Have you ever stood at the ocean on a high cliff and had the urge to jump off? I have.
What makes us not jump off?
Instinct and intuition.
Other times I have stood at a lower cliff over the ocean or lake and looked down and said to myself,
"If I jump out far enough I would be safe and not die doing this because I can swim well enough to survive this if I land right. Besides, those girls might be impressed if I do this over there.
(This would be up to about age 25 in guys). And because I have the right instinct and intuition that I have learned to trust I always succeeded at this and survived without serious injury. But others, not so lucky sometimes die or are seriously injured. Why is this?
You have to be physical enough and have been injured enough times so when you do something like this you KNOW what your chance of survival is before you do it.
Whereas an indoor person who hasn't crashed on roller skates or bicycles multiple times or having run around and into things and maybe have been knocked out on a low hanging branch might not have a better idea of what their body was capable of and what they can withstand and still survive unharmed.
So, what would you call this?
I would call this experience combined with knowing what your body is capable of and knowing what you can survive without injury.
But, if you have never done anything physical and then just expect to survive something like this you might not survive or be seriously injured.
So, one needs instinct, intuition, experience, good coordination, having been slightly injured many times growing up etc. to know when they can survive doing some things others couldn't.
So, in the end none of this is mysterious, it is all about knowing what you and your body are capable of and being confident enough to pull off mostly whatever you attempt because you already know the outcome before you do it.
However, then there is aging. And this can be a problem because things you could get away with while younger you might not get away with as you age.
For example, I found with my own body that about age 37 was a marker. What I mean by this is extreme things I used to get away with I really couldn't anymore, especially some rock climbing moves. So, as a result I had a serious injury which tore of the muscles attached behind my right knee in the back and was messed up for a long time with this and almost drowned when I fell off the cliff and into the ocean and couldn't swim with one leg because of the injury. So, one must be constantly testing their abilities as they age to get a more realistic appraisal of what is possible and what is not. Of course sometimes you can just will power it through and later realize you barely survived something.
Like I went spelunking this last year and realized I was at the edge of what I could do lowering myself down a vertical waterfall underground that was frozen on rocks frozen into the waterfall without a rope. If I had been using a rope likely everything would have felt right and okay. But, I realized if any rock I was climbing on gave way I was going to slide about 30 feet into a pile of rocks below and break something. So, I felt pretty stupid to put myself at almost 67 years of age in this precarious position. However, I also felt this was pretty heady stuff too and sort of got a rush from a near death experience just like I used to when much younger. And so when I actually survived this without serious injury it was a real accomplishment that I was proud of to have done at my present age.
However, testing one's abilities as one ages will keep one alive longer if that is your wish.
For example, I plan to keep skiing as long as I can just like I plan to keep driving a car as long as I can. However, with self driving cars coming out soon whether I can still drive or not at 80 or 90 will be much less of a problem than it presently is now.
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