Oh hey it’s my first blog post! Reminds me of Xanga and LiveJournal in high school – and now I’ve clearly shown my age.
In any case, I thought I would do my inaugural post on one of my favorite hobbies – rock climbing – and how certain psychological tools and skills can help enhance performance out there on the crags and slabs but also in our daily lives.
That’s me (#Instafilter) out at Pinnacles national park getting ready to start my climb. Climbing is definitely a physical game, as you need to develop enough strength and flexibility to complete certain moves, but there is also a huge mental piece to it as well. In fact, there’s a lot more going on in my head in this picture than can easily be seen:
- Mindfulness
Mindfulness is becoming more and more popular, which I think is great because the practice has amazing benefits for cognitive functioning, stress reduction, and even improving relationships and increasing compassion (Weare, K. (2012). Evidence for the impact of mindfulness on children and young people. The Mindfulness in Schools Project in association with Mood Disorders Centre.)
So how does mindfulness relate to climbing? Well, let’s go back to the picture:
In the picture, I am touching the rock and paying attention to how it feels underneath my fingers. I am observing the texture of the rock. I am noticing the warmth of the sun and the soft breeze on my skin. I am also noticing a sense of anxiety and also excitement about what I am about to do – upon further inspection, I observe that this feeling of anxiety is centered in the pit of my stomach.
In essence, I am trying to get my mind and my body on the same page, in the moment, in the present, in order to focus myself on the task at hand. When we allow ourselves to be mindless, the mind often wanders off into a world of its own – for example, I notice I sometimes start imagining what might happen if I get stuck up on the wall, or think about the possibility that a bolt will come flying out and I’ll just be splat on the floor. And then I start thinking about who’s going to take care of my dog when I’m dead, and how sad it’d be to imagine him waiting for me to come home but not being able to process that I’m gone foreverrrr…
…and okay we can stop that train of thought there. Truthfully, those thoughts actually do have valid points, but they often aren’t helpful to think about (as those thoughts above would only make me more anxious and less focused on the climb itself). What mindfulness does is give us just enough distance from our thoughts and emotions so that we can look at them from a more thoughtful/intentional and less reactive state, which can be helpful while out on the rocks, interacting with coworkers and friends, or doing our work at our jobs — put simply, cultivating a mindfulness practice throughout the day helps us practice letting go of unhelpful thoughts and remain present, and it all starts with just noticing and observing our thoughts, emotions, and the physical sensations of our body. I often hear people say that “I don’t have time to practice mindfulness” – sure it’s hard to find 5 minutes to stop and just breathe, but don’t we all have a spare second to just stop and look at what’s around us at any given moment?
I have some other mindfulness tips in the free resources section if you’d like to check it out, but I would also highly recommend “Peace is Every Step” by Thich Nhat Hanh as it beautifully outlines how mindfulness does not need to be through meditation – it happens simply paying attention.
- ‘Conquering’ Anxiety and Fear
Sometimes I like to describe anxiety as “the creeper.” Sometimes it just sneaks up on us like a slithery snake and it sinks its teeth into us, causing us to feel the venom of uneasiness, worry, tension, restlessness, and thoughts that seem to be so fast and so negative that they make us feel out of control. Or sometimes anxiety hits us like a huge avalanche and leaves us feeling overwhelmed and in a state of panic or fear. Either way, it is a very distressing and uncomfortable emotion that most people would do everything they could possibly do to avoid.
Of course, who wouldn’t? Speaking frankly, anxiety sucks, so of course we try to resist, distract, or run away from the feeling. However, oftentimes that’s exactly what allows anxiety to persist.
Remember the “Boo” from the Super Mario games? If you aren’t familiar with these guys, they are these enemies in the video games that only come after you when you’re turned away, and if you face them, they stop moving. They are also invulnerable, so we can’t defeat them and make them go away either. And they also serve as a really good analogy for our emotions.
When emotions come up, they’re there for a reason. Of course you feel anxious about a big test tomorrow – you care about doing well on your test and so there’s naturally pressure on you to do well. The thing is, this stress can actually serve the purpose of getting you active and alert enough to go study and do whatever else you need to do to succeed.
However, let’s say we just can’t accept the fact that we’re experiencing anxiety in any way, shape, or form. So maybe we start distracting ourselves from the anxiety by watching TV, playing a video game, whatever – or we resist the feeling internally by trying to will it away, saying to the anxiety “go away” or “you shouldn’t be here.” Or we try to pretend it isn’t there. Well, now we’ve just spent all this time and energy trying to make our anxiety go away, and we haven’t been able to study because our focus is on making the anxiety go away, and so now we have even less time to study and that’s stressing us out even more. An avalanche.
