I wrote a book a few years ago called Make Some Room: Powerful Life Lessons Inspired By an Epic 16-day Colorado River Rafting Trip Through the Grand Canyon. I’ll be sharing some content from that book to reveal much of what I learned on that incredible river trip experience.
In Chapter 7, I share some very personal fears that you can read about below. AND I want to say UPFRONT: The Salmon River Slow Down that my co-host Sylke Laine and I are planning for late August 2024 is a CAKE WALK compared to the level of risk and intensity that happens in Grand Canyon.
But/and, the lesson about doing what scares you – and being bold and brave, even for 14 seconds at a time – applies 100% anytime you gift yourself the experience of getting out of your comfort zone!
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Chapter 7: Be bold. Be brave. Take action. (Even if you’re scared shitless while doing it.)
I always joke that I was designed for comfort, not for speed. Whitewater especially terrifies me because of how fast things happen.
A few years ago, I decided to try whitewater kayaking since so many of friends seemed to prefer that to the mellower version of lakes and slow, meandering rivers that I preferred (known as sea kayaking or touring kayaking).
I gave whitewater kayaking a real try: bought my own boat, helmet, paddle, and PFD (personal flotation device), all specialty gear designed for whitewater. I went to practice to learn how to roll my boat at the local pool. I paid for lessons to learn to read the water and run rapids with a great female kayak instructor. And I did it. I ran rapids. Had a great on-side roll.
And I did okay running actual rivers. Except I was scared shitless almost the entire time, every time, I was in my boat.
I finally realized it was not fun for me.
So I quit.
Thus, when the call came to raft the Grand Canyon, it was a terrified YES that came out of my mouth.
I was terrified during our first big rapids. I was terrified in the mornings as we re-packed our boats and everyone talked in sometimes-hushed tones about the day’s BIG rapids. I cried as we squared up to enter those BIG rapids.
One passage from the journal I kept during my trip through the Canyon summed up my fears: “I’m scared! Scared of scorpions, snakes, rapids, and group dynamics. I also really see I have control issues. Being a passenger on an eighteen-foot inflatable rubber raft being rowed by my beloved (who hasn’t rowed a raft in nearly twenty years) does not lend itself to feeling ‘in control.’”
And then something remarkable happened. Just before one enormous, roaring rapid, Nelson came back after scouting it, his face looking pale and pinched. All he said to me was, “Don’t fall out of the boat.” I saw on his face how truly scared he was this time. My journal notes continued: “I started to cry quietly as we approached the first set of big rapids. The terror and the tears continued even as Nelson successfully navigated us—upright and alive—through them. At some point in the trip, in order to stop focusing on the terror, I started counting. Running most big rapids took all of fourteen seconds.”
Fourteen seconds of fear. That was it.
Fourteen seconds of being scared shitless but doing it anyway.
And just like that, my fears became smaller, more manageable. I realized fourteen seconds goes by in a flash, even though when I’m in a rapid, time slows down considerably, to the point that splashes of water happen in slow motion, as the boat rises and dips like a big blue swan, in and out of the churning waves.
Fourteen seconds was long enough for Nelson to lose an oar and holler at me for help and for me to reach into the roiling waters to retrieve it. We made it through that rapid upright and successfully, too.
Thus, I learned how to be bold and brave in fourteen-second intervals.
If you’re interested in joining Sylke and I for The Salmon River Slowdown, but the idea of whitewater makes you clench up, know that we chose this particular river at this particular time of year for more FUN FACTOR than adrenaline.
You can read all about the trip HERE. We’ve reserved seats for 10 women, and three of those seats have already been snapped up! We hope you’ll consider joining us to experience the magic of river time. I’ll share more about that particularly wonderful way to expand time in Friday’s note.
Warmly,
Angie