Arno Ilgner's Blog, page 6
December 6, 2021
More or Less
Onsight
In 2014 I visited Puerto Rico to teach and climb. My Puerto Rican friends took me to Cayey, a basalt crag inland, for a day of climbing. They showed me a traditional route called Head to Toe and said it was 5.10c. Well, that’s what I thought they said. The route followed a crack and finished with some face climbing. So, I collected my gear and began.
The route had several resting stances where I could place protection and scan the next section. I identified the features to use for climbing and made a plan at these stances. The climbing was difficult, but I was able to climb through each section to arrive at the next rest stance. Finally, I reached the anchors and lowered to the ground. My friends were happy for me, saying “You on-sighted a 5.11d.”
Grade Determination
A common mental training problem is making a route mentally harder than it really is. We let the grade of the route determine how difficult the climbing will be for us. We think it’ll be difficult when we climb routes above our limit. Or, we think it’ll be easy when we climb routes below our limit.
Either of these ways of thinking distracts attention from climbing the actual route. We’re climbing an image in the mind instead of the rock in front of us. Doing this creates expectations of difficulty, or ease, that interfere with our climbing.
Circumventing Stress
We can see the benefit of thinking we’re climbing an easier grade, as in my experience on Head to Toe. We trick ourselves—or someone else tricks us—into having a more relaxed mind when climbing. Thinking that I was climbing a 5.10c relaxed my mind so I could focus better. Tricks such as this, however, circumvent stress to achieve short-term ends. There’s benefit in facing the stress of knowing the actual difficulty grade we’re climbing. Be aware of such mind tricks and bring attention back to the actual situation to see it as clearly as possible.
Conversely, we can see the limitations of thinking we’re climbing a harder grade. We make the climb more difficult than it actually is. We fear the rating instead of focusing on real parts of the climbing situation, such as the type of holds, falls, and protection.
Seeing
We need clarity and objectivity. We see beyond the mental image in the mind—whether it’s an image of difficulty or ease—so we can see the various parts of the route. We describe these parts objectively so we don’t make the climb “more or less” than it actually is. We describe the stances for protection, fall consequences, and climbing possibilities objectively. Then we stay curious to utilize whatever the route offers to climb it. Doing this helps us stay objective and see more clearly.
Mental tricks and tactics circumvent stress. Mental training addresses such mental tricks and eliminates them. Stress must be faced directly in order to learn. Facing stress and working through it, builds a solid foundation for engaging new, more stressful learning situations. Don’t make the route harder or easier than it really is. See the route as it is and then engage the stress with full awareness.
Practice Tip: Focus on Possibilities
If you don’t know the difficulty grade of a route, then you’re forced to focus on possibilities for climbing. Your attention won’t be on how hard or easy the climbing will be; it’ll be on actions to take for climbing.
Go to a climbing area that has routes unknown to you. Don’t take a guidebook. Seek routes that look interesting and select ones based on the fall consequence rather than the difficulty. Make sure you have experience with such consequences. Then, focus on possibilities as you climb the routes. Later you can look in the guidebook to check the difficulty rating. You may be amazed what you can climb by focusing on possibilities instead of the grade.
In 2014 I visited Puerto Rico to teach and climb. My Puerto Rican friends took me to Cayey, a basalt crag inland, for a day of climbing. They showed me a traditional route called Head to Toe and said it was 5.10c. Well, that’s what I thought they said. The route followed a crack and finished with some face climbing. So, I collected my gear and began.
The route had several resting stances where I could place protection and scan the next section. I identified the features to use for climbing and made a plan at these stances. The climbing was difficult, but I was able to climb through each section to arrive at the next rest stance. Finally, I reached the anchors and lowered to the ground. My friends were happy for me, saying “You on-sighted a 5.11d.”
Grade Determination
A common mental training problem is making a route mentally harder than it really is. We let the grade of the route determine how difficult the climbing will be for us. We think it’ll be difficult when we climb routes above our limit. Or, we think it’ll be easy when we climb routes below our limit.
Either of these ways of thinking distracts attention from climbing the actual route. We’re climbing an image in the mind instead of the rock in front of us. Doing this creates expectations of difficulty, or ease, that interfere with our climbing.
Circumventing Stress
We can see the benefit of thinking we’re climbing an easier grade, as in my experience on Head to Toe. We trick ourselves—or someone else tricks us—into having a more relaxed mind when climbing. Thinking that I was climbing a 5.10c relaxed my mind so I could focus better. Tricks such as this, however, circumvent stress to achieve short-term ends. There’s benefit in facing the stress of knowing the actual difficulty grade we’re climbing. Be aware of such mind tricks and bring attention back to the actual situation to see it as clearly as possible.
Conversely, we can see the limitations of thinking we’re climbing a harder grade. We make the climb more difficult than it actually is. We fear the rating instead of focusing on real parts of the climbing situation, such as the type of holds, falls, and protection.
Seeing
We need clarity and objectivity. We see beyond the mental image in the mind—whether it’s an image of difficulty or ease—so we can see the various parts of the route. We describe these parts objectively so we don’t make the climb “more or less” than it actually is. We describe the stances for protection, fall consequences, and climbing possibilities objectively. Then we stay curious to utilize whatever the route offers to climb it. Doing this helps us stay objective and see more clearly.
Mental tricks and tactics circumvent stress. Mental training addresses such mental tricks and eliminates them. Stress must be faced directly in order to learn. Facing stress and working through it, builds a solid foundation for engaging new, more stressful learning situations. Don’t make the route harder or easier than it really is. See the route as it is and then engage the stress with full awareness.
Practice Tip: Focus on Possibilities
If you don’t know the difficulty grade of a route, then you’re forced to focus on possibilities for climbing. Your attention won’t be on how hard or easy the climbing will be; it’ll be on actions to take for climbing.
Go to a climbing area that has routes unknown to you. Don’t take a guidebook. Seek routes that look interesting and select ones based on the fall consequence rather than the difficulty. Make sure you have experience with such consequences. Then, focus on possibilities as you climb the routes. Later you can look in the guidebook to check the difficulty rating. You may be amazed what you can climb by focusing on possibilities instead of the grade.
November 29, 2021
What’s the Opposite of Knowledge?
Ignorance & Knowledge
We tend to think ignorance is the opposite of knowledge. But is that really true? We can explore this via Pico Iyer’s TED Talk The Beauty of What You’ll Never Know.
Iyer professes that he now feels he knows far less than he thought he knew three decades ago. Okay, three decades is a long time. Do we really lose knowledge as we pursue knowledge? Or is something else going on here?
We gain a curious insight about knowledge as we age: that the more we know, the more we see how little we know. Is there power in such a perspective? Socrates would say so. Proclaimed the wisest man in Athens by the Oracle of Delphi, he responded that he’s only the wisest to the degree that he knows that he doesn’t know. So, why could that be true and more powerful than knowing?
Iyer says that when we plunge into new environments we also have the opportunity to take an internal journey into ourselves. We venture into uncertainty, ambiguity and fear. Everywhere in life we’re reminded that the nature of reality is that it’s largely unknown.
Knowledge helps us grow, but at some point, it loses its usefulness.
For example, moments in life when you fall in love, but don’t know why. Or, a friend dies and you don’t know how to put it into perspective for living your life. Or, you have an argument with your partner and you don’t know what they mean because they just don’t make sense. Such events take us into ourselves, out of what we “know,” to where we can find out more of who we really are.
Ignorance isn’t bliss and science gives us a lot of knowledge. These are two aspects of the same continuum. Increase knowledge and ignorance diminishes. The opposite of knowledge isn’t ignorance, it’s mystery, that which either hasn’t been discovered yet or can’t be discovered no matter how much we parse it apart.
