Lessons on stress and rest from a rookie paddle-boarder.
I recently spent a week on the Emerald Coast, seeing clients via telehealth from my room, writing with a view of the endless blue, and swimming in the warm waters of the sea each evening. On the weekend I rented a paddleboard and ventured out onto the waves.
At first I felt unsteady, expecting each wave to knock me from the board, bracing myself as each rolled toward me. But very soon I found myself pausing my strokes as I rode over each wave, enjoying the sensation of the rise and fall. I recognized how much easier it was when I didn’t fight the wave, when I paddled in the down time in between and then just allowed it to lift me. I allowed my vision to cast far off, enjoying the sparkle of sunshine on the rippling blue, watching for dolphins breaching the surface.
And I realized how analogous this is to life, to stress, to struggle.
How much harder it is when we fight the waves of trial, and how much easier when we simply allow it to come. How futile our efforts can be when everything is coming at us, despite our effectiveness during times of relative calm. How wise to expend our efforts toward progress when those smoother times are upon us – and how true it is that life comes in rhythms: tension and ease, struggle and rest.
How much more enjoyable the ride of life can be when we cast our vision into the distance, and take in the whole view, rather than restricting our awareness right in front of us out of fear and a compulsion to control what we truly cannot control anyway. Even while working toward changing where we are. Even while we keep on paddling. There is so much beauty to see, even in the striving.
Whatever you are going through today, I hope you can lift your gaze, if even for a moment, and see the hope and the beauty in the distance and in the big picture of which you are a part. I hope there is beauty all around you, right now, even if the stress and the struggle and yes, even the anguish, momentarily blinds you to it. This is the work of mindfulness: to pause, let yourself be moved, and find some beauty. And then keep on paddling. You’ll make it to shore.