3 Practices to Sustain Longevity and Love in Climbing & Life
Sustainability is a word we use a lot at ClimbWell. It’s an essential quality we bring in to support and preserve the love of the things we do, the relationships we have and the experiences we cultivate on and off the rock. When it comes to balance and longevity in rock climbing, sustainability shows up in infinite ways when we ask:
How do we manage our energy on a route?
Do we find balance between projecting and rest?
Do we practice discernment and recognize the point of diminishing return in our efforts?
How do we tend to love and longevity of the sport?
Do we honor the recovery process post injury?
These are a few questions that can sustain our relationship to climbing, and the joy that it brings.
Dedicated balance affects all aspects of life.
When we are in a healthy or right relationship with the various parts of our life it feeds the whole. When we slow down, we can start to notice the interconnectedness of our actions, choices, thoughts and behaviors.
Have you ever wrapped up a mentally exhausting work week only to find that your focus on the rock is waning in energy? Perhaps you’ve been entirely consumed by a relational conflict that steals your attention on a climb? Or anxiety has hijacked your mind and suddenly fear is pervasive in your rock climbing experience? Whether we recognize it (and accept it) or not, these parts of our lives are microcosms or metaphors for other parts. And when we experience something in one area, we are likely to sense its tug on other areas. Conversely, when we flex a muscle in one part or strengthen a practice - let’s say mindfulness - it translates into our work, our relationships, our climbing and more.
So how can we invite more sustainability in our lives?
Sustainability, much like balance, requires attention and micro-adjustment to maintain. How can we preserve the play, the joy and the energy to fuel longevity in the things we love?
Here are 3 principles to support sustainability in life and in rock climbing.
Remember, how you explore these three principles will vary from person to person, as we all have a unique web of responsibilities, personalities and needs.
1. Simplify
In a modern world where the implicit ethos of “excess, insatiability and more” underlies the foundation our society is built on, it can be easy to accrue more than we need. Questions to help guide where you can simply in life include:
What can you minimize, release or let go? What are you holding onto that is too heavy to carry? (Mentally, emotionally and physically.)
Where are you doing too much? Where is there excess in your life?
What are your energy drains? Where are you feeling burn out?
Where can you practice saying no?
What are your attention leaks?
Where can you do less in your life?
Where can you create space in your schedule?
Simplifying on the rock can look like: reigning in your attention to focus on one thing such as your breath, a personal mantra or affirmation, the sensation of the rock… all as ways to concentrate the content of the mind. It can be a deliberate shift to focus on one project versus several. It may look like dedication to one modality to deepen in mastery, or the conversely it can be the act of diversifying the climbing styles so as not to exhaust or get burnt out on one type. Simplifying can also show up in having a clean crag, less clutter of the physical space, or even choosing a quieter, less crowded spot to climb so as to free up attention for the movement and joy over distraction.
2. Discern.
To live simply requires we practice discernment. Discernment is the art of refining awareness around needs versus wants, musts versus shoulds, someone else’s projected expectations versus your own deep desires. It is the clarifying and recognizing of pursuing desire met with necessary willpower. It can be the act of making an uncomfortable choice that inevitably yields good despite desire to avoid. Discernment is what helps us parse through the good and ‘bad’ that can be hidden or disguised. An example from Buddhism is the practice of recognizing ‘near enemies’ which describes the subtle distinction between qualities such as the difference between equanimity versus indifference or appreciative joy versus pride.
Discernment on the rock can look like: learning how to read a route, navigating the field of vision from precision to periphery, deciding whether a fall is safe or not, making calculated assessments to problem solve in the backcountry, choosing when and where to rest on a climb, or how to manage your energy up a route. Discernment helps us recognize when to challenge oneself and when to surrender, or when a rest day can offer more strength than another training day.
3. Challenge your beliefs.
To cultivate discernment requires that we challenge our beliefs. Rather than accept a belief as fact, we question whether they are true. A long held belief does not need to dictate one’s reality unless we choose to feed it. In order to challenge our beliefs we need to first identify what is the core belief (hint: they often fall in the categories of helplessness, unlovability, or unworthiness). We can also start to identify limiting beliefs by paying attention to negative or unproductive thought patterns around our emotions, our perceived strengths / weaknesses, and relationships.
Challenging your beliefs on the wall looks like: noticing your self-talk and inner narrative, recognizing if you are tying your worth to your climbing performance, or creating meaning out of fear or failure. It is identifying when the mind says “I’m going to fall, I can’t do the move, if I fall I fail, if I can’t climb 5.10 I’m not a climber…” or whatever wild story the mind tells as it often will. All lot can happen when we simply notice the thought patterns that hold us back.
These are three of many practices one can integrate to cultivate a more sustainable life. We chat about sustainability, balance on and off the rock, and energy management at our retreats and clinics and invite you to join us for a deep dive on these topics!
Written by Gaby Colletta | www.gabycolletta.com | @wanderingvayu