Hence the practice of acceptance – or the practices of non-reactiveness, the tolerance of distress, the understanding that emotions are valuable information, and the allowing of emotions to run their course, rather than burning all of our resources up by resisting, fighting, or running away. This can be hard to do, and it’s an active and continuous process that should not be confused with “giving up” – I’d highly recommend “Radical Acceptance” by Tara Brach as a great resource to start learning more about the value of acceptance in our lives.
So how does all of this apply to rock climbing?
- Overgripping
When we feel anxious or scared, we tend to tense up. This is extremely important in the sport of rock climbing, because when we place our hand on a hold, it’s equally important to not overgrip as it is to have a firm hold set. When we overgrip, we burn our forearms way more than is needed, and we tire ourselves out much, much quicker.
- Managing Anxiety
Rock climbing is scary. I’ve been climbing for awhile now but I still get twinges of anxiety and fear, especially on new routes or if I haven’t been climbing in awhile. But of course I do – it’s a normal, natural human response to being up really, really high! However, if unchecked, the anxiety and fear can cause a climber to freeze, tense up, and basically freak the F out.
What can be helpful in managing anxiety and fear is teaching myself that anxiety does not have to consume me, as long as I am willing to let myself experience them by practicing acceptance.
In this rock climbing example, I can help myself recognize the function of the emotion – the anxiety and fear are telling me that I need to be careful, and that’s not a bad message. Message received – I’ll make sure my toe holds are solid; I’ll double check that my hand placements are thoughtful, solid, and deliberate; I will go at a pace that feels comfortable for me; I will stop when I need to take a break and recenter or rest; and I will do my best to make sure my breath is slow and steady *oh hey nice segue into the next section!*
- Breathing
I used to also practice kung fu, and my teachers’ biggest frustration with me was how much I would hold my breath during forms. I was so focused on the moves at hand and landing a flip that I would forget to breathe. The thing is, your breath is what gives you power and fuel to move – and so I would often tire my body out much quicker and have to stop more frequently. In addition, breathing helps you activate the “calm” side of your nervous system, which helps with managing the anxiety and fearfulness that can cause a person to freeze – not a good thing when you’re up high on the rocks. This video from Planet Granite does a great job of explaining this:
- The Importance of Rest
I hear this a lot from people – “I’m tired, but it’s even more important for me to be productive and succeed/do well/provide for my family/etc. so it’s worth it.”
And I used to lift weights, I remember thinking to myself – “Oh man, I missed my Tuesday workout, I need to make up for it by adding another workout or going even harder during my next session.”
And then I tried applying that to rock climbing.
I ended up injuring my middle finger, which has taken a very long time to recover, and I found myself feeling frustrated at myself, my body, and pressured to have to find other ways to make sure I didn’t lose momentum in my training regimen. However, at some point I realized – is this even fun anymore?
We constantly hear from others that we need to be doing more, being more productive, adding more into our lives so that we can be satisfied. But then that just adds pressure into our lives, complicates things that could have been much simpler, and creates anxiety where there wasn’t anxiety before. And we put ourselves in a position to hurt ourselves, either physically (being more likely to incur injuries) or emotionally (burnout).
And that’s how I learned the importance of rest.
On the rocks, one of the most important and valuable skills you can learn is how to rest – how to find a spot where you can stop with minimal effort and shake out your arms, give your legs a break, slow your breath, collect and center your thoughts, and simply rest.
Off the rocks, one of the most important and valuable skills you can learn while training to rock climb is how to rest – how to know when your body is telling you that it’s just too much, how to notice when you’re forcing yourself to the gym rather than enjoying it, and how to be okay with (rather than be in a constant state of dissatisfaction with) where you’re at.
Outside of rock climbing, one of the most important and valuable skills you can learn is to accept where you are – not that you should give up your ambitions, but rather allow yourself to follow your own pace within your own limits – and take care of yourself when you absolutely need to. It’s not about being selfish – it’s about self-care – those brochures on planes always tell you to put your mask on first before helping others, because we need to make sure we’re okay before we can help those we care about.
Alrighty – that was a mighty long post – thanks for checking out my blog and I’ll do my best to not ramble on so long in the future 🙂
TL;DR – the lessons are be mindful, face your emotions, rest when needed, and they all apply to rock climbing but also life! 😀