Arno Ilgner's Blog, page 5

Gravity and Movement

What’s the main difference between climbing and skiing?

How each sport uses gravity. Movement is created differently in the two sports. When skiers commit to skiing down a slope, movement is created by the pull of gravity. Their intention is to balance their bodies over their skies and use the pull of gravity to create movement. Climbing goes against gravity. When climbers commit to climbing, gravity pulls them down and stops movement. Climbers need to climb in a way that creates movement. They do this by being intentional about how they choose to move. 

We have a block of movement exercises that help students move intentionally. They learn how to create movement that allows them to trust their bodies and diminish mental interference. Achieving this requires them to work with gravity differently than skiers do. 

Movement is not about stacking a bunch of individual moves together. Movement is created by allowing our bodies to flow through the individual moves, connecting them. We need to achieve two objectives to create movement: trust the body and diminish mental interference. 

Trusting the body

Trusting the body means we tap into its innate knowledge of movement. The body knows how to be in balance. Even when we’re in strange climbing positions, the body will direct us toward hand- and footholds so we can be in balance. We discussed this in the last lesson where we followed how the eyes directed us. We used the first hold our eyes saw.

The second objective is diminishing mental interference. The mind needs time to think. If we make individual moves, then the mind has a lot of time to think about each one. We make a move, stop and think about the next move, and then make the next move. This causes us to stop and go frequently, interrupting movement. To diminish thinking we climb continuously. Doing this changes the situation more rapidly, making it difficult for the mind to latch onto any one move, create doubt, and interfere with movement. 

“Continuous” however doesn’t mean speed. The goal is to change the situation more rapidly. So, making small steps works better to create continuous climbing than climbing faster. The goal is to move the body so it remains in process. Making small steps and climbing a little faster than usual is enough to keep the body in process. The mind needs time to analyze the situation, which it does if we stay in static positions. By changing the situation more rapidly, we don’t give the mind an opportunity to latch onto any one static position. 

Commitment and momentum

Recently I taught this exercise at Sand Rock, Alabama, to students from a local university. They were beginners, lacking confidence. The upper part of the rock was overhanging. The students doubted their ability to climb through it. By having them commit to climbing continuously, almost all of the students were able to climb through the overhang. Some of their techniques were terrible, using more energy than necessary or high-stepping. But we weren’t interested in perfect technique. What I wanted them to learn was experiencing what it feels like to commit to climbing when the mind told them otherwise. They could learn better techniques on another day.

Continuous climbing is a powerful exercise for mental training because it pushes students through doubts that hold them within their comfort zones. Only by finding ways to continue taking action, when the mind wants to quit, do we realize more of what’s possible for us. 

An object at rest has a tendency to stay at rest; an object in motion has a tendency to stay in motion. When we climb, we need to stay in motion to create momentum. We create momentum by climbing continuously. By doing something as simple as climbing continuously we trust the body to climb and diminish mental interference. Movement isn’t created by aligning with the pull of gravity, like in skiing. Movement is created by intending to climb a little faster and making small steps. 

Practice Tip: Continuous Climbing

Most climbers climb too slowly. The purpose of climbing continuously is to create movement. Movement is more than individual moves added together. The individual moves should flow one into the next.

Move continuously between stances. Move a little faster than usual, but keep the emphasis on continuous movement rather than speed.

Questions Answered About Early Development of The Warrior’s Way

https://warriorsway.com/questions-ans...

