💋 Malinalism.: Overcome Your Fear(s)

Acrophobia (Wikipedia)

from the Greek: ἄκρον, ákron , meaning "peak, summit, edge" and φόβος, phóbos, "fear"

An extreme or irrational fear of heights, especially when one is not particularly high up. Most people experience a degree of natural fear when exposed to heights, known as the fear of falling. On the other hand, those who have little fear of such exposure are said to have a head of heights. A head for heights is needed by those hiking or climbing in mountainous terrain. Acrophobia sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely. Between 2 and 5 percent of the general population suffer from acrophobia, with twice as many women affected as men.

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I admit that I am (or, was?) afraid of heights. Usually I will get this tingling sensation whenever I am on top of the building or at the edge of a balcony or high-storey corridors. My palms and my feet will get all sweaty all of a sudden and my heart beats fast and sometimes I get dizzy too. I still remember the feeling I had when I joined cheerleading team back in high school and I was among the lightest of all team members so I had to be one of the flyers. My team and I were doing some tosses (basket toss, cradle, extend etc.) and that was my first time doing it, as my team pushed my feet up to like 10ft above the ground, I screamed out loud and told them to put me down. Yes, I was that, lame. Well at least, I was.

LOL!

I went to Penang recently, for a quick rejuvenation trip and overcoming my fear of heights was never on my to-do list. I would never, ever brave enough to overcome this acrophobic feeling, not now, not ever. My passion is more to underwater world, like, snorkeling, diving, swimming or anything that is related to water or ocean or rivers or lakes or even plastic pools.

But on the other side of the parallel universe, unlike me, my sister loves to test herself about this whole height-thingy. She loves to do bungee jumping, parasailing, flying fox and all air-y, flying stuff. She is not afraid of heights, she just loves to feel the adrenaline rushes onto her entire body and so she insisted me to join for her little adventure of "be a bird" for a day. Two days, actually.

The second day in Penang, we went for parasailing. IT IS INCREDIBLY FUN! I hesitated to do it at first but I need to, at least once in my life just to know how it feels to be up there and to test myself. But my main concern was "is it safe?". Then the dudes told us that we can actually fly with an instructor if we have never done it before. The parachute tied to a boat and the boat pulled us up and the boat driver drove about half a mile from the shore. What an indescribable feeling. I flew about fifty to hundred feet from the sea level and I can see the whole stretch of the white sand beach from up there and I feel like a bird! Now I understand why people love to fly and do it again and again because it is so much fun and very addictive, though!

Day three.

My sister and I went to this awesome place called ESCAPE. It is an adventure park where you can climb on ropes with harness and head gears provided by the park and you can also enjoy flying fox, jungle trekking, doing acrobats and the fun part is the, bungee jumping.

Again, Malina's mission to overcome her fear of heights, part two. A whole new level of overcoming fears. Extreme ways.

FRIGGIN' BUNGEE JUMPING.

The ropes or they called as, Monkey Business was easy-peasy (pfft... *rolls eyes*, well not really), then my sister and I tried the flying fox and they named it as "Flying Lemur", maybe just to tell people that lemur is ten times better and awesome-r than fox. Who knows. But we had fun, flying across the jungle with 150-meter rope from tree A to tree B, fifty feet above the ground, with nothing but harness and a strong faith and some of woohoos and wees and sometimes ahhs like our long lost Mr Tarzan.

Next up, bungee jumping. Frankly speaking, I was not experiencing any nervousness, at all but I was all giddy and excited to do it! We lined up for 20 minutes or so and we witnessed many kinds of, well, reactions from them jumpers. Screaming, crying, and some of them backed out because they cannot handle the height and the tingling on their feet and stomach.

I truly understand.

Then, my turn. All I could say is that, you guys should try it. Really. Now I understand why people love to take it to the next level. Start small and then go for sky diving. But my next mission would be a proper bungee jumping, jump off a bridge or a solo paragliding and then next would be sky diving, hopefully. InshaAllah.

I love to experience new things and can't believe I am saying this but, I had fun overcoming my fear of heights! Acrophobic, no more.