Craving the crux: 10 lessons learned from my rock climbing addiction

ROCK CLIMBING IS MORE THAN ONE THING
Rock climbing is incredibly stupid, incredibly challenging, dangerous, fun and uncertain. It is not one thing, it is all of these things, simultaneously. How can that be? We live in a world of definition - things are labelled as useful or useless, good or bad, positive or negative.
When we really get involved in our passions things become a lot more fuzzy and sometimes we see that things are not one or the other, they are one and the other. All we have to do is choose which one dominates our focus. This is the essence of positive thinking and it is the essence of what makes climbing fun instead of terrifying. So when I think about the positive lessons that I took from climbing and applied to life here is what I came up with: 

1. PLAN & BUILD RESOURCES FROM A PLACE OF RELATIVE SAFETY
   Even before you leave home it's useful to have a general plan, even if that plan is 'follow my nose'. But let's imagine we just arrived at the base of the cliff - you feel the nervousness and excitement start! So you observe the big, intimidating rock wall - see what stands out and what is appealing - and you a makes a plan. While I’m in a relatively safe space I can feel into how hard I’m prepared to push myself today, which route I’m going to do and how.  This includes making sure I have the right tools or ‘gear’ and knowing how to use them. It helps to have another person to reflect your thoughts and feelings to. I prepare for the worst and expect the best.
   
2. TAKE ALL ADVICE WITH A PINCH OF SALT
   Advice from friends or from guidebooks effects the experience, based on how much you trust the advice more than your own intuition. It’s interesting to learn this lesson when you find yourself in difficulty on a climb you thought was going to be a walk in the park and also when you manage a climb far beyond your objective ability. I climbed by first E5 when I was only confident on E2, because I had mis-read the guidebook. I thought the route was going to be hard, but achievable and this turns out to be the best mindset for being in flow.
   
3. BEFORE COMMITTING CHECK IN WITH YOUR BODY AND YOUR ‘WHY’
   When I was a teenager I’d find that If a girl was watching me or if I was competing with a friend, who was more experienced I would often take on more than I could handle - I’d go for the biggest, scariest route in an effort to ‘prove myself’ to others. I would choose the challenges because of my ego - because I was afraid of looking weak!
   This often got me into a lot of trouble! So from about the age of 25 I started to pick climbs despite of peer pressure - but because I relished the challenge for the love of it, and that usually turn out to be a beautiful experience. So I always check with my ‘why’ and with my body  before I commit to climbs and to other things in life; that I’m choosing for the passion, not for the ‘should’
   
4. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN, WITH AWARENESS OF WHAT MIGHT
   OK, so it’s time to climb. I oxygenate my blood and pump myself up with a few breaths. Harder breaths tend to energize me. It’s really useful to know how to use the breath to alter the state of mind and body. I’ll come back to this.
   
   Climbing up I start to perceive I’m a fair distance off the ground. Time to place my first bit of protection - already I’m evaluating risk and balancing uncertainty - if i place too much protection I waste energy and too little I increase my risk of hitting the deck. It becomes quickly apparent that rock climbing is a mental game of balancing focus: I must be aware of the risks, but focused on what I am doing, with one eye on where I'm going. The moment I start to dwell on either the risk or the goal I lose my presence and become over-excited or terrified, both of which are deadly here. So this is a perfect training ground for balance of attention. As Matthew Child’s says in his own lessons from rock climbing: "Fear Sucks. Fear means you're focusing on the consequences of failing what you are doing."
   
5. TRUST YOURSELF TO PLAY
   However, when I’m having fun climbing I’m PLAYING in the  present moment - I’m not consciously mindful. I’m trying to figure it out, moving in weird ways and making mistakes. Sometimes I succeed, in flow, and other times I get near danger and  I’m snapped back to reality by the language of my body - emotion - or in this case FEAR - which shouts “WOAH! WAKE UP AND QUIT PLAYING!” I trust my body’s alarm system to help me here, and therein lies the key. I can play - I abandon mindfulness in a controlled manner, because I trust that my intuition will override my stupidity, IF I’m present with what I’m doing. This is the essence of play - trusting oneself.  
   
6. CONSCIOUS BREATHING AND VOCALISING CAN ALTER YOUR STATE OF MIND
   Sometimes when I start to panic I begin to talk to myself, and breath shallow and fast...but which is more useful when you are in a tricky spot:  “It’s okay, I’m okay”. Or “I’m in trouble - oh no!” I have a choice. Consciously combining breath with the power of expressing gives me control of my state of mind. I can energise myself or calm myself, regardless of the situation.
   