My colleagues at Rock/Creek Outfitters invited me to participate in their Day Fire Podcast recently. A lot of questions came up about how I was influenced early on by others and early development of The Warrior’s Way®. Below are some questions that were answered on the podcast. Enjoy the listen: 

How was I inspired to begin climbing?
How did I manage fear early on? 
What guided my interest in doing first ascents? 
Who inspired me when I started climbing in the 1970s? 
How did I educate myself on using protection, belaying, and risk-taking prior to all the training books? 
How did I deal with my fear to do those bold routes on Whitesides? 
How did I arrive at the decision to begin teaching about mental training? 
What is our responsibility for creating a career? Who are we responsible for; who are we responsible to? 
How many students did I have during the first year of teaching? 
What are the foundational principles of The Warrior’s Way®? 
How do these foundational principles fit into the three-phases of risk-taking? 
What is situational awareness and what situations do we need to be aware of?
What is the foundational thing we want students to learn in the Falling & Commitment clinic? 
Why do our climbing partners say “You’ve got it?” and what are the possible negative consequences of saying that? 
How does honesty impact mental training and appropriate risk-taking? 
What kind of structure can you use to guide your partner to support you as you need to be supported? 
How do I discipline myself to write regularly? Do I write when my spirit moves me or daily at 9am? 
What first ascent am I most proud of? 
Day Fire podcast likes to end the podcast with a story. I like pithy Zen stories so I shared one and tied it into what it means to have a warrior mindset. 

Being intentional with how we choose to use our attention

Trust and Diminish

Climbing consists of stopping at rest stances and moving between them. We need to think with the mind at stopping points; we need to trust the body to move when climbing between them. One of the most difficult times to stay mentally focused is during stressful climbing when we need to trust the body. How do we trust the body and diminish mental interference? We’re intentional with how we choose to use our attention.

We begin by understanding the importance of shifting attention between the mind and the body. We use attention differently when we think with the mind, as opposed to when we take action with the body. Therefore, committing attention to thinking or doing, mind or body—not splitting attention between them—is important.

For example, we teach a block of movement exercises to develop trust in the body and awareness of the mind’s interference. The intention for these exercises is to tap into the body’s innate knowledge for moving. If the mind is thinking when we move, it will interfere with the natural movements of the body. Attention will be split between the mind and body, diminishing the body’s commitment to action. 

Following the Eyes

The first movement exercise is called “Follow the Eyes.” Our eyes shift up and down automatically as we climb, to grab and step on holds. We instruct students to grab/step on the first hold their eyes see, instead of “shopping” for holds. The first hold their eyes see indicates the hold the body wants to use. The second, third… hold the eyes see, indicates the mind’s desire for a bigger hold.

We have students do the exercise on toprope to eliminate the falling consequence. This diminishes fear of falling and helps them commit to doing the exercise as intended. However, the students’ minds still interfere with the intention for the exercise. Even though we instruct them to grab/step on the first hold, they still tend to “shop” for bigger holds if the first hold is small. This “shopping” tendency happens primarily for handholds rather than footholds. Initially, they think the intention for the exercise is to use the first hold their eyes see, only if it helps them climb and not fall. To them, it doesn’t make sense to grab a small hold when a larger one is close by.

As instructors, we clarify the intention for students. The intention isn’t to climb and not fall; it’s to develop awareness of how the mind interferes with the body. Students learn how to clarify the intention in several ways. 

Clarify motivation
Distracted attention
Experiential knowing

First, we expect students to begin with a tendency toward desiring immediate improvement. We shift their motivation toward valuing learning as we progress through the four movement exercises. This shift can’t be made intellectually alone; it has to include the experience of doing the exercises. 

For example, we begin making this shift in the debrief for the first movement exercise: “Follow the Eyes.” The debrief includes the intellectual understanding students had prior to the exercise, the experience of doing the exercise, and the synthesis of the two as we field their observations and questions. Students become aware of how the body directed them to grab and what actions they actually executed. Did they grab the first hold their eyes saw or did they allow the mind to look for bigger holds? Why didn’t they use the first hold? After all, they were on toprope where the fall consequence was eliminated? The body looked at the first hold for a very specific reason. That reason is the body's innate need for balance. Becoming aware of how the body directs us helps us trust it.

Second, the mind distracts attention from the present moment. For example, when students see that the first hold is small, the mind judges it. The hold is still in the future before the hand grabs it. The connection between the hand and the hold occurs in the present moment, when the hand grabs the hold and uses it. 

