Finding a Better Way: Trust Yourself (Thoughts on Rock Climbing)

After months and months of not having time or money, a friend of mine and I finally made it out to one of those indoor rock climbing facilities! It was great! I mean, I'm a little sore...like, really sore...but, I feel accomplished nevertheless! I even tried the "boulder" wall in which you don't use a harness! Granted, didn't make it that far off the ground, but I tried.

And, that got me thinking about how in life you just have to try. Especially if, you're not quite sure of the outcome, you have to at least try.

I had never climbed these walls before, so I didn't know exactly how the pegs were going to be oriented and distributed. Even if I carefully observed the wall and planned out how to climb up, I still wouldn't know if my leg would feel comfortable extended in a certain direction until I got up and tried it. You have to trust yourself to try things. Even if you don't dominate every single "rock-wall" that comes your way, you have to at least try and tackle the one in front of you. Trust that you will deal with it in the best way that you know how.

This reminds me of a wonderful quote I heard on this show that my other good friend got me really hooked on (as if I needed more shows!), Emily Owens, M.D.:

"We make all these plans about how things will turn out. But, life happens. Plans change. So, we adapt. We draw on strength we didn’t know we had. We give up any illusions of control. And, we deal head-on with problems that come our way."

Giving up the illusion of control is a powerful image. It's kind of like when you have to let go of the pegs and lean back into gravity, angled horizontally with your feet flat on the wall, in order to hop down from the wall. You just trust yourself...and, of course, a higher power, and the rope and your anchor and the harness, etc, but it's you who has to let go first before all the other necessary components can work..

I'm not sure if that all relates, but that's what I thought about while I was reflecting on my long-awaited rock climbing adventure. And, I wanna go back sooner than later! Trust yourself to try something different today!

Here are a few pics :-)