I'm like a week late writing this but it needs to be done! Better late than never right? Last Friday I had the most amazing opportunity to go with my power 90 group to a ropes course in Provo. 1st off I don't know if I've even blogged about Power 90 but it is AMAZING! It is a class that helps you get more of what you want out of life,basically. There is a lot more to it than that but that's the basic. I've set a goal of running a 5k in 90 days. I'm super stoked and I'm getting my goal, along with a whole bunch of other stuff, through power 90. Included in that we have an affirmation statement and I'll just tell you mine now so that you might be able to understand a little bit more of what I'm going to tell you about below. My statement is; " I am an energetic winner and I am proud of who I am! So anyway, ya. We had a chance to go to this awesome ropes course like I said. My mom did this class a few months before me so I knew a little bit of what was coming, or so I thought. I drove there with Jon and Ginger. When we pulled up this is what I saw;
It doesn't look too bad but then I remembered I have this 'awesome' fear of heights. Oh yeah! How did i forget about that? So we spend about an hour just in the parking lot talking about our biggest limiting belief and thing that have been holding us back from what we want out of life. I have the most amazing group of people with me to begin with but then they split us up into 2 smaller groups and I am with the cream of the crop! Seriously, these people are just who I need to be with at this time in my life! Ohana. So we talked about how we could break that belief during the course and we each had something. For some it was just taking a deep breath and a small step forward, another decided to just yell something, for me I got to put my hands on my hips in a superwoman pose:
When we all had our turn to talk we moved on to the 1st exercise. It was called traffic jam. In the activity our Ohana group was split in two sides. We each stood on a colored square and we had to get from one side to the other by finding and following a pattern. It was fun but the point of it was to learn 3 things.
- Trial and error
- Recognize pattern
- Generate efficiency
From there we moved on to a fun activity where all 12 of us stood on a ~3'x4' platform in a "dragons lair" where we had to figure out a way to get a rope that was bout 6 feet away. Then we had to figure out a way to get to another platform that was about half the size as the 1st one. We had to do all of this in like 25 minutes. It was quite the task but we did it! It was a great starting activity because it helped us all get closer together and we were forced to listen to each other.
Then next activity was so frustrating! It was a log that was probably 12 feet long attached to a cable and slightly off balance. Like so;
The point was for us to all stand on it until it was balanced and then sing row row row your boat with out it touching the ground or any of us falling off. Well we didn't too well at this one. We didn't cooperate or listen to each other so we were given a rule that said we had to say the word banana between every word. So a sentence that would have sounded like this;
"We all need to hold on to the rope" ended up sounding like this
" We banana all banana need banana to banana hold banana on banana to banana the banana rope banana."
It just made everything worse so then we couldn't talk. It sure was an adventure eventually we got close but we didn't ever balance it sadly. There we learned about becoming close to our anchors. Anchors can be anything that we love and help us to move on or get through things. The guy who was helping us told us that for him his anchor was Recess Peanut Butter Cups. For me it is music and singing.
At this point we took a break for lunch and when we came back we were transported back to the 1940s during WWII. We were soldiers behind enemy lines and we had to climb a big wall to get to freedom. Our team leaders set a time limit for us of 25 minutes. When they said that I thought that it was WAY too short because there were 25+ people in our group and that meant that we would have to get over the wall in like 30 seconds. Without knowing what was ahead of me I was freaking out! I had done something like this before, or so I thought and I didn't want to do it again. I was picturing something like this
Instead I saw something like a log fastened between two trees about 10-12 feet off the ground. Kinda like this; (and yes I did draw this)
Nice drawing huh? I thought so too. Just kidding. So for this exercise we had to get 2 people up on top of the dark brown log who would help one person at a time get over to the other side. Everyone else had to put their hands up as like a bubble just in case something happened and someone fell off. This was one of the hardest things for me. I was shaking and then I got told to go over way before I was ready. I was SO glad that my uncle Jon who is in the class too was up on top when I went over other wise I don't think that I would have been able to do it. I would have been way more scared than I was. The best part of the whole thing was that we did it!! We got EVERYONE over in less then 25 minutes! And when you see the group picture at the end you will understand a little bit better at what an amazing accomplishment that was! After that we split in to the two smaller groups again and we did another experience. This one was by far my favorite! It was called levitation. Nothing too big, scary or difficult. Well I thought it was until I did it and then I wanted to do it all day long! What happened was someone would lay down on the ground. The rest of the group would put their hands under them count to three, lift them to about our elbow/ shoulder level, count to three, lift them up above our heads, count to three, and then slowly bring them down in a rocking motion. We did this all silently and oh my goodness it was so amazing! I WISH I would have had a camera at the moment i was up there! I started to cry just because of the shear beauty and also because I had been so tense with fear and it all just disappeared when I was up there. I had complete trust in the people holding me up and I had trust in my self.