Readiness to Surrender
Things we don’t know expand us more than the things we know. They connect us with a wider world. It’s through that connection that we can know ourselves as part of something larger, as part of an inextricable whole. Knowledge parses reality into parts; mystery moves us toward experiencing an integrated whole. We give up trying to know everything and allow ourselves to just be present.
Honoring mystery is thwarted by the way our mind thinks. After 60 years of studying human behavior, Daniel Kahneman concluded that we are much more confident in what we think we know than we should be. We have an unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. Think about that. How do we create world peace? What is the best way to raise children? How do we improve climbing performance?
What actually gives us reassurance is being able to say “I don’t know.” Iyer says “You’re only as strong as your readiness to surrender.” It’s in surrendering what we think we know that we can begin knowing anything new. Saying “I don’t know” softens our knowledge defenses and lets new light shine through. That can let in the mystery without having to feel certain of what it means. We can surrender to the mystery and simply enjoy being in it. Then we can integrate into the world to get ideas on creating world peace, better ways for raising children, or how to improve climbing performance.
Look around you. Isn’t it a mysterious world that fills you with wonder? One parting thought: Knowledge is a priceless gift; but the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.
Practice tip: “I Don’t Know.”
How many times can you say “I don’t know” today? Experiment with not sharing your opinion and simply saying “I don’t know.” You can follow up with “Tell me more.” Then ask more questions. Pretty soon you’ll realize you know less than you thought you did and maybe the other person in the conversation will too.
We tend to think ignorance is the opposite of knowledge. But is that really true? We can explore this via Pico Iyer’s TED Talk The Beauty of What You’ll Never Know.
Iyer professes that he now feels he knows far less than he thought he knew three decades ago. Okay, three decades is a long time. Do we really lose knowledge as we pursue knowledge? Or is something else going on here?
We gain a curious insight about knowledge as we age: that the more we know, the more we see how little we know. Is there power in such a perspective? Socrates would say so. Proclaimed the wisest man in Athens by the Oracle of Delphi, he responded that he’s only the wisest to the degree that he knows that he doesn’t know. So, why could that be true and more powerful than knowing?
Iyer says that when we plunge into new environments we also have the opportunity to take an internal journey into ourselves. We venture into uncertainty, ambiguity and fear. Everywhere in life we’re reminded that the nature of reality is that it’s largely unknown.
Knowledge helps us grow, but at some point, it loses its usefulness.
For example, moments in life when you fall in love, but don’t know why. Or, a friend dies and you don’t know how to put it into perspective for living your life. Or, you have an argument with your partner and you don’t know what they mean because they just don’t make sense. Such events take us into ourselves, out of what we “know,” to where we can find out more of who we really are.
Ignorance isn’t bliss and science gives us a lot of knowledge. These are two aspects of the same continuum. Increase knowledge and ignorance diminishes. The opposite of knowledge isn’t ignorance, it’s mystery, that which either hasn’t been discovered yet or can’t be discovered no matter how much we parse it apart.
Readiness to Surrender
Things we don’t know expand us more than the things we know. They connect us with a wider world. It’s through that connection that we can know ourselves as part of something larger, as part of an inextricable whole. Knowledge parses reality into parts; mystery moves us toward experiencing an integrated whole. We give up trying to know everything and allow ourselves to just be present.
Honoring mystery is thwarted by the way our mind thinks. After 60 years of studying human behavior, Daniel Kahneman concluded that we are much more confident in what we think we know than we should be. We have an unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance. Think about that. How do we create world peace? What is the best way to raise children? How do we improve climbing performance?
What actually gives us reassurance is being able to say “I don’t know.” Iyer says “You’re only as strong as your readiness to surrender.” It’s in surrendering what we think we know that we can begin knowing anything new. Saying “I don’t know” softens our knowledge defenses and lets new light shine through. That can let in the mystery without having to feel certain of what it means. We can surrender to the mystery and simply enjoy being in it. Then we can integrate into the world to get ideas on creating world peace, better ways for raising children, or how to improve climbing performance.
Look around you. Isn’t it a mysterious world that fills you with wonder? One parting thought: Knowledge is a priceless gift; but the illusion of knowledge can be more dangerous than ignorance.
Practice tip: “I Don’t Know.”
How many times can you say “I don’t know” today? Experiment with not sharing your opinion and simply saying “I don’t know.” You can follow up with “Tell me more.” Then ask more questions. Pretty soon you’ll realize you know less than you thought you did and maybe the other person in the conversation will too.
November 22, 2021
Focus on What You Love About What You Hate
Having A Bad Day
A few years ago I was teaching a student (I’ll call him Richard) at Tennessee Wall, near Chattanooga. Richard wanted to work on improving his mental focus while leading. I set up Multiple Use Area with a back-up toprope, a traditional 5.9 route. Richard climbed well, but fell at the crux, climbing straight up, instead of diagonally left along the natural line of the route. After resting, he finished the route and came down. His expression told me everything: he was disappointed. So I asked him, “Why are you disappointed?” He said he was having a bad day.
He was having a bad day because he didn’t achieve the end goal, or perform as he desired. I said: “Do you think learning comes cheap? It takes effort. There’s something you still need to learn. What is it?” That made him aware that he was being motivated too much by the end result; he became curious about what he needed to learn.
We think we’re having a bad day when we don't perform as we desire. We begin to hate our lives and climbing. When we analyze the situation we see that something is lacking: learning. The strategy we use to deal with disappointment—having a bad day—is focusing on what we love about what we hate.
Love & Hate
What do we love about what we hate? We could love that we are climbing on our project; that we gave our best effort; that we learned more about the route; that climbing is challenging, not easy. We can love that climbing offers ways to learn more about ourselves. If we focus on hating it, then we aren’t focused on what we need to learn. If we focus on loving it, then we’re curious, and the learning occurs naturally. Focusing on what we love helps us learn quicker, which leads us to achieve our goals quicker.
Regardless of our attitude—loving or hating what we do—we are in the experience. We’ll be spending time one way or another as we live that experience. We have a choice: to spend that time loving what we do or hating it. If we bring awareness to the situation, then we’ll realize that we’d prefer to love what we do, rather than hate it. We realize we actually do need to learn something. Then we can focus on what we need to learn.
Redirect Towards Learning
I talked with Richard about what he needed to learn. He had climbed through the crux without stopping to think beforehand. He needed to stop and think to prepare. Doing that would have helped him identify where his next protection placement would be, which would determine the direction he needed to climb: diagonally left, not straight up. If he would have stopped to think, then he would have climbed differently.
Reminding ourselves to focus on what we love about what we hate redirects our attention to learning. Focusing on what we love, reminds us why we’re there. The challenge the climb provides is the raw material for creating us as climbers and human beings. We shouldn’t hate that. We should love it. We’re not having a bad day; we’re having a good day. We can love the challenge.
Practice Tip: Shift Hate to Love
Mental training requires developing self awareness. Notice when you feel disappointed, discouraged…hating life. Shift hate to love.
The situation you’re facing is challenging. What’s making it challenging? What do you love about challenges? Remind yourself that life is challenging and it’s through challenges that you learn and grow. Now, take a small step in the direction of engaging it. Focus on what you love about what you hate.
A few years ago I was teaching a student (I’ll call him Richard) at Tennessee Wall, near Chattanooga. Richard wanted to work on improving his mental focus while leading. I set up Multiple Use Area with a back-up toprope, a traditional 5.9 route. Richard climbed well, but fell at the crux, climbing straight up, instead of diagonally left along the natural line of the route. After resting, he finished the route and came down. His expression told me everything: he was disappointed. So I asked him, “Why are you disappointed?” He said he was having a bad day.
He was having a bad day because he didn’t achieve the end goal, or perform as he desired. I said: “Do you think learning comes cheap? It takes effort. There’s something you still need to learn. What is it?” That made him aware that he was being motivated too much by the end result; he became curious about what he needed to learn.
