Climbing : How to Hack Your Fear of Falling

Fear of falling. Now that’s a big hurdle that many climbers find themselves struggling to overcome. It’s an intense battle within the mind, where part of you has a strong urge to climb, yet another part of you may be paralyzed by fear.

Fear of falling is unique when it comes to climbing. In most cases, the situations that elicit fear are usually avoided. But when it comes to climbing, it is essentially unavoidable. Because it is directly related to what we are so strongly passionate about. Falling makes up an enormous part of climbing, and although it’s likely that we may only fear specific types of falls, our passion for climbing always wins. We go through those periods of intense and even paralyzing fear because opting not to climb is even scarier!

Fortunately, our passion for climbing places us in a pretty advantageous position to overcome this limiting fear. Since our passion for climbing is so strong, it puts us in a place where we are already willing to take the required steps to tackle negative thoughts. This readiness (or willingness) to face our fear of falling is actually pretty significant, and although the process may still feel scary and difficult, I promise that it does make it a whole lot easier. Part of the internal battle is already eliminated.

The first step in overcoming your fear is taking the time to dig deep and really understand it.

It’s time to get to the root of your fear!

It’s important for you to understand exactly what it is that you’re afraid of. Yes, I know you’re probably thinking ‘uhhh, falling obviously!!’ but what is it that’s actually driving it? Is it fear of failure? Are you scared of injury? Do you lack of confidence in yourself? Lack of confidence in your partner? Fear of heights? Of death? Of not being in control?

It could also be your natural survival instinct, the result of a past negative experience, or subconscious negative thoughts acting as a defence mechanism to prevent you from doing something that your mind perceives as unsafe.

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