Something a little like this, But WAY cooler!!
From this we went into our trust fall activity. Not the lame one where you lean back like a foot and someone catches you. but the one where you have a whole team lined up behind you to catch you as you fall off of a log that is high enough that your feet are even with or a little above someones elbow. So like 4 or 4 1/2 feet off the ground.
( I drew that to ;) wink wink)
At the top you would put your feet together, tighten your glutes, cross your arms. At the same time your Power 90 buddy would position the team so that you would fall just right. Then you would say ready. The team would yell Ready right back and then you would say Falling. Look up at the trees and lean straight back. (being careful not to be a butt rocket-- cause those are painful and not effective!) Once you landed the team would give one word each that they thought described you and then you, yourself would give a good word about yourself. This was POWERFUL! Seriously! It was so amazing! I literally had a team of supporters holding me up and encouraging me, telling me that I really am amazing, beautiful, nice, kind, outgoing, happy, and a winner! I couldn't help but start crying again.
From there we moved on to what would be our last activity, the Big swing!
This was AMAZING! I LOVED it SOOO much! I wish I could do it again! We had to wear a harness and get all safety suited up. Flash back to this; (Alaskan zip-line 2011)
When we got to the top we had to say what we were going to do this week to help us with our goal: AKA Momentum. There were some awesome ones! Gingers was to drive 5 new places. My friend Wendy's was to read the Book of Mormon 5 days during the week with her kids. Another guy Ryan, his was my favorite because his wife is in our group too. His was that he was going to choose peace. If he and his wife fought they couldn't make out but if they chose peace then they had a mandatory make-out session.
My experience on the swing was where I really decided to get things done. I knew before that I wanted to do it but seeing my team pull a rope to get me to the top and thinking about the amazing lesson on trust I had just heard. Knowing that I was in charge of when I fell and let myself swing. All i had to do was let go of that rope and go. Seeing the metaphor of the swing into life- Letting go of my fears and creating a little bit of momentum I could 'swing' to my goal. When I got to the top and they told me to declare my momentum I yelled at the top of my lungs " This week when I finish running I am going to celebrate like a winner!" and just as quickly, I let go of that rope that was holding me up and I flew! It was so freeing. I think I screamed a little out of fear at first because your free falling backwards for a minute before the ropes of the swing actually hold you. As I reached the back point I prepped myself to try and do a back flip but before I had to pull my superwoman pose to prove that I am super amazing and a super winner! At the end of the swing the group gathered and we talked about everything we learned and we we're informed that we wouldn't have enough time to complete the last challenge which I'm okay with. I think that it would have been good for me to do, BUT I know that I would have been REALLY REALLY scared. I mean if you had to climb up a 25+ foot tall pole and then jump off? I know it would have been really powerful but I can find power other places too that aren't quite as scary. hehe.
Well that was ropes course! I LOVED IT! I would go back in a heart beat! Before I end I just want to share a beautiful picture of my group at the end of it all.
(Back row; Derik, Jon, Tony, Rebecca, John, Mentor1&2-- can't remember names, Justin, Marline, Jamie, Mentor 3, Susan, 2nd row; Ginger, Kimberly, Wendy, Jenny, Stephanie, Me, Stephanie, Hattie, Emily, Front row; Ryan, Julie, Deborah, Stephanie, Claire, Inga, Erin, Duncan, Stewart, Terra, Esther)
We were missing a few people but I get to spend EVERY Thursday night at 8 with these fine folks. I'm so lucky! G 47 Really does Rock!
Oh yeah, Just beware that there will be many more post in the future about these guys! Just saying! :) So be prepared-- hopefully they won't be so long