We think we’re having a bad day when we don't perform as we desire. We begin to hate our lives and climbing. When we analyze the situation we see that something is lacking: learning. The strategy we use to deal with disappointment—having a bad day—is focusing on what we love about what we hate.
Love & Hate
What do we love about what we hate? We could love that we are climbing on our project; that we gave our best effort; that we learned more about the route; that climbing is challenging, not easy. We can love that climbing offers ways to learn more about ourselves. If we focus on hating it, then we aren’t focused on what we need to learn. If we focus on loving it, then we’re curious, and the learning occurs naturally. Focusing on what we love helps us learn quicker, which leads us to achieve our goals quicker.
Regardless of our attitude—loving or hating what we do—we are in the experience. We’ll be spending time one way or another as we live that experience. We have a choice: to spend that time loving what we do or hating it. If we bring awareness to the situation, then we’ll realize that we’d prefer to love what we do, rather than hate it. We realize we actually do need to learn something. Then we can focus on what we need to learn.
Redirect Towards Learning
I talked with Richard about what he needed to learn. He had climbed through the crux without stopping to think beforehand. He needed to stop and think to prepare. Doing that would have helped him identify where his next protection placement would be, which would determine the direction he needed to climb: diagonally left, not straight up. If he would have stopped to think, then he would have climbed differently.
Reminding ourselves to focus on what we love about what we hate redirects our attention to learning. Focusing on what we love, reminds us why we’re there. The challenge the climb provides is the raw material for creating us as climbers and human beings. We shouldn’t hate that. We should love it. We’re not having a bad day; we’re having a good day. We can love the challenge.
Practice Tip: Shift Hate to Love
Mental training requires developing self awareness. Notice when you feel disappointed, discouraged…hating life. Shift hate to love.
The situation you’re facing is challenging. What’s making it challenging? What do you love about challenges? Remind yourself that life is challenging and it’s through challenges that you learn and grow. Now, take a small step in the direction of engaging it. Focus on what you love about what you hate.
November 15, 2021
Interview With Dynamite Starfish
Recently I did an interview with Leslie Kim at Dynamite Starfish. Below are some excerpts. Go to their Story Blog to read it in full.
Only Trad
“When I started in 1973, there was only trad climbing and the ethic was ‘the leader doesn't fall. ‘With the ‘invention’ of sport climbing, we were able to engage climbing more as performance. This meant incorporating falling into what we did. Now, performance is a big part of what it means to climb.
Climbing Evolution
“I feel my biggest contribution to this evolution of climbing is mental training. We address not only ways to incorporate falling, but also to address mental issues comprehensively. Commitment, motivation, self worth, and so much more are integral to performance. They're also integral to living meaningful lives.
Global Mental Training
“Recently I've been excited to build a team to help bring our training to the wider world. I think now, more than ever before, our world needs mental training. Our team is working with climbers, but also the general public. Viewing mental training as an important part of our training (whether climber or not) grounds our lives in ways to deal with the inevitable struggles, but also to find meaning and purpose. We want our lives to matter and The Warrior's Way® is one tool to help us do that.”
https://dynamitestarfish.com/blogs/ne...
Only Trad
“When I started in 1973, there was only trad climbing and the ethic was ‘the leader doesn't fall. ‘With the ‘invention’ of sport climbing, we were able to engage climbing more as performance. This meant incorporating falling into what we did. Now, performance is a big part of what it means to climb.
Climbing Evolution
“I feel my biggest contribution to this evolution of climbing is mental training. We address not only ways to incorporate falling, but also to address mental issues comprehensively. Commitment, motivation, self worth, and so much more are integral to performance. They're also integral to living meaningful lives.
Global Mental Training
“Recently I've been excited to build a team to help bring our training to the wider world. I think now, more than ever before, our world needs mental training. Our team is working with climbers, but also the general public. Viewing mental training as an important part of our training (whether climber or not) grounds our lives in ways to deal with the inevitable struggles, but also to find meaning and purpose. We want our lives to matter and The Warrior's Way® is one tool to help us do that.”
https://dynamitestarfish.com/blogs/ne...
November 8, 2021
Living the Dream?
Loving What We Do
I was invited to teach clinics in Australia for a climbing festival several years ago. A fellow USA climber, Timmy O’Neill, was also invited to give a presentation. We were both there because we had careers “doing what we love”: climbing. Timmy told me we were “living the dream.”
I wondered, “Was I living the dream?” I was doing what I loved: climbing and teaching mental training. Yet, I still felt anxious and not at peace. It would seem that “living the dream” would be more enjoyable and peaceful. If we’re unhappy and anxious then “doing what we love” isn’t much better than having a different career. I’ve come to realize that “living the dream” has more to do with “loving what we do” than “doing what we love.”
“Doing what we love” doesn’t address the processing of stress. It does put us into work situations that we prefer, but that’s about it. “Loving what we do” focuses our attention in the present moment so stress can be processed. We relax into the stress because we love the “doing” itself. That makes each moment more enjoyable.
Noticing Rushing & Anxious Tendencies
I felt anxious and not at peace because I was a victim to the mind’s tendency to seek comfort. I was rushing from one comfort zone to the next. I noticed that I did this in my climbing. I’d tense and my movements became rigid, when climbing through difficult sections. It’s amazing how climbing is a true reflection of how we act in the rest of our lives. Once I noticed my “rushing through stress” tendency in climbing, I began to observe it in my life. For instance, when I return from a teaching tour, there’s a lot of work to do. There’s work that I wasn’t able to do while I was away, plus work to debrief the tour. With all this work—stress—I feel anxious, until the work is finished.
Noticing these rushing and anxious tendencies develops awareness. Next, we take deliberate actions to move beyond them. In climbing, we focus on relaxing and breathing while climbing through difficult sections. In life, we focus on one task at a time. If we’re eating breakfast, then we focus on just doing that. If we’re prioritizing our daily “to do” list, then we focus on just doing that. In climbing and life, we notice the mind rush through stress. Then, we take a breath, relax, and focus on enjoying the current task.
Most of us aren’t “doing what we love.” And those that are, still have plenty of work that isn’t enjoyable. “Living the dream” means we want to experience stress. We want to be there, in the midst of it. That points toward a process, a process of “loving what we do.” If we “love what we do,” then the doing of it, no matter what our careers are, becomes more fulfilling and enjoyable. “Living the dream” means we’re living more completely in the present moment. We’re present for our lives, regardless of the particular circumstances, whether joyful and comfortable, or difficult and challenging. That dream doesn’t have to wait until we’re “doing what we love.” It’s here, now, doing whatever constitutes the present moment.
Practice Tip: Center Yourself
You’ll experience plenty of stress in climbing and life. Notice your tendency to escape the stress by rushing through it. Then, center yourself.
Take a deep breath, exhale strongly, and relax. Then, identify the current task. Focus on it. Tell yourself “Enjoy this moment.”
I was invited to teach clinics in Australia for a climbing festival several years ago. A fellow USA climber, Timmy O’Neill, was also invited to give a presentation. We were both there because we had careers “doing what we love”: climbing. Timmy told me we were “living the dream.”
I wondered, “Was I living the dream?” I was doing what I loved: climbing and teaching mental training. Yet, I still felt anxious and not at peace. It would seem that “living the dream” would be more enjoyable and peaceful. If we’re unhappy and anxious then “doing what we love” isn’t much better than having a different career. I’ve come to realize that “living the dream” has more to do with “loving what we do” than “doing what we love.”
“Doing what we love” doesn’t address the processing of stress. It does put us into work situations that we prefer, but that’s about it. “Loving what we do” focuses our attention in the present moment so stress can be processed. We relax into the stress because we love the “doing” itself. That makes each moment more enjoyable.