When they execute the action of grabbing the hold they usually find that they don’t fall. The body automatically adjusts its balance so the hold can be utilized. Using smaller holds also expands the mind’s experiential knowledge of what holds are usable. Students miss learning opportunities by allowing the mind to distract their attention. 

Third, we know something when we experience it, not before. Students learn the importance of experiential knowing, rather than simply intellectualizing about what’s possible. We only have intellectual knowledge prior to actually grabbing a hold. Grabbing the hold is the experience. The hold will either be usable, allowing us to climb, or it won’t, causing us to fall. We know the usability of the hold based on that experience, not the mind’s intellectual thinking beforehand.

Detach from the Mind

Clarifying our motivation, becoming aware of distracted attention, and the value of experiential knowing gives us a solid foundation for working with the mind. These are important discoveries and insights into mental training. These realizations help students develop an appropriate relationship with the mind, knowing that it gives us incomplete information before we experience an event. This knowledge helps us detach from the limiting ways of the mind, question it, rather than believe everything the mind tells us.

Intention is powerful. It’s defined as “attention focused in the direction of a choice.” We choose to focus our attention on trusting the body when we move. By becoming aware of the mind’s interference, we improve our ability to trust the body. We don’t let the mind interfere with how we choose to focus our attention. We learn to commit our attention completely to the body when we move. 

Practice Tip: Follow the Eyes

This exercise is described in The Rock Warrior’s Way and Espresso Lessons books. Set up a moderate route on toprope. Set the intention: As you climb, grab/step on the first hold your eyes see. No second-guessing. 

Evaluate your effort after you climb. Did you use the first hold or did you “shop” for a bigger one? Did you fall or not? What mental interference did you become aware of? These insights help you develop awareness of mental interference and build trust in the body.

A Healthy Perspective on Practice

Helpful Perspective

I’m rereading Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. I’m finding it refreshing in many ways. Suzuki has a helpful perspective on practice that I think aligns with The Warrior’s Way® method. He says:

“After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.” (page 46) 

I draw out many important points from this.

First, progress truly is in small steps, so it’s helpful to embrace that. I like the metaphor of getting wet. Go out into a rainstorm and you know you’re wet. But, go out into a fog, and keep walking, and you will eventually get wet. You’ll need to stay in the fog for quite a long time to get wet though. It’s similar with regards to practice. It’ll take quite a long time to master climbing, to get wet through and through with it, so that you embody the practice. 

Second, since it does take a long time to master something, you should enjoy the little steps you take. The best mindset for this is to do the practice for its own sake. This mindset will help maintain your motivation, to take those small steps, to continue walking. 

Third, Suzuki points out in the first sentence that you won’t make rapid, extraordinary progress. There’s a concept in Zen that puts this into a helpful perspective: seek the extraordinary in the ordinary. We can find something extraordinary in the ordinary small steps we take as we walk through the fog getting saturated over time. Seeking the extraordinary in the ordinary helps us value the practice and the small steps for their own sake. It also helps us find joy today as we walk, taking those small steps. 

Mastering Skills

Practice truly is a long journey. There’s no need to rush it. Actually, there’s no way to rush it. Mastering any skill will unfold over time, as we put in the effort. Thus, Suzuki says “...there is no need to worry about progress. Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.” Well said Suzuki!

The Power of Silence

Workaholic

I’m a workaholic. I’ve been known for getting up at 3am, commuting an hour to my job, and working until 9pm, day after day. That’s not healthy. I don’t work like that anymore, but I did when I worked in my father’s industrial tool business. Why would I work like that? Necessity was part of the reason. We were entrepreneurs, so the responsibility for completing the work rested on our shoulders. But, working a schedule like that, year after year, points toward misaligned motivations beyond necessity. Perhaps I was lost in busyness instead of doing intentional work?

