I came to a surf camp to learn to surf to learn about
balance. The past season at Mountain Trek had opened up new doors of
opportunity for me besides guiding and teaching. I had new projects and was
eager and excited to dedicate time and energy to them. They occupied my days
off, my evening hours, I was on the computer for hours at a time writing,
responding to emails, and researching. I loved it. However, by the end of the
season, I didn’t feel right. I had become so focused on work I had created
little time for anything else. I was starting to feel “stressed”. I knew I was
in a state of imbalance. I could
relate what our guests are experiencing when they arrive to MT, when their work
world overtakes them and they lose perspective.
In a similar vein to the nutrition tenets we teach, “it’s
not what we eat too much of but what we eat too little of”, I realized I could
apply this principle to my life. What was I getting too little of? (I certainly
knew what I was getting too much of). I decided to take a giant step back from
my life to determine what “balance” meant to me, what it would look like and
more importantly, feel like. I
booked a flight to Nicaragua, found myself at surf camp on the Pacific coast.
What initially surprised, actually shocked me was my
response to being totally dialed out. I had chosen this particular camp
precisely for the lack of communication it provided, no internet service and no
cell service. I needed to pull the plug from the constant intravenous drip of
the internet which participated in creating my sense of imbalance. Once again,
I found myself reflecting upon our guests and how we suggest they refrain from
using their cell phones and computers to fully experience complete and absolute
decompression from their lives. I couldn’t sleep for two nights as I was
consumed by thoughts of work, my emails, where I could get an Internet
connection? the internal dialogue was endless. It was more challenging than I
thought even though I was on a holiday, I couldn’t shake the thoughts of work.
Perhaps, I had swung the pendulum too far, it was too shocking to me. Or maybe I was experiencing my own form
of detox.
So I turned my attention to the ocean and to surfing. Out on
the ocean with the surf crashing around me, I struggled to find my balance on
the surfboard. I was uneasy on it
and any quick movement found me in the water. As I slowly progressed from belly surfing with the board to
numerous attempts at standing up (some successful and some not so successful),
it became all about balance for me. If I couldn’t find and more importantly,
feel, balance on the board, I wouldn’t be able to surf. It became an ah hah moment for me. I
realized that I would have to seek out balance in my life, even wrestle for it
like when I’m on the board and the waves are determined to knock me off. It
won’t just happen without some effort on my part to create it. Life will
continue to crash around me creating all sorts of waves and it’s up to me to
create the balance I desire.
