When the impossible becomes possible

🇬🇧A few years ago, one day my boyfriend invited me to go climbing. 

I practiced already yoga and meditation. 

Having a little fear of hight, I was not sure to be able to take up the challenge.

Nevertheless, I decided to try.

We booked a half day of climbing outdoors with a  teacher within an exceptional setting, we were 3 students and the motivation was with us.

After the explanations and the recommendations of security, I am connected by a rope of my harness to my belayer and I started to climb the cliff. 

The more I advanced, the more I got tired, the more the hight starts to play with my mind, but I continued, I used my breath not to let myself invade by fear of hight. I arrived finally at the top of the climb, which is about 30 meter of the ground and from there I went down. 

Happy to arrive safely on the ground with on one hand the feeling of relief and on the other hand the desire of going back. 

After several climbs as so-called seconding,  a few months later I was ready to take the next step to lead climbing.

The feeling of freedom is present.

Since a few years, I practice climbing with periods   on and off and it’s always a new challenge to restart.

Some days I can climb in more committed ways and some days I have the feeling to start again from the beginning… … it can be frustrating, to have the feeling of no improvement…. It’s like that, to accept that today is different from other day and to work on apprehensions, on fears, to find force and capacity in order to appreciate this moment of climbs because even if that requires intense effort, the goal is to enjoy climbing,  each wall is a new challenge according to our mind, which perhaps can be sometimes calm or sometimes agitated.

One day I started to climb and could not even lift my leg and just hanging with my arm, so climbing will not happen…. I was frozen of fear.

Then I ask my partner to lower me, I start to be angry to myself to not be able to climb an easy road I had already climbed in the past. Then I accepted it,  and set up my mind: I can do it!!!! and after practiced few breathing I went again. My climbing was totally different, more confidence, and the ability to do all the road I planned this day. 

When I’m concentrated and present, I will finish my climb with a feeling of lightness, without a concept of time, or fear. 

I’m calm,  perhaps in a state of meditation. 

That makes me think of this translation of Gerard Blitz sutra of Patanjali “sthirasukham” “Asana: to be firmly established in a happy space”.

The days of climbing are always a connection with nature, one moment to share, trusting your belayer, maybe to learn a little more about oneself. Like the practice of yoga with more difficult posture, the inversions, the posture of balance or relieving (letting it go) which can say a lot about the state of mind. It’s always a new challenge according to your state of mind if we are more or less in physically good condition, this is why the practice of yoga and meditation helps me to climb and maintain health, to exceed the fears created with the difficulties of being afraid for hights, falls and getting injured.

When concentration and breathing are present in the difficult moments then the impossible becomes possible.

I thanks my instructor Pon and my boyfriend for introducing me to climbing.

I wish you a beautiful discovery of overcoming your fear. 

Ingrid

In the next news later I will talk about how you can set your mind and practice breathing to be able to swim in cold water