The seventeen-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal said: “All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.” The mind’s motivations can create miseries in our lives. It can equate busyness with work. By learning how to sit quietly, and be silent, we can observe the mind. From such observations, we can move beyond misery and enjoy our lives more. 

Motivation

We can tend to be motivated by busyness. It gives us a sense of being alive. We’re active and moving. External busyness can indicate an internal busy state of mind. Our attention shifts into the mind, where it gets lost in thought, and a desire to talk and express what we’re thinking. Both thinking and talking create a loud mental environment.

Two motivations make up our mental environment: a desire to be challenged (to work) and a desire to be comfortable (to rest). Both motivations are important. Therefore, our motivations need to complement each other rather than compete against each other. Busyness tends to motivate anxious competition between stress and comfort; intentionality tends to balance them in a complementary manner. 

Achievement-oriented

Being busy can give us the means to achieve goals. Such achievements can give us a sense of self worth. But, since our motivations are in competition, our attention gets distracted. Our attention tends to shift toward a desire for comfort when we’re busy. Then, when we’re comfortable, we desire busyness so we can achieve again. We get caught in a self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety, lost in the prison of the mind’s loud, competitive environment. 

So, how do we change this achievement-oriented busyness tendency? We change our orientation. The busyness orientation tends to be a map-to-territory way to interact with life. We live in the mind’s maps of life, inside a loud mental environment, and project those maps onto the territory of the external world.

Shifting Attention

To break out of this mental prison requires a shift in our orientation. We begin with the territory and then shift to our mental maps. Doing this requires the application of silence. We “sit in a quiet room alone” as Pascal suggests. We do this by focusing our attention on the territory. Our attention is engaged in our senses instead of the thinking mind. We can notice the mind’s intrusions better from this perspective. 

With a territory-to-map orientation our attention is committed better to whatever task we’re doing. When we’re working, we commit to work and stop desiring a future time when we’re comfortable. Rather, we seek comfort while in the midst of stress by relaxing into it, and commit 100% of our attention to working. Then, when it’s time to rest and be in our comfort zones, we stop desiring work. Rather, we don’t check email or do work; we relax into comfort, committing 100% of our attention to rest.  

It’s easier to understand such concepts intellectually, than it is to live them. But, this is what we need to do. We all have long “to do” lists. Intellectually we know we’ll never get it all done, that we’ll tend to be anxious while in stress, and that we’ll associate worth with achievement. We live these concepts to shift intellectual knowing to experiential knowing.

So how do we do that? I’ve included hints earlier. We change our orientation to silence. We observe the mind, focus our attention in the mind on thinking and talking, and redirect it to the territory. Shifting our attention into the territory quiets the mind, allowing us to be more aware. From that space of awareness, we decide which task we’re doing and commit full attention to it. If we catch our attention shifting to comfort when we’re working, or vice versa, then we redirect it to the task. By cycling in a timely manner between work and rest we bring balance to our lives and reduce anxiety.

Silence helps us live our lives in the territory of the world instead of being lost in the mind.

The loud, inner dialogue diminishes, which allows us to observe the mind at more subtle levels. We’re not lost in a loud mind that’s incessantly thinking and talking. We focus our attention on the territory of the world and observe with silence. Doing this helps us find our way out of our miserable mental prison of busyness, creating more intentionality in our lives. 

Practice Tip: Why do you do what you do?

Assess the motivation behind your busyness:

Do you desire comfort when you’re working? Example: are you thinking of a comfortable weekend when you’re in the midst of work?  
Do you desire work when you’re resting? Example: do you work on the weekends when you should be resting?

These questions can give you insight into your motivation. Now, apply silence to experience them. Stop thinking and talking. Choose to work or rest and commit to it. Then cycle in a timely manner to its opposite. 

The Downside of Hero Worship

Heroes on Pedastals

Why is it that we put elite athletes on pedestals and worship them as heroes? This can create perceptions that they are perfect people without flaws when, in reality, they have flaws like the rest of us.

