, constrict, and am not fully present. Because I let go of my fear, I felt, open, expansive, and completely in the here and now. When I jumped off that cliff, I was going extremely fast, but I experienced it as if I was in slow motion. I could feel the wind on my face, the glow of mint green water glistening below, and the sheer exhilaration of being suspended in mid-air, flying fearlessly.

I’ll never forget that feeling of freedom. I was so glad that I trusted the Divine plan; it was so much better than my plan. This taught me that whatever scares you, face it. This is your key to freedom. When we face our fears, we can overcome any obstacle, we can move through any perceived limitation, and, most important, we can be open and present for our lives.