“Driving a motorcycle is like flying. All your senses are alive. Being House is like flying, too. He’s free of the gravity of what people think.”
Hugh Laurie

I love this quote but House was wrong! Driving a motorcycle is nothing like true flying. I have experienced them both and I have to tell you flying is so much better! Indeed both activities do wake all your senses up and make you feel alive but unaided flying puts a totally new spin on the whole concept of feeling alive!

The team at Alive! the multi-vitamin and mineral range from Nature’s Way invited me to try indoor skydiving. At first I had no fear at all, all I felt was excitement but once I actually booked the experience the fear started to crawl into my head… I was scared… a fear of the unknown took over… there wasn’t really any logical reason for it… it is not like I was about to launch myself from an aeroplane and hurtle towards the earth… I was about to fly upwards in a sealed tube with a safety net below me… what could possibly go wrong? Yet there it is, I was still afraid.

On the day of my “wanna be a bird” experience I even developed a “pseudo” twisted ankle. At the end of the day, I couldn’t go flying if I am unable to walk, could I? Mark wasn’t having any of it and put me straight and the fear volume subsided….a bit.

We drove to the wind tunnel, I got changed, I took part in the briefing, I practiced the perfect free-fall position on the dusty floor in a room full of strangers, I fastened on my goggles and helmet and I was ready! Let the fun begin… but it still wasn’t fun… I was scared again, really scared… knees unable to hold me up steady scared again, standing in that extremely noisy, unbelievably windy doorway awaiting my turn… my heart was pounding, the beads of sweat forming, cotton mouth, eyes wide… and then my name popped at the top of the list… the next flyer was me… there was no escape I was required to be ready… I was ready!

I entered the tunnel, I immediately put myself into the basic skydiving position and I was up… and then down… and up again. It was truly amazing! I’ve never experience anything like it. I thought long and hard on how to describe the sensation but I simply can’t find the words to convey the moment. The feeling of freedom, weightlessness and total surrender to the elements can’t be described with words, they have to be experienced!

I can only imagine how wonderful the real skydiving must be. Who knows maybe one day I will experience it too.

In the grand scheme of adrenalin thrills, indoor skydiving is a fairly cheap one, for just under £40 you can have a true “time of your life”, but if you really want to feel alive why not try real skydiving?

There are a lot of companies out there like Into The Blue offering all sorts of thrills. Yes, they might not be so budget friendly but I bet they are worth every penny! I have started a piggybank just for this next level of fun.

Have you ever had the chance to fly unaided?

What do you do to feel truly alive?

*This is a collaborative post.