I’ve done this with some of the background of the Free Mind program we teach. Case in point: 

The earliest sources for the concept of having a free mind, which means a mind that lets us use our attention effectively, came from the seventeenth century. The samurai tradition and Zen Buddhism in Japan was nearing its height. 

Zen is Cool, Right?

Here are two examples. The first is the Zen master Takuan Sōhō and his book The Unfettered Mind. The second is the sword master and teacher Yagyū Munenori and his book The Life-Giving Sword. Don’t get me wrong; these are great books. I learned a lot about having a mind that was free from grasping for comfort or rejecting stress, one that could stay present for the current challenge. But, the subtle (or maybe not so subtle) connection I made between Takuan and Munenori was Zen. Everybody thinks Zen is cool, right? I assumed it was Zen teachings that helped Munenori be a better sword master. In reality, Takuan was simply Munenori’s Zen master who taught him how to use his mind more effectively. 

Enter Barbara O’Brien and her book The Circle of the Way. Her book is a concise history of Zen. Seeking historical facts clears the air. In it, she tells the story of Zen and how messy its evolution has been. This includes, you guessed it, the association between Takuan and Munenori. What Takuan was doing was helping Munenori get better at killing people. Now I know that’s a broad stroke. Munenori, to his credit, did teach about the “life-giving” sword. Meaning, he wanted to use violence as a last resort. 

Still, how I thought of their association misrepresented Zen teachings. Sure, zazen meditation can make us focus and concentrate on tasks better, even tasks like killing people in war. Barbara asks “...what does Buddhism teach about war? The first precept tells us to avoid taking life, period; it doesn’t list conditions.” And that’s a bit of a broad stroke too. Zen Buddhism is much more nuanced than that. But the point is made and I’m guilty of it. 

The mind can take us on a journey that makes false associations, creating a fictitious reality to live in… one that can also influence others adversely. Barbara points out that Zen was militarized by some Japanese Zen masters in World War II. “Zen teachers used the teaching of emptiness to justify slaughter, saying that no one would be killed…this perversion of the teachings goes back at least to the seventeenth century, where we saw it in Takuan’s treatise for the shogun’s sword master (Munenori).” Ouch, got me. So, I was doing a bit of hero worship with Takuan and Munenori. Barbara helped me get them off the pedestals I put them on. 

So what’s the lesson?

It’s great to respect others and their expertise. But don’t worship them or put them on a pedestal. Bring them down to earth and find out the facts of who they are or were. What you’ll find, as I did, is that they are human like the rest of us, rife with flaws just like us. And why wouldn’t it be that way? We all have flaws because we’re on our own learning journey. The flaws give us the opportunity to learn and grow. Hero worship can cloud taking ownership of our own flaws. Seeing heroes as humans with flaws helps us get into our own muddy trenches and do the hard work of self-learning. 

When we can do this kind of work, our attention isn’t dwelling on false realities or heroes on pedestals. We see the facts more clearly. And from that, we can act more decisively with our attention. Then we’re on the road toward a mind that is more free. 

A Free Mind

Flowing Freely

Mental fitness requires using the mind so our attention flows freely from present moment to present moment, as the situation dictates. If the mind abides on its expectations and desires, then it interferes with our ability to perceive the actual situation and deal with it effectively. Therefore, we don’t let the mind abide on these. A mind-state that doesn’t abide in limiting ways is known as having a free mind. It’s unencumbered by mental attachment to expectations or desired outcomes that interfere with effective use of our attention. 

I experienced an abiding mind last month while climbing Wish I Was Trad (5.11) at Castle Rock, Tennessee. It’s a one-pitch sport route. I’d climbed through the lower difficult part and was positioned at a rest stance two meters below the last bolt. My arms were pumped and I had difficulty recovering my strength. My mind thought about how difficult the climbing would be in such a physically tired state and that I wouldn’t find an easy clipping stance at the next bolt. I climbed three moves toward the bolt using some small holds, became pumped, and down-climbed back to the stance. My mind wasn’t free; it was abiding on an expectation of difficulty. 