Noticing Rushing & Anxious Tendencies
I felt anxious and not at peace because I was a victim to the mind’s tendency to seek comfort. I was rushing from one comfort zone to the next. I noticed that I did this in my climbing. I’d tense and my movements became rigid, when climbing through difficult sections. It’s amazing how climbing is a true reflection of how we act in the rest of our lives. Once I noticed my “rushing through stress” tendency in climbing, I began to observe it in my life. For instance, when I return from a teaching tour, there’s a lot of work to do. There’s work that I wasn’t able to do while I was away, plus work to debrief the tour. With all this work—stress—I feel anxious, until the work is finished.
Noticing these rushing and anxious tendencies develops awareness. Next, we take deliberate actions to move beyond them. In climbing, we focus on relaxing and breathing while climbing through difficult sections. In life, we focus on one task at a time. If we’re eating breakfast, then we focus on just doing that. If we’re prioritizing our daily “to do” list, then we focus on just doing that. In climbing and life, we notice the mind rush through stress. Then, we take a breath, relax, and focus on enjoying the current task.
Most of us aren’t “doing what we love.” And those that are, still have plenty of work that isn’t enjoyable. “Living the dream” means we want to experience stress. We want to be there, in the midst of it. That points toward a process, a process of “loving what we do.” If we “love what we do,” then the doing of it, no matter what our careers are, becomes more fulfilling and enjoyable. “Living the dream” means we’re living more completely in the present moment. We’re present for our lives, regardless of the particular circumstances, whether joyful and comfortable, or difficult and challenging. That dream doesn’t have to wait until we’re “doing what we love.” It’s here, now, doing whatever constitutes the present moment.
Practice Tip: Center Yourself
You’ll experience plenty of stress in climbing and life. Notice your tendency to escape the stress by rushing through it. Then, center yourself.
Take a deep breath, exhale strongly, and relax. Then, identify the current task. Focus on it. Tell yourself “Enjoy this moment.”
November 1, 2021
How to be Fear Less
At least a few times a week I add another book recommendation to my book list. The list is longer than I’ll ever be able to process, even reading two hours daily. I’m either a slow reader or there are lots of great books out there. It’s probably both.
I was checking out Brené Brown’s blog and was intrigued by her latest one about Dr. Pippa Grange’s book Fear Less. No, I haven’t read it yet (but I did reserve it from the library). Brown lists three takeaways, which I’d like to dig into here.
Takeaway 1: Performance
Brown: “Instead of performing at the thing in front of us — our job, our life, our role as a parent — we humans have become performative. That was a hard swallow for me. Thinking about how in our ever-commoditized, ever-on lives, each and every moment of our days has been turned into an opportunity to ‘perform.’ So much so that we don’t even know anymore how to show up with our masks off, as our authentic selves.”
Arno: Performance has been an intriguing topic for me lately. As I get older, I get less interested in performing. I get more interested in being. I think I’ve struggled my whole life trying to be somebody. My ego has gotten the best of me over the years. That ego is like a mask that covers up my authentic self. I’m really interested in being authentic, in showing up for myself and others without the ego mask. What about you? Is your life focus “performative?”
Takeaway 2: Deeper
Brown: “Win deep, not shallow. Grange describes ‘winning shallow’ as a win that comes when we’re ‘winning to avoid not being good enough, winning to beat the other guy, winning to be seen as good enough.’ It’s winning born of comparison and scarcity and self-doubt — and it’s not tied to our worth. ‘Winning deep,' on the other hand, is ‘where you actually can feel the richness of your journey, you are attached to the joy and the struggle, you are attached to the mess, and it is generally done for reasons outside of yourself and the fulfillment of our egoic needs. It is done more from a soul level — it’s done because we can and because there’s a wild desire in it.’”
Arno: Here we can see how this point builds on the first one. Ego compares and ties its identity to outcomes. It’s performance based. We have to perform to keep up with our ego’s needs to feel validated, to feel like we’re good enough, worthwhile. I think we need to make worthiness a non-issue. Totally separate our worth from performance, outcomes, or anything else. I like to say “I exist, therefore I am.” In other words, I exist because I was born into this world. My worth is validated simply because I exist. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to continually prove it to myself and others. Do you have to prove your worth to yourself and others every day?
Takeaway 3: Outcomes
Brown: “‘If you can’t surrender, you can’t allow mystery, and if you can’t allow any mystery, you can’t open the door to soul.’ One of the recurring points in Dr. Grange’s work is that results are just an outcome — but one you can’t really control. Sure, there’s loads you can do on the way up, as Dr. Grange says, but then you have to let go. And that’s hard to do, especially when you’ve tied your self-worth to outcome.”
Arno: There are things we can control as we work toward outcomes. Foundationally, we can only control our attention, how we choose to focus it. If we can surrender to that foundational tenet, then we can relax into the mystery of life. We allow our attention to go deeper into our experience, to feel how it’s impacting us and those around us. That’s an open door I want to walk through. How about you? Do you believe you can control anything other than how you choose to focus your attention?
Soul and Love
Brown: “I’ll leave you with this final thought from Fear Less, which has really stuck with me: “It is scary to talk about soul or love in our hyper-rational, data-driven world, but I am convinced these are the missing pieces in our potential. And in fighting fear, this is the only genuine way to talk about change and becoming fearless.”
Arno: We are caught in a hamster wheel of busyness. Technology has just made the wheel turn faster. I think it’s time for us to push back against that. I see a lot of people doing this. They’re fed up with social media, work that blends into every aspect of their personal lives, and an inability to just sit and do nothing. We need to look around us to see, hear, and feel the wonder of the day. I see a beautiful blue sky right now, hear traffic and wind sounds, feel the sun’s warmth on my skin. Even as I write this, I’m not rushing through it. I’m just speaking from the silence within me and putting words to it. What about you? Are you tired of the hamster wheel? Are you ready to push back against it?
Practice tip: Deep Performance
Performance does point to outcomes you’re continually working towards that tend to keep you on the surface of experience. You rush from one performance to another, from performing as a co-worker, to a parent, to a climber. Yet, you can perform and go deeper.
The key is to slow down. You slow down to go faster. How do you like that idea? Slowing down simply means you don’t let your attention speed ahead of the experience you’re having. You allow it to go deeper into what you’re doing. Notice when your attention goes to the next task on your “to do” list while you’re still doing the current task. Then go deeper by redirecting your attention to the current task and finding the subtleties there. You’ll find some richness there.
I was checking out Brené Brown’s blog and was intrigued by her latest one about Dr. Pippa Grange’s book Fear Less. No, I haven’t read it yet (but I did reserve it from the library). Brown lists three takeaways, which I’d like to dig into here.
Takeaway 1: Performance
Brown: “Instead of performing at the thing in front of us — our job, our life, our role as a parent — we humans have become performative. That was a hard swallow for me. Thinking about how in our ever-commoditized, ever-on lives, each and every moment of our days has been turned into an opportunity to ‘perform.’ So much so that we don’t even know anymore how to show up with our masks off, as our authentic selves.”
Arno: Performance has been an intriguing topic for me lately. As I get older, I get less interested in performing. I get more interested in being. I think I’ve struggled my whole life trying to be somebody. My ego has gotten the best of me over the years. That ego is like a mask that covers up my authentic self. I’m really interested in being authentic, in showing up for myself and others without the ego mask. What about you? Is your life focus “performative?”
Takeaway 2: Deeper
Brown: “Win deep, not shallow. Grange describes ‘winning shallow’ as a win that comes when we’re ‘winning to avoid not being good enough, winning to beat the other guy, winning to be seen as good enough.’ It’s winning born of comparison and scarcity and self-doubt — and it’s not tied to our worth. ‘Winning deep,' on the other hand, is ‘where you actually can feel the richness of your journey, you are attached to the joy and the struggle, you are attached to the mess, and it is generally done for reasons outside of yourself and the fulfillment of our egoic needs. It is done more from a soul level — it’s done because we can and because there’s a wild desire in it.’”
