Zen and the Art of Nordic Skiing
Spiritually in cross-country skiing! Are you mad?
For those that have encountered the dramas of a mass start, close-quartered skiing, or trying to gasp for every last ounce of Oxygen whilst halfway up a 500m ascent during a Ski race, You'll think there is absolutely nothing zen about that particular part of the experience.
However, the other skills that any athlete should be trying to develop include mental clarity, a focus on breathing and one's body rhythms, developing inner calmness with laser-sharp focus to create an environment of self-belief, emotional control, parking of ego, and awareness of oneself in space and time.
Any newbie Buddhist would tell you they are not just the skills required of an endurance athlete but are part of basic meditation practice.
It's all about me
Having tenuously linked an overweight lycra-clad cross-country Skier (see above image), to an orange-clad Tibetan living in a Retreat in the Himalayas, the next part of identifying what I need to work on is somewhat more challenging.
What I know is that when I'm training, I feel like I'm going through the motions, and honestly, I don't derive any satisfaction from the process. Plus, when I cross the finish line of a race, I'm rarely satisfied or pleased with my efforts. That said if I don't train and race, then I'm generally more miserable than when I do. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.
Back in the day, When I was a long-course triathlete, the people around me had at least a vague idea of the domain I existed in, mainly because at some point in their lives they had swum in the sea, ridden a bike or gone for a run. The closest most people's understanding of cross-country skiing begins and ends with watching Ski Sunday, which is Downhill or Alpine skiing NOT Cross Country. The reality is my sporting efforts are very niche, and hence finding kindred spirits is hard.
What Happens Next?
Over the past couple of phases, I've started what can best be described as a journey into Buddhism and meditation.
Rest assured, I won't be heading off to a Retreat anytime soon. But many of the basic concepts and values do ring true with me.
If you are interested in what fired up my imagination, then I thoroughly recommend "Think Like a Monk" by Jay Shetty. The book is not at all preachy. Instead, it's an entertaining reflection of his journey into becoming a monk and applying the concepts he was taught to the modern-day challenges of Western society.
I plan to incorporate those ideas into both my sporting and life endeavours. The hope is, that I can calm my active mind and find contentment in the things that I do.
The Journey so far
I have been trying some basic meditation and I'll be honest, it's remarkably hard to do properly. Very occasionally, just for a few seconds, I can clear my mind, and it's a truly fantastic moment. With patience and practice, the hope is that those few seconds will stretch out to become longer chunks of time.
The slight irony about meditation is that you can't force it. You won't get better by trying harder. This is quite a leveller and something I intend to write a separate blog post on, in the future.