Maps & Territories

We can understand how to develop a free mind by investigating the relationship between maps and territories. Maps constitute our mental conceptions of situations; territories constitute reality, the actual situation. Maps are mental conceptions of real territories. 

If we approach challenges with a map-to-territory orientation, then we begin with our mental map and project it onto the real territory. We seek to validate the territory to our mental map of it. Consider how limiting this is in the context of a rock climb. We’re tired, thinking the climbing will be difficult or impossible for us, and then project that mental state onto the rock, which could be quite doable. The mind abides on mental expectations of difficulty, diminishing our ability to focus our attention effectively. 

We reverse this process to improve our mental fitness. We approach challenges with a territory-to-map orientation. We look into the territory first, create our mental maps based on what we perceive, and modify our maps as we engage the territory. On a rock climb, we identify features first: features that create a path-of-least-resistance between us and the next rest stance. Next, we create mental maps based on what we perceive: we blend our past experiences with what we perceived in the territory. Finally, we climb and modify our maps based on what we discover as we engage the territory. The mind doesn’t abide on any mental expectations of difficulty. Our attention flows freely between the necessary tasks that occur in the moment.

Intentional Process

An on-sight climbing situation is a helpful example of how this process works. The Warrior’s Way® breaks the climbing process into two parts: stop to think with the mind, or move to take action with the body. We use a specific process for thinking, looking into the territory first, to gather objective information. Next, we create our mental maps based on that objective information. Finally, we use a specific process for taking action, so we can stay receptive to modify our maps to the territories we discover. 

Reflecting on my effort on Wish I Was Trad, I realized I had allowed my mind to predetermine how difficult the climbing would be. I had adopted a map-to-territory orientation, starting with my mind’s mental maps of how difficult the climbing would be based on my tired state. I decided to reverse this. 

I looked into the territory, the route, first. I focused my attention on thinking, to identify the path-of-least-resistance to the next bolt. I saw the small holds I had used previously, plus some new footholds to the left. These footholds created a different path for climbing. I also acknowledged this was an on-sight situation, so I would need to modify my mental map to whatever I discovered when I climbed into the territory. 

Next, I set an intention for how to focus my attention while climbing. If I kept my attention in the mind, then it would abide on whatever it perceived as difficult. Rather, I focused my attention in the body, on breathing, staying relaxed, and modifying my plan based on what I discovered. I used the initial small holds, stepped left to use the newly discovered footholds and climbed up to the bolt. I discovered a hidden vertical crack next to the bolt. It was a solid finger jam, making it easy to stop and clip the bolt. By keeping my attention in the body, I was able to let my attention flow freely, through the territory of the climb, to utilize new foot- and handholds that I discovered.

We do something specific to maintain a territory-to-map orientation. When we think, we focus our attention on gathering objective information by looking into the territory first. Next, we allow our attention to shift into the mind, to blend our past experiences with what we perceived in the territory. Finally, we shift our attention into the body when we climb. Doing this frees the mind from attachment to its expectations and desires, and allows our attention to flow freely from task to task as the situation dictates.

Practice Tip: There is no Spoon

Your mind will misperceive difficulty and interfere with your climbing effort. It will focus your attention in your mind first, creating a mental map of difficulty that doesn’t accurately represent the territory of the climb.

Rather, when you’re at a stance: 

Look up into the territory to identify the next bolt and the features that lead all the way to it. 
Next, develop a map, a plan for climbing, based on your past experience and what you perceived by looking into the territory.
Finally, take action, climb into the territory, modifying your map as needed by what you discover in the territory of the climb.

