Can a bungee jump save your life? It saved mine!

Can you imagine jumping 134m into a canyon from a steel cage suspended between two mountains, free falling for 8 ½ seconds head first towards the ground with only a cord tied to your ankles to save you from a certain death?  This is the Nevis 134m, in Queenstown, New Zealand.

For those adrenalin junkies out there, this may sound totally awesome.  For those with bungy jumping on their bucket list, this is a great one to do as it is one of the highest bungy’s in the world.  Even those who have a debilitating fear of heights might see this as the ideal way to conquer their fear. There is no doubt about it, this bungy set up is amazing.  The cage, the height, the scenery, it’s all breathtaking.

But I didn’t meet any of the criteria I mentioned above.  I am not (or I should say I didn’t use to be) an adrenalin junkie, I never had bungy on my bucket list and whilst I am afraid of heights I never felt the need to deal with it – it is what I would consider a normal mid range fear.

However, my sole mission in going to Queenstown was to take the Nevis 134m head on to save my life.  Ok, so you are thinking that the blood clearly has rushed to my head!  How could a potentially life threatening activity (although it is actually totally safe) save my life?!

I have been feeling pretty crappy of late.  Actually really crappy, and actually for quite a long time.  I am a very strong woman, driven, positive thinker, disciplined, motivated and committed to achieving my dreams.  But of late, I have found it very hard to keep positive, to choose to feel good, no matter how hard I tried.  I did all sorts of things to try to make myself feel better, exercising every morning, reading positive quotes, catching up with inspiring people, taking time off to rejuvenate, you name it, I tried it.  But what happened was I lost confidence in my ability to make myself feel good.  At the end of the day, our happiness comes from one place only, within.  I couldn’t find mine and it was scaring me.

I needed to show myself that I am in total control of my mind and if I think I can, I can. The best way to prove it to myself was to really challenge my mind and do something totally extreme. A shock treatment of sorts.  If I could manage the fear in my mind to bungy jump 134m purely by getting my head right, I would be unstoppable.

In preparation for my ‘bungy life saving ceremony’, I wrote down on a piece of paper the things I wanted to let go of that were causing me pain, and with the support of 6 amazing friends from Entrepreneurs Organisation (who jumped with me purely to be supportive – even though they were all petrified) we made our way past the 34m and 40m bungy jumps and headed straight to the Nevis.

Clutching on to my piece of paper, I stood on the tiny platform, with a smile on my face and extreme terror in my body. I opened my arms and I flew off that platform. On the way down I let go of my note and screamed ‘I CAN’ throughout the canyon (corny I know).  I let go of the past and welcomed a future of believing in my ability to do anything.  I made a choice to feel good. Hanging upside down in that canyon hearing nothing but my heart beating out of my chest I found proof that I can do anything I put my mind to and I can choose to think and feel anything. I re-discovered my happiness, which of course had always been within me, I just got lost for a while.

Who would’ve thought a bungy jump could be so therapeutic!

I am now back in control.

Please enjoy my video of this experience, paying attention to the note I let go of as I fly!