Arno: Here we can see how this point builds on the first one. Ego compares and ties its identity to outcomes. It’s performance based. We have to perform to keep up with our ego’s needs to feel validated, to feel like we’re good enough, worthwhile. I think we need to make worthiness a non-issue. Totally separate our worth from performance, outcomes, or anything else. I like to say “I exist, therefore I am.” In other words, I exist because I was born into this world. My worth is validated simply because I exist. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to continually prove it to myself and others. Do you have to prove your worth to yourself and others every day?
Takeaway 3: Outcomes
Brown: “‘If you can’t surrender, you can’t allow mystery, and if you can’t allow any mystery, you can’t open the door to soul.’ One of the recurring points in Dr. Grange’s work is that results are just an outcome — but one you can’t really control. Sure, there’s loads you can do on the way up, as Dr. Grange says, but then you have to let go. And that’s hard to do, especially when you’ve tied your self-worth to outcome.”
Arno: There are things we can control as we work toward outcomes. Foundationally, we can only control our attention, how we choose to focus it. If we can surrender to that foundational tenet, then we can relax into the mystery of life. We allow our attention to go deeper into our experience, to feel how it’s impacting us and those around us. That’s an open door I want to walk through. How about you? Do you believe you can control anything other than how you choose to focus your attention?
Soul and Love
Brown: “I’ll leave you with this final thought from Fear Less, which has really stuck with me: “It is scary to talk about soul or love in our hyper-rational, data-driven world, but I am convinced these are the missing pieces in our potential. And in fighting fear, this is the only genuine way to talk about change and becoming fearless.”
Arno: We are caught in a hamster wheel of busyness. Technology has just made the wheel turn faster. I think it’s time for us to push back against that. I see a lot of people doing this. They’re fed up with social media, work that blends into every aspect of their personal lives, and an inability to just sit and do nothing. We need to look around us to see, hear, and feel the wonder of the day. I see a beautiful blue sky right now, hear traffic and wind sounds, feel the sun’s warmth on my skin. Even as I write this, I’m not rushing through it. I’m just speaking from the silence within me and putting words to it. What about you? Are you tired of the hamster wheel? Are you ready to push back against it?
Practice tip: Deep Performance
Performance does point to outcomes you’re continually working towards that tend to keep you on the surface of experience. You rush from one performance to another, from performing as a co-worker, to a parent, to a climber. Yet, you can perform and go deeper.
The key is to slow down. You slow down to go faster. How do you like that idea? Slowing down simply means you don’t let your attention speed ahead of the experience you’re having. You allow it to go deeper into what you’re doing. Notice when your attention goes to the next task on your “to do” list while you’re still doing the current task. Then go deeper by redirecting your attention to the current task and finding the subtleties there. You’ll find some richness there.
October 25, 2021
I Don’t Know
Zen
An important university professor went to Japan to be enlightened about Zen. The Zen master received him and served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor couldn’t believe the Zen master’s carelessness and said: “Stop, it’s over-flowing. No more will go in!” “Like this cup,” the Zen master said, “you’re full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
We tend to think we’re open to learning, but really we’re full of our own “knowledge.” We think we know, when we really don’t. One of my favorite sayings of Socrates is his response when the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed him the wisest man in Athens. Socrates said he’s only the wisest to the degree that he knows that he doesn’t know.
Socrates was considered a nuisance, always bothering people, wanting to discuss truth, love, and important topics about life. Most people wanted to be left alone to do their daily work, but Socrates would get them involved in conversations, delaying them.
Saying that he doesn’t know seems like he’s being humble. But Socrates wasn’t being humble; he was being aware. He knew the importance of keeping his cup empty and his mind open. The ego likes to say “I know” using its “knowledge” to feel important. Learning requires saying “I don’t know.”
Climbing
Take, for example, climbing movement. We initially learn to climb rocks based on how we walk and climb a ladder: moving one foot and one hand at a time. We “know” this style works until we hit a plateau. To rise above the plateau requires awareness and the willingness to say “I don’t know.” Then we’re open to letting go of the old style and experimenting with moving in new ways, such as moving two hands then two feet. We empty our cup so we can become aware of new ways of moving. We learn that it’s more efficient to move two feet, then two hands.
Even elite climbers fall victim to this “I know” tendency. Perhaps they have a natural tendency to move slowly. Climbing this way works for them. They “know” climbing slowly works because they have evidence of redpoint successes to prove it. Climbing slowly works until they hit a plateau. To rise above it requires awareness and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” Then they’re open to letting go of the old style and can experiment with climbing more quickly.
Emptying Our Cup
We empty our cup so we can become aware of new ways of climbing. Once we’ve practiced the opposite of our natural tendency, we can find balance between the two styles.
We all have a tendency to gravitate toward our comfort zones. If a climbing style “works” for us, giving us evidence of end result successes, we think we know. That “knowing” fills up our cup, closes the mind, and shuts down the learning process.
Saying “I don’t know” isn’t weak; it’s powerful. It leaves room for learning. We’re more aware of new information we can utilize, practice, and integrate into our climbing. We constantly look for emptying our cup so we’re receptive to learning.
Like Socrates, be a nuisance with the mind; don’t leave it alone. Instead of falling into unconscious routines, investigate truth, love and important topics about life. Acknowledge that we don’t know. We empty our cup to see what will flow into it.
Practice Tip: Empty Your Cup
The mind wants to verbalize its opinions to gain comfort that it knows. Next time a controversial topic comes up in a conversation, stop the mind’s desire to state its opinions.
Rather, empty your cup and ask a question. Ask, “What do you mean by…” for what was said. Continue to ask questions that cause other people to dig deeper into their own psychology; to understand why they have the opinions they have. Doing this can lead to greater awareness.
An important university professor went to Japan to be enlightened about Zen. The Zen master received him and served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor couldn’t believe the Zen master’s carelessness and said: “Stop, it’s over-flowing. No more will go in!” “Like this cup,” the Zen master said, “you’re full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
We tend to think we’re open to learning, but really we’re full of our own “knowledge.” We think we know, when we really don’t. One of my favorite sayings of Socrates is his response when the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed him the wisest man in Athens. Socrates said he’s only the wisest to the degree that he knows that he doesn’t know.
Socrates was considered a nuisance, always bothering people, wanting to discuss truth, love, and important topics about life. Most people wanted to be left alone to do their daily work, but Socrates would get them involved in conversations, delaying them.
Saying that he doesn’t know seems like he’s being humble. But Socrates wasn’t being humble; he was being aware. He knew the importance of keeping his cup empty and his mind open. The ego likes to say “I know” using its “knowledge” to feel important. Learning requires saying “I don’t know.”
Climbing
Take, for example, climbing movement. We initially learn to climb rocks based on how we walk and climb a ladder: moving one foot and one hand at a time. We “know” this style works until we hit a plateau. To rise above the plateau requires awareness and the willingness to say “I don’t know.” Then we’re open to letting go of the old style and experimenting with moving in new ways, such as moving two hands then two feet. We empty our cup so we can become aware of new ways of moving. We learn that it’s more efficient to move two feet, then two hands.
Even elite climbers fall victim to this “I know” tendency. Perhaps they have a natural tendency to move slowly. Climbing this way works for them. They “know” climbing slowly works because they have evidence of redpoint successes to prove it. Climbing slowly works until they hit a plateau. To rise above it requires awareness and a willingness to say “I don’t know.” Then they’re open to letting go of the old style and can experiment with climbing more quickly.
Emptying Our Cup
We empty our cup so we can become aware of new ways of climbing. Once we’ve practiced the opposite of our natural tendency, we can find balance between the two styles.
We all have a tendency to gravitate toward our comfort zones. If a climbing style “works” for us, giving us evidence of end result successes, we think we know. That “knowing” fills up our cup, closes the mind, and shuts down the learning process.