How the Climbing Metaphor Guides Our New Year’s Resolutions

The shift from the previous year into the new year creates a convenient break to evaluate our lives and create inspiring New Year’s resolutions to direct them in more meaningful directions. Setting goals is an important part of this process. Goals give us direction for our efforts so that we can contrast our lives–from the beginning to the end of the year–to demonstrate whether or not we’ve grown. At the same time, we shouldn’t lose sight of enjoying the journey, the learning that leads to growth, each day of the year. 

The climbing metaphor gives structure to this process. It includes three parts: goals, motivation, and work. Each helps us put our New Year’s resolutions into a helpful context. 

Goals

First, let’s look at goals. There are two general types of goals that can guide us: self-actualization and transcendence. These come from Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” pyramid. These two goals sit at the top of the pyramid. So let’s look at them to examine how they help guide our New Year’s resolutions. 

What is self-actualization? We actualize our potential—we turn our potential into a reality. Self-actualization is like Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey; a solitary venture. We focus narrowly on goals that we’ve identified as personally meaningful. A fundamental shift in being the hero of our journey is welcoming stress as learning opportunities. Welcoming stress shifts our attention to where it needs to be to learn. 

What is transcendence? We transcend ourselves, creating new potential in the process. This is like Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey; a collaborative venture. We expand our focus through relationships. The fundamental shift here is we focus on how to view ourselves in relationships instead of as an individual self. Note that the Hero and Heroine’s journeys are not gender dependent. We take both journeys in our lives. 

Both self-actualization and transcendence don’t have a final end state. We can always learn to actualize more of our potential and have deeper understanding as we transcend ourselves in relationships. Thus, these goals are more like directions that move us toward stress so we can learn and grow. Moving steadily in the direction of our goals helps us stick to our New Year’s resolutions. We are the hero that engages stress to seek to learn more about ourselves. We are the heroine that engages in relationships to seek to understand ourselves beyond our individual needs. 

Motivation

Second, let’s look at motivation. At a basic level, motivation needs to move us toward engagement of the stress that we’ll encounter as we work toward our goals. This is central to being warriors: we move toward stressors. At the same time, we seek the easiest way to do this. 

We maintain our motivation by holding our New Year’s resolutions in our awareness and do the work that moves us steadily toward them. 

Work

Third is work. We relate to work in ways that honor it. We don’t do work because it’s good for us or because we have to do it to achieve our goals. That would distract us from enjoying the journey. We do the work for its own sake. Valuing work this way shifts our attention toward wanting to be in the stressful learning experiences. That helps us enjoy our journey as we move toward our New Year’s resolutions. 

A big part of valuing work is our ability to pay attention. Warriors pay attention to work as if it’s their last battle on earth. They give full attention to whatever they’re doing, even the mundane tasks. Warriors know they could die at any moment so they pay full attention to the moment they’re currently living. 

Warriors also expect the unexpected and trust in how life unfolds. We can’t know how learning situations will unfold because we’re in the process of learning about them. Unexpected things will occur, which we honor as necessary for our unfolding journey. Trusting how life unfolds–as we self-actualize our potential and transcend ourselves–demonstrates we’re motivated by valuing work. 

The three elements of the climbing metaphor integrate to help us achieve our inspiring New Year’s resolutions. Our goals give us direction throughout the year for the kind of life we want to create. We’re motivated to seek the easiest way to move in that direction. We honor the work by doing it for its own sake. Together, the three elements create a structure that guides our process toward something meaningful and helps us enjoy our journey along the way. 

Practice tip: A Morning Ritual for New Year’s Resolutions

Apply the climbing metaphor this year by having a morning ritual to set the tone for each day. When you wake up, go outside and tune into the world. Then reflect on the elements of the metaphor: 

