Mindfull vs. Mindful

At the heart of Mindful Routes teaching and coaching philosophy as well as the basis of work for our Mindfulness & Rock Climbing Workshop is the concept of Mind-full Vs Mindful. When we get down to the real work it takes to climb in a flow state, this is the concept that is most important and that we need to be actively working on. Its as simple as asking your self, is your mind Full, full of thoughts from the future or the past, distractions around you, thinking about things that aren’t directly helping you in the moment, stuck on a negative thought pattern; or are you being mindful? Simply being aware of the present moment, ridding yourself of the distractions around you and thoughts of the future or past and just simply looking here and now in the present moment at whats in front of you?

Mindfull on the left, and Mindful on the right.

Our brains operate in funny ways where most of the time if you catch your thoughts, they are taking you into the future or to the past. An example while climbing (or doing anything where you want to be present and authentic) could look like: “what am i going to eat for dinner? When will I see my best-friend again? What if I fail that test coming up? I wonder what will happen with my relationship?”

Its not helpful to be fixated on whats to come while needing to be present moment aware of whats happening in front of you.

Our thoughts also suck us into the past, “ Last time I tried this route I fell at the second bolt, Ill probably do that again… In the past Ive only been able to do one move, I failed at doing this activity before so Im probably not good at it, Ive been hurt following this path before, I didn’t like what happened last time so I wont try again today.”

These ways of thinking, fixating on the past or the future distract us from being able to stay in the moment. When we are engaged in an activity like rock climbing, it demands present moment awareness to be able to move and flow efficiently, to feel what we are doing qualitatively. Thats why at the heart of mindful routes we focus on this concept of MindFull or Mindful? Helping climbers to learn how to engage with the latter. Applying this to your climbing is only the first step, taking outside of climbing and bringing it into your daily life will only open room for you to walk through life on a more open, loving, and freeing path.