7. LEARN HOW TO REST AND WHEN TO PUSH ON AND WHEN TO BACK OFF
   On steep ground you’re going to get  tired. We learn from experience when to push on, but what we don’t learn so much is when and how to rest or retreat.  There is no shame in retreating to play another day and this is a critical lesson in humility that rock climbing encouraged me to learn.  I learned that it also helps to plan rests, but not to hesitate too long because hesitation breaks the flow, muscles get cold and the mind dulls - it starts to come out of the moment and into the imagination or the worrying. Conscious breathing again helps - calming or energising my state of mind.
   
8. IN THE LONG GAME, PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
   My strongest connection the rock and in life should be through my strongest attributes if I want to play for the long game. My legs are much stronger than my arms and fingers. So practicing using the feet and legs to lever you up is essential to climbing, with grace. This requires courage and experience to  trust your feet, especially on friction slab climbs. My connection with the rock is a critical point and the less I trust it, the more I seize up and fall. The more I trust the more skill I develop and the less I fall.
   
9. COURAGE, DESPITE FEAR, ALWAYS HELPS ME, IN SOME WAY
   Leaving rest spots is sometimes hard, but I know that when I leave my comfort zone life is enriched. I get taken to remote and beautiful places. I could have got to some of these places an easier way, but I climb for the enriching quality of the challenge - to take the road less traveled. In this way the places we get to seem even more beautiful and that makes me realise that beauty is informed by meaning and depth and there is no depth without risk. And there is no risk without gain. All courage bears some fruit.
   
10. FIND YOUR OWN WAY TO APPRECIATE LIFE, FROM WHAT MOVES YOU
    So I get to the top, sit and make myself safe and comfortable and then take a big sigh and take in the context of my achievement. I feel relief. I appreciate being alive. The stress of facing my mortality helped me do just that. When I risk I feel alive. When I overindulging in my comfort zone I use  the memory of the climb in my mind and the thought of: I’m alive, and that’s the greatest adventure I could have.” This helps me to appreciate the comfort and the risks - the uncertainty as well as the achievements of my life. 
    

AND ONE MORE… PAIN IS HELPFUL (IN MODERATION)
It’s Monday morning now. When I sit in the office chair, body aching and spirit soaring. The lesson here? Pain helps me - it helps me to appreciate comfort - even the simple comfort of sitting in an office. Contrast is necessary for enjoyment. I can’t be joyful or comfortable all of the time or it would lose it’s meaning.  So as I train my body throughout the winter I pay attention to what hurts. When I judge my pain as weaknesses I feel angry at myself and at life.  I realised during the winter that the positive labels - seeing pain as a useful signal - helps me to choose, rather than ‘be forced’ to work on myself. The gradual mastery of rock climbing must come from the love of it, to continue to enjoy where you are in your skill level. This is always easy in the beginning, when we have no attachment to our progress, but this changes, over time.

SUMMARY: COMFORT VS ADVENTURE
Unfortunately so many of us have lost touch with that, our sense of wonder and adventure and become stuck in a world of comfort, fear of missing out, obligation, peer pressure or guilt. Or maybe its patterns of behaviour that fuel laziness, hopelessness…  It can happen at any time - Comfort is an enticing and soft beast, a slow killer but passion is also a killer. Remember that although it’s nice to be comfy, it is easy, and when we are only prepared to do what is easy, to feel what's easy,life becomes very hard. So choose life!
My addiction to adrenaline has taught me is that life is a dangerous adventure and I can choose to focus on the danger or to focus on the adventure, with awareness of the danger. There are tools I can use to help this process:
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1. PLAN & BUILD RESOURCES FROM A PLACE OF RELATIVE SAFETY
   
2. TAKE ALL ADVICE WITH A PINCH OF SALT
   
3. BEFORE COMMITTING CHECK IN WITH YOUR BODY AND YOUR ‘WHY’
   
4. FOCUS ON WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN, WITH AWARENESS OF WHAT MIGHT
   
5. TRUST YOURSELF TO PLAY
   
6. CONSCIOUS BREATHING AND VOCALISING CAN ALTER YOUR STATE OF MIND
   
7. LEARN HOW TO REST AND WHEN TO PUSH ON AND WHEN TO BACK OFF
   
8. IN THE LONG GAME, PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS
   
9. COURAGE, DESPITE FEAR, ALWAYS HELPS ME, IN SOME WAY
   
10. FIND YOUR OWN WAY TO APPRECIATE LIFE, FROM WHAT MOVES YOU 
    
    + PAIN IS HELPFUL