Goals: be inspired to grow through the activities you engage in. 
Be the hero this year by actualizing your potential. All you need to do is honor stressors that inevitably occur. For example, rain, disagreements, or unexpected outcomes are stressful and opportunities for learning. 
Be the heroine by transcending yourself. Practice viewing your life as relational. In everything you do, note all the relationships involved to make it happen. For example, rain is related to nourishing the land; disagreements are related to differing views; or unexpected outcomes are related to preconceived ideas you have that conflict with how reality unfolds. 
Motivation: You must want to live as a warrior, to move toward stressors willingly. Move through rain, disagreements, or unexpected outcomes by holding your New Year’s resolutions in your awareness while you find the easiest way to do the work. 
Work: Finally, you do the work for its own sake, not because it’s good for you or because it’ll help you achieve your goals. The important point is knowing where it’s most effective to have your attention focused. Seeing work as a means to an end devalues it. Let the goals guide you and let the work bring joy into your life each day. Process yourself through the work with joy as you deal with rain, work through disagreements, or adapt to unexpected outcomes. 

Cold Mental Training

Cold Showers

I’ve recently started taking cold showers; one minute at the end of my shower experience. I mentioned this during a conversation with friends recently; they wondered what the benefit was for doing this. Taking a cold shower is quite uncomfortable. Why would I do something like that?

According to research, cold showers have physiological benefits such as improving circulation, speeding muscle recovery, and stimulating weight loss. But, they also have mental benefits, which is what we’re interested in here. Cold showers increase alertness, improve emotional resilience, and reduce stress.

Benefits

One of the biggest mental training benefits, however, is observing the mind’s mental chatter. I notice my mind saying things like, “It’s wintertime so let’s not take a cold shower today.” Or, “I’m short on time today so let’s forget about the cold shower.” 

These are great opportunities to develop the Witness, that part of us that is separate from the thinking mind. We can observe the mind squirm prior to a stressful experience. We take a step back to the Witness and observe the mind make excuses. Then, we do it anyway. 

A Step Further

But, we don’t stop there; we take it a step further. For example, before I turn the hot water to cold water, I check in with my mind. I typically observe the mind bracing itself, and my body tensing. My mind thinks about getting it over with. This approach devalues the mental benefits. Rather, before taking action—turning on the cold water—I set an intention: I choose to focus my attention on breathing, relaxing, and enjoying it. Then I turn on the cold water. I feel it pour over me and relish the invigorating feeling it provides. It makes me feel alive.

We do the same witnessing of the mind in climbing. We observe the mental chatter and excuses prior to beginning a route. We notice the mind’s desire to escape the stress and get on the route anyway. We set an intention for how we choose to focus our attention: on The Warrior’s Way® processes. Then, we engage. We focus on breathing, relaxing and enjoying it.

Enjoying the stress is an important part of mental training. We may succeed in pushing the mind into stressful experiences, but the mind will rebel once it’s there, distracting our attention. We keep attention in the moment by our desire to be in stress. Doing that improves our ability to deal with stress. Something that is stressful—cold showers or climbing—ends up reducing our stress. 

Practice Tip: Take Cold Showers

Seek the mental benefits for taking cold showers. Commit to taking a one-minute cold shower at the end of your usual shower experience. Then, observe the mind:

Notice and identify the mind’s thoughts before you get into the shower.
Notice and identify the mind’s thoughts before you turn the water from hot to cold.

Finally, engage the cold shower with a willingness to experience it. Breathe, relax, and enjoy it.

When you finish, you’ll feel vigor in the body and a heightened state of alertness in the mind.

The Ethics of Attention

I was recently on the Mindful Wealth podcast. The hosts, Terrie Schauer and Jonathan DeYoe, operate a business to bring mindfulness to activities like real estate investing. Mindfulness points us to finding more intrinsic reasons for creating wealth. This is what we explore in this podcast. 

Additionally, Terrie brought up an interesting idea of the ethics associated with mental training. We could use our enhanced skills with attention to manipulate others to our benefit. How do we prevent that from happening? I explain that it has a lot to do with the illusion of separateness. Listen to get the full details. 

Other topics discussed include: 

What does warrior training look like? 
Why is training awareness and attention so important?
Why is it important to cycle out of action to regroup and then recommit?
Why is honesty important for seeing reality clearly?
What is true wealth?

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