Ever considered jumping out of a plane on purpose? Yes? No? Either way, did you know that peak adrenaline activities, like skydiving, have actual health-actualizing benefits? It's "true". One might think that the dangers (read: cons) of participating in potentially dangerous activities outweigh the benefits (read: pros). But that's not the whole story. Should you survive the jump--and most everyone does (seriously), the death and injury rate of skydiving is super low. You can read more about such things here. With that said, licensed skydivers and the skydiving community-at-large say that skydiving helps them stay active and healthy. Let's discuss.

According to an article titled, The Tried & True Benefits of Skydiving: Pros & Cons by Criag Anderson for friendlyskydiver.com, there are several tried and true benefits that come with willingly putting on a parachute, attaching oneself to another human, getting in a plane as it gets ridiculously high in the air and then jumping out of said plane with a go-pro in hand to commemorate the experience for posterity. These benefits, they say, are both physical and mental. In this multi-part series, we're focusing on the mentals.

Mental Benefits of Skydiving

Survival Confidence

Knowing you’ve faced your fears and jumped out of a plane can do wonders for your confidence. It’s not often we so literally get to conquer our fears, and the reward can last a lifetime. This isn’t just a ‘walk around like a royal’ for a day confidence, this is a life-long ‘yes I did that and it’s awesome’ type of confidence.

Survival Clarity

(Skydiving) is such a raw, intense experience that can almost feel like hitting a ‘reset’ switch. You find yourself looking at the rest of your life from a birds-eye view, realizing you don’t need to stress so much, and that you’re more capable than you think.

Survival Growth

We are happiest when we are growing as people, and something as significant as skydiving marks a huge point of growth for anyone brave enough to do it. It’s something that no-one can take away from you, and an experience you can fall back on when you need that boost of confidence, or need to stay in control in a high-pressure situation.

McGuyver Level Problem Solving

Everything involved in a skydive is a system. From the position you get yourself in, to your canopy checks and flight paths, to your emergency procedures. Learning and accurately sticking to all these helps build confidence in your own abilities.

Ready to go skydiving yet? Hold Your Mule, in addition to the mental health benefits, there are physical benefits as well. We contemplate the physical benefits of skydiving here.