Saying “I don’t know” isn’t weak; it’s powerful. It leaves room for learning. We’re more aware of new information we can utilize, practice, and integrate into our climbing. We constantly look for emptying our cup so we’re receptive to learning.
Like Socrates, be a nuisance with the mind; don’t leave it alone. Instead of falling into unconscious routines, investigate truth, love and important topics about life. Acknowledge that we don’t know. We empty our cup to see what will flow into it.
Practice Tip: Empty Your Cup
The mind wants to verbalize its opinions to gain comfort that it knows. Next time a controversial topic comes up in a conversation, stop the mind’s desire to state its opinions.
Rather, empty your cup and ask a question. Ask, “What do you mean by…” for what was said. Continue to ask questions that cause other people to dig deeper into their own psychology; to understand why they have the opinions they have. Doing this can lead to greater awareness.
October 18, 2021
Mental Agility, Resiliency, and Confidence Lead To Freedom
The image of having a mind that is free of limiting habituated behaviors seems useful for applying ourselves to challenges in climbing and life. Ultimately, we need to use our mental faculties to fight with life, not against it. Let’s see how the mental qualities of agility, resilience, and confidence do this.
Our concept of freedom can be clouded.
Are we really free if we have a mind that restricts the use of our attention? If we’re slaves to habituated behaviors, then we’re really not free. Our attention is locked in a mental prison, so to speak, of our own making. True mental freedom comes from our ability to apply our attention, which is most difficult to do when we meet challenges.
The idea of fighting can be useful here.
Consider that we take on a fighting attitude when we’re thrust into a challenge. Challenges are stressful because, by definition, they’re outside our comfort zone. Thus our ability to deal with them is stretched. We’ll need to fight or we’ll succumb to the challenge. How should we fight? We have two options.
First, we can fight against challenges. We have ideas in our minds about the reality of the world. The new challenge challenges those ideas. This seems obvious. It wouldn’t be challenging unless it conflicted with our ideas. In this first option, we fight to maintain our ideas about reality. We think we know how life should unfold and we fight to maintain those ideas. In other words, we fight against challenges.
Fighting
Fighting against what’s happening seems crazy when we reflect on it.
Fighting against the reality of the challenge makes the mind rigid and tentative, and leaves it deflated after the challenge passes. It leaves us damaged. Then, we struggle to reconstruct the confidence we had about our old ideas of how life should be.
Challenges
Challenges, challenge us to expand our knowledge. We can only do this by fighting with them. This is where having a free mind is most helpful so we can create mental freedom. Our goal for true mental freedom is creating a mind that allows our attention to flow freely to the current challenge. We fight with them by applying our attention directly to them. Doing this requires mental agility, resilience, and confidence.
Challenges unfold over time. Mental agility allows our attention to move with the unfolding challenge. We’re adaptable to new information so we can incorporate it into new levels of knowledge. This is the learning process in a nutshell.
Mental Resilience
Mental resilience is about bouncing back from challenges. This “bouncing back” though isn’t just arriving back at the old status quo. We develop mental resilience because we seek value in the challenge itself. We want to learn from it. Thus, we “bounce back” with expanded knowledge.
Mental Confidence
Mental confidence builds directly from agility and resilience, which utilize attention from an internal locus of control. Confidence builds because we are directing how our attention will be applied. External challenges are the raw experience we engage, but internal processes of how we utilize our attention are the means. We know how we’ll focus our attention each time we face challenges, which gives us a familiar process to focus on and thus builds confidence.
Mental Agility
Mental agility, resilience, and confidence create a free mind, which creates true mental freedom. I think this is the kind of mind we’d all like to have. Mental training should address issues that interfere with creating such a mind.
Life is going to be challenging. You can count on it. Learning how to fight with challenges--not against them--not only makes living life more effective, it also makes it more enjoyable. When the next challenge happens to you, know that you have a choice: fighting against it or with it. Choose to fight with it and see where it takes you. A free mind frees your attention from the self-imposed mental prison and gives you true mental freedom.
Practice tip: Be Alert To Your Choice
You’ll be challenged today. Count on it. And, you’ll have a tendency to resist it, to fight against it. Know that you have a choice when this happens. You can choose to fight with the challenge. Fight with the challenge and see where it takes you.
Changing habituated behavior that fights against reality requires reminders. Put reminders at the usual places you’ll be, such as in your car, on your computer screen, and on your phone. Be creative in how you do this. These reminders need to alert you to your tendency to fight against challenges. When challenges show up, show up yourself with your attention. Decide consciously to fight with them. Then engage with curiosity and enjoy the ride.
Our concept of freedom can be clouded.
Are we really free if we have a mind that restricts the use of our attention? If we’re slaves to habituated behaviors, then we’re really not free. Our attention is locked in a mental prison, so to speak, of our own making. True mental freedom comes from our ability to apply our attention, which is most difficult to do when we meet challenges.
The idea of fighting can be useful here.
Consider that we take on a fighting attitude when we’re thrust into a challenge. Challenges are stressful because, by definition, they’re outside our comfort zone. Thus our ability to deal with them is stretched. We’ll need to fight or we’ll succumb to the challenge. How should we fight? We have two options.
First, we can fight against challenges. We have ideas in our minds about the reality of the world. The new challenge challenges those ideas. This seems obvious. It wouldn’t be challenging unless it conflicted with our ideas. In this first option, we fight to maintain our ideas about reality. We think we know how life should unfold and we fight to maintain those ideas. In other words, we fight against challenges.
Fighting
Fighting against what’s happening seems crazy when we reflect on it.
Fighting against the reality of the challenge makes the mind rigid and tentative, and leaves it deflated after the challenge passes. It leaves us damaged. Then, we struggle to reconstruct the confidence we had about our old ideas of how life should be.
Challenges
Challenges, challenge us to expand our knowledge. We can only do this by fighting with them. This is where having a free mind is most helpful so we can create mental freedom. Our goal for true mental freedom is creating a mind that allows our attention to flow freely to the current challenge. We fight with them by applying our attention directly to them. Doing this requires mental agility, resilience, and confidence.
Challenges unfold over time. Mental agility allows our attention to move with the unfolding challenge. We’re adaptable to new information so we can incorporate it into new levels of knowledge. This is the learning process in a nutshell.
Mental Resilience
Mental resilience is about bouncing back from challenges. This “bouncing back” though isn’t just arriving back at the old status quo. We develop mental resilience because we seek value in the challenge itself. We want to learn from it. Thus, we “bounce back” with expanded knowledge.
Mental Confidence
Mental confidence builds directly from agility and resilience, which utilize attention from an internal locus of control. Confidence builds because we are directing how our attention will be applied. External challenges are the raw experience we engage, but internal processes of how we utilize our attention are the means. We know how we’ll focus our attention each time we face challenges, which gives us a familiar process to focus on and thus builds confidence.
Mental Agility
Mental agility, resilience, and confidence create a free mind, which creates true mental freedom. I think this is the kind of mind we’d all like to have. Mental training should address issues that interfere with creating such a mind.
Life is going to be challenging. You can count on it. Learning how to fight with challenges--not against them--not only makes living life more effective, it also makes it more enjoyable. When the next challenge happens to you, know that you have a choice: fighting against it or with it. Choose to fight with it and see where it takes you. A free mind frees your attention from the self-imposed mental prison and gives you true mental freedom.
Practice tip: Be Alert To Your Choice
You’ll be challenged today. Count on it. And, you’ll have a tendency to resist it, to fight against it. Know that you have a choice when this happens. You can choose to fight with the challenge. Fight with the challenge and see where it takes you.
