A Blank Mind

This is a time with our economy shut down when people are feeling a lot of uncertainty and fear. In thinking about how to cope in this situation, I thought about years ago when I agreed to do a first jump with a parachute out of an airplane. Just the fact that I agreed to that means the average person doesn’t think like me! But if you can, my thought process which allowed me to do the jump could be helpful during times of uncertainty.


I had three days of in-class instruction and then the day came. Before even going up in the plane, my mind basically went blank. I talked with people and did things I needed to do, but I wasn’t thinking much. I remember someone walked by while I ate a sandwich and wondered how I could eat before a first jump. I just wasn’t thinking much, was kind of numb, and so I still had an appetite! Once in the airplane and flying, I waited as a couple of other people went before me. I think it was all so out of my experience that I was in a kind of shock or amazement. I did the jump and that is quite a fun story! 

But coping with uncertainty and fear is what this is about. Over the years, I had a few people show interest in doing a jump if I would go with them. I turned them down. During this time, I worked as a therapist with clients experiencing severe chronic pain. They were not living the life they wanted. In the group of people that I jumped with, someone broke their tailbone, someone broke several bones in his foot, and someone got whiplash. I did, too, and I still have residual issues in my neck. When people wanted me to go again, my thinking had changed. I now knew too much about the sequence of experiences involved in the jump process. I now thought about how my life could be damaged if I had a back injury, for instance. If I went again, I would be more afraid because it was no longer an ‘out-of-this world’ experience. I wouldn’t be in shocked amazement; I would think enough to be scared!

I always remember that now in times of high stress when I don’t know how things will turn out. I try not to think about it! 

I still do things to stay on track and set myself up well, but I also do a lot of distraction to get through. I stay busy, but I also go into that blank-mind mode if I can. Thinking about how badly it could go wrong is not helpful. There are times when a person just needs to keep moving forward. So as Scarlet O’Hara said in Gone with the Wind, “I can’t think about that today. I’ll just go crazy if I do! I’ll think about that tomorrow.”