Changing habituated behavior that fights against reality requires reminders. Put reminders at the usual places you’ll be, such as in your car, on your computer screen, and on your phone. Be creative in how you do this. These reminders need to alert you to your tendency to fight against challenges. When challenges show up, show up yourself with your attention. Decide consciously to fight with them. Then engage with curiosity and enjoy the ride.
October 11, 2021
It's All Over When You Fall
A few years ago I was teaching a clinic at Earth Treks in Rockville, Maryland. As I walked through the gym, I heard conversations between climbers and belayers. One conversation caught my attention. The climber was hesitating, unwilling to commit to the next moves because she was pumped and afraid to fall. Her belayer “encouraged” her saying: “Don’t worry; it’s all over when you fall.” I thought: “No, it’s not all over; it’s just beginning.”
Thinking it’s all over when we fall is a typical misperception about falling.
Climbers think that since we’re falling through space there is nothing we can do. So, they revert to a passive mode and wait for the fall to be over. This is dangerous and positions us as victims to the external situation. It’s a matter of knowing what to focus on and what we can control.
Falling, just like climbing, is a skill.
Therefore, there are components within each skill we can control. The skill of climbing includes us, belayers and the rock. Belayers and the rock are the external components of the situation. If we focus on them, then we’re focusing our attention on what we can’t control. We can’t control what belayers will do or what features we’ll find on the rock for protection and for climbing. We can only tell belayers what we prefer for belaying style, but we can’t control them. We can control ourselves, the internal situation. When we’re climbing, we can control what we do, such as breathing, staying relaxed, thinking effectively, and climbing efficiently.
Likewise with the skill of falling. We can’t control the external situation: belayers and the fall zone. We can’t control belayers and whether they’ll give us a cushioned (soft) catch. We also can’t control obstacles within the fall zone. If we focus on them, then we’re distracting our attention in unhelpful ways, on what we can’t control. We can instruct the belayer how to give a cushioned catch. We can assess and mitigate the obstacles by placing more protection. But we can’t control the belayers or obstacles that exist within the fall zone.
Even though we’re flying through the air, we can control ourselves, the internal situation. Therefore, we focus our attention on what we can do. We focus on breathing, staying relaxed, looking down, and assuming proper falling posture. Doing this keeps us active during the fall so we can respond to whatever occurs, as well as possible.
Thinking “it’s all over when you fall” is a typical mind trick.
Developing our mental skills requires awareness. We become aware of what we think, what we say and what we do. If we approach mental training knowing that everything we do can be improved, then we stay vigilant to those mind tricks.
We may say “I hate crack climbing.” With awareness we observe that we’re equating “crack climbing” with “hate.” Then we can take the next step. We can ask, “why do I hate crack climbing?” That question, in itself, moves our thinking process toward being aware of our motivation. Crack climbing is probably stressful, so we “hate” it. Since stress is necessary for learning, we’ve allowed the mind to label something that is stressful, that we could learn from, in a negative way. If we’re unconscious, we’ll never get on crack climbs, missing a learning opportunity.
The mind is a great tool, but that’s it.
If we perceive our essence as our thinking mind, then we’ll be lost in the mind. We’ll be victims of it’s limiting tendencies. Rather, we know the mind is something that thinks for us. We utilize its intellectual abilities to think, but we observe it. We take a step back and notice when the mind thinks. We “witness” it. The Warrior’s Way® calls this the witness position. Doing this gives us options to consider.
Mental training is about beginning, always beginning. We improve day by day, but each day we begin again to observe the mind. We vigilantly observe it so we can be powerful when we climb and when we fall. It’s never over. Becoming aware is always beginning.
Practice Tip: Breathing, Eyes, Body
The only thing you can control is you. Therefore, focus your attention within you. Let’s look at falling. Falling is an action. That means you’re engaging your body. There are only three components to focus on when taking action: breathing, eyes, and body.
Focus on exhaling throughout the fall, looking down, and assuming proper falling posture: arms/legs shoulder-width apart and bent. What’s important is doing all of these components as you go into the fall, not before. Visualize sitting back into a chair. Doing this allows you to lead with our hips—your center—positioning your body and eyes effectively.
Thinking it’s all over when we fall is a typical misperception about falling.
Climbers think that since we’re falling through space there is nothing we can do. So, they revert to a passive mode and wait for the fall to be over. This is dangerous and positions us as victims to the external situation. It’s a matter of knowing what to focus on and what we can control.
Falling, just like climbing, is a skill.
Therefore, there are components within each skill we can control. The skill of climbing includes us, belayers and the rock. Belayers and the rock are the external components of the situation. If we focus on them, then we’re focusing our attention on what we can’t control. We can’t control what belayers will do or what features we’ll find on the rock for protection and for climbing. We can only tell belayers what we prefer for belaying style, but we can’t control them. We can control ourselves, the internal situation. When we’re climbing, we can control what we do, such as breathing, staying relaxed, thinking effectively, and climbing efficiently.
Likewise with the skill of falling. We can’t control the external situation: belayers and the fall zone. We can’t control belayers and whether they’ll give us a cushioned (soft) catch. We also can’t control obstacles within the fall zone. If we focus on them, then we’re distracting our attention in unhelpful ways, on what we can’t control. We can instruct the belayer how to give a cushioned catch. We can assess and mitigate the obstacles by placing more protection. But we can’t control the belayers or obstacles that exist within the fall zone.
Even though we’re flying through the air, we can control ourselves, the internal situation. Therefore, we focus our attention on what we can do. We focus on breathing, staying relaxed, looking down, and assuming proper falling posture. Doing this keeps us active during the fall so we can respond to whatever occurs, as well as possible.
Thinking “it’s all over when you fall” is a typical mind trick.
Developing our mental skills requires awareness. We become aware of what we think, what we say and what we do. If we approach mental training knowing that everything we do can be improved, then we stay vigilant to those mind tricks.
We may say “I hate crack climbing.” With awareness we observe that we’re equating “crack climbing” with “hate.” Then we can take the next step. We can ask, “why do I hate crack climbing?” That question, in itself, moves our thinking process toward being aware of our motivation. Crack climbing is probably stressful, so we “hate” it. Since stress is necessary for learning, we’ve allowed the mind to label something that is stressful, that we could learn from, in a negative way. If we’re unconscious, we’ll never get on crack climbs, missing a learning opportunity.
The mind is a great tool, but that’s it.
If we perceive our essence as our thinking mind, then we’ll be lost in the mind. We’ll be victims of it’s limiting tendencies. Rather, we know the mind is something that thinks for us. We utilize its intellectual abilities to think, but we observe it. We take a step back and notice when the mind thinks. We “witness” it. The Warrior’s Way® calls this the witness position. Doing this gives us options to consider.
Mental training is about beginning, always beginning. We improve day by day, but each day we begin again to observe the mind. We vigilantly observe it so we can be powerful when we climb and when we fall. It’s never over. Becoming aware is always beginning.
Practice Tip: Breathing, Eyes, Body
The only thing you can control is you. Therefore, focus your attention within you. Let’s look at falling. Falling is an action. That means you’re engaging your body. There are only three components to focus on when taking action: breathing, eyes, and body.
Focus on exhaling throughout the fall, looking down, and assuming proper falling posture: arms/legs shoulder-width apart and bent. What’s important is doing all of these components as you go into the fall, not before. Visualize sitting back into a chair. Doing this allows you to lead with our hips—your center—positioning your body and eyes effectively.
October 4, 2021
What Kind of Mind Do We Want to Create?
Mental training trains the mind. That’s simple enough. Yet, how we approach the training matters a lot. We need to understand the goal we want to achieve and the process we’ll follow to achieve it. There are many approaches to mental training. Let me share how The Warrior’s Way® approaches mental training and contrast it a bit with other approaches.
Falling and Commitment
Most of you are familiar with our core offering: the Falling and Commitment clinic. In it we teach you tangible tools for focusing your attention. There are many tasks, yet only five processes for focusing attention. That’s simple, especially because we teach you exactly what to focus your attention on for each process. By practicing this, you improve your ability to keep attention focused on the task, which is the goal of this clinic.
Free Mind
The Free Mind ™ training builds on this core offering. Its goal is a bit different, though it dovetails with having our attention in the moment on task. Here, we want to create a mind that allows our attention to flow freely as the situation changes toward our inspiring goals. We want a mind that doesn’t trap attention in a mental prison of our own making. The Free Mind ™ training adds a dynamic dimension to the Falling and Commitment training. Life is constantly changing and we need to develop a mind that is similarly aligned. A free mind does this for us. The question is: How do we create such a mind?
Here is where this training diverges from other mental training methods, such as mental toughness approaches. I understand what trainers seek through developing mental toughness, traits like not giving up, persisting, etc. Those are extremely important qualities to develop. But there can be blind spots. “Toughness” makes systems more rigid. In other words, we could toughen existing mental patterns that are limiting. We layer the new training we’re doing onto a limiting foundation.
Let’s investigate how this could unfold. A mental toughness approach could engrain an “end justifies the means” motivation. As instructors, we train students to “get ‘er done” regardless of the means. The goal is “all important.” Quality of engagement, both body and mind, are diminished. Why? Because our attention will be directed toward what motivates us. If we value getting to the goal, at the expense of the journey that leads us there, then our attention will be distracted from the tasks that occur along the journey.
Flexibility
The Warrior’s Way® uses a mental flexibility approach. Yet, it still develops the important skills that are valued by mental toughness approaches. We have goals that direct our motivation, but when we’re on our learning journey toward those goals, we’re motivated exclusively by the process. In other words, “the means are an end in themselves.” This shifts our attention to the task itself as it progresses moment to moment, all the while guided by the goal. We know where we’re going and we value where we are along the way.
Here, we’re developing the qualities of not giving up, persisting, but also being willing to be here, now, in the middle of the stress. We develop the quality of seeking value from the experience within the experiences themselves. This develops fortitude to stay engaged in stressful struggles...for their own sake. We want to achieve goals, but that’s secondary when compared to the life we’re living moment to moment. Mental flexibility allows us to modify limiting habits. We don’t layer new training onto a limiting foundation. We tear down the foundation and build a better one.
Motivation
A prime example of this is how we’re motivated. We tend to be achievement motivated. Toughening habit patterns, to “get ‘er done,” reinforces achievement motivation. Mental flexibility allows us to tear down the limitations of achievement motivation and build a stronger foundation of process motivation, guided by goals, but not at the expense of goals.
The Free Mind ™ training, and this flexibility approach, does this in four ways that build on each other. We arrange the training in Four Levels that build on one another:
Agile Mind: We focus the training on developing an agile mind. Agility allows the mind to move in new directions, quickly, in effective ways.
Resilient Mind: The training develops a resilient mind. Here, we help students develop skills to bounce back from adversity.
Confident Mind: We train the mind to be confident. Confidence, though, comes from a specific source. It’s not dependent on external success. It’s oriented toward an internal locus of control.
Free Mind: All this training comes together to develop the free mind we’ve been seeking, one that doesn’t trap attention in a mental prison of our own making. We’ve opened the door, so to speak, to allow attention to flow more freely as situations change. And they do constantly change.
Upcoming Lessons
Over the next several lessons, we’ll examine each one of these “minds” in more detail. In the meantime, you can register for this training. Each session contains a set of videos, interactive activities, and reflection questions. You will access the course materials through our unique online learning platform, interact with others on our community page, and then engage in the important zoom calls with your coach. The training can be done individually or in groups.
Individual training can begin anytime simply by arranging your schedule with one of our coaches.
Group sessions are pre-scheduled. We have several sessions beginning October 18th. See which one works best for your schedule.
Go to this webpage to get more information and register: Free Mind ™ Training
Falling and Commitment
Most of you are familiar with our core offering: the Falling and Commitment clinic. In it we teach you tangible tools for focusing your attention. There are many tasks, yet only five processes for focusing attention. That’s simple, especially because we teach you exactly what to focus your attention on for each process. By practicing this, you improve your ability to keep attention focused on the task, which is the goal of this clinic.
Free Mind
The Free Mind ™ training builds on this core offering. Its goal is a bit different, though it dovetails with having our attention in the moment on task. Here, we want to create a mind that allows our attention to flow freely as the situation changes toward our inspiring goals. We want a mind that doesn’t trap attention in a mental prison of our own making. The Free Mind ™ training adds a dynamic dimension to the Falling and Commitment training. Life is constantly changing and we need to develop a mind that is similarly aligned. A free mind does this for us. The question is: How do we create such a mind?
Here is where this training diverges from other mental training methods, such as mental toughness approaches. I understand what trainers seek through developing mental toughness, traits like not giving up, persisting, etc. Those are extremely important qualities to develop. But there can be blind spots. “Toughness” makes systems more rigid. In other words, we could toughen existing mental patterns that are limiting. We layer the new training we’re doing onto a limiting foundation.
Let’s investigate how this could unfold. A mental toughness approach could engrain an “end justifies the means” motivation. As instructors, we train students to “get ‘er done” regardless of the means. The goal is “all important.” Quality of engagement, both body and mind, are diminished. Why? Because our attention will be directed toward what motivates us. If we value getting to the goal, at the expense of the journey that leads us there, then our attention will be distracted from the tasks that occur along the journey.
Flexibility
The Warrior’s Way® uses a mental flexibility approach. Yet, it still develops the important skills that are valued by mental toughness approaches. We have goals that direct our motivation, but when we’re on our learning journey toward those goals, we’re motivated exclusively by the process. In other words, “the means are an end in themselves.” This shifts our attention to the task itself as it progresses moment to moment, all the while guided by the goal. We know where we’re going and we value where we are along the way.
Here, we’re developing the qualities of not giving up, persisting, but also being willing to be here, now, in the middle of the stress. We develop the quality of seeking value from the experience within the experiences themselves. This develops fortitude to stay engaged in stressful struggles...for their own sake. We want to achieve goals, but that’s secondary when compared to the life we’re living moment to moment. Mental flexibility allows us to modify limiting habits. We don’t layer new training onto a limiting foundation. We tear down the foundation and build a better one.
Motivation
A prime example of this is how we’re motivated. We tend to be achievement motivated. Toughening habit patterns, to “get ‘er done,” reinforces achievement motivation. Mental flexibility allows us to tear down the limitations of achievement motivation and build a stronger foundation of process motivation, guided by goals, but not at the expense of goals.
The Free Mind ™ training, and this flexibility approach, does this in four ways that build on each other. We arrange the training in Four Levels that build on one another:
Agile Mind: We focus the training on developing an agile mind. Agility allows the mind to move in new directions, quickly, in effective ways.
Resilient Mind: The training develops a resilient mind. Here, we help students develop skills to bounce back from adversity.
Confident Mind: We train the mind to be confident. Confidence, though, comes from a specific source. It’s not dependent on external success. It’s oriented toward an internal locus of control.
Free Mind: All this training comes together to develop the free mind we’ve been seeking, one that doesn’t trap attention in a mental prison of our own making. We’ve opened the door, so to speak, to allow attention to flow more freely as situations change. And they do constantly change.
Upcoming Lessons
Over the next several lessons, we’ll examine each one of these “minds” in more detail. In the meantime, you can register for this training. Each session contains a set of videos, interactive activities, and reflection questions. You will access the course materials through our unique online learning platform, interact with others on our community page, and then engage in the important zoom calls with your coach. The training can be done individually or in groups.
Individual training can begin anytime simply by arranging your schedule with one of our coaches.
Group sessions are pre-scheduled. We have several sessions beginning October 18th. See which one works best for your schedule.
Go to this webpage to get more information and register: Free Mind ™ Training
