“Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot.  Seek the path that demands your whole being.”   Rumi

Bolsa Chica State Beach

Today in the water the conditions reminded me of the day a couple weeks ago when I was stung by the stingray.  Beautiful weather, small waves, lowish tide.  As I was headed in a guy was getting out…he had just been stung.  He told me to be careful.  My heart sunk.

I didn’t know the handful of people in the water next to me when I first paddled out.  The initial chatter in the line up was about all the rays and how many people we all knew that had been stung over the weeks.  Obviously, the high number of surfers being hit was weighing on their mind’s as well.  And by the way, surfers don’t refer to getting stung as “being hit” for nothing.  Although I have never been really punched, I am imagining the pain might be comparable.

For some reason the rays are feeling very comfortable at my home breaks lately and it is really starting to get on my nerves.  But, I have to remember, I am playing at their house. The ocean truly belongs to them.

Today the waves weren’t challenging, in fact they were miniscule.  The challenge entered when I came to the end of the rides.  Then what?  Jump off my board in shallow water only to risk landing on a ray and getting stung again?  Hell no!   I would ride in as far as I could standing up and then fall to my board on my belly, never putting my feet on the ground.  This was actually comical because I was in about a foot and a half of water by the time I rode them to the end.  But, I’d be damned if I was going to chance being stung again!

Here lies the problem.  I was totally in my head about the stingrays.  I was not able to concentrate on surfing because I was so consumed with worry. My insides were so knotted with dread I wasn’t able to focus.

Surfing, as in most sports I’m sure, demands being whole.  The intertwining of mind and body.  When the surf is challenging and the conditions are extreme, it can be dangerous if I am not in sync.  Luckily, today was not one of those days but it made me think of how it is crucial for me to be congruent…mind and body.

Surfing forces me to be focused.  To stop and listen.  To concentrate on just the wave and where my body is in relation to the motion of it.  I cannot be consumed with doubt or fear or I will not catch the wave and on more challenging days I may even get injured.

Today, I cannot obsess about stingray related anxieties. If I do, I will miss out on the joy of the moment.  The beautiful day.  The dolphins playing near me. Conversation with my friends.  A moment in time lost if all I do is focus on my fear.

In order for me to seek the wisdom Rumi talks about in the quote above, I need to be quiet.  To silence the “what ifs”, “shoulds”, and “might have beens”.  To shut down the inner jabbering and listen.

This allows me to listen to my my soul.  My instincts.  My confidence.  My encouragement. My heart. Myself. This is where the wisdom lies.

Turning off the noise and listening will untie the knot that Rumi refers to.  My knot…my twisted ball of worries, doubts, fears, and insecurities that reside within me.

Living in the moment will bring the wisdom.  Living in the now.  Not worrying about what I need to do tomorrow or stressing about what happened yesterday but merely “be”ing.

Eventually, I was able to put the stingrays to the back of my mind and be in the moment.  To enjoy the present…this amazing gift.

I hope to harness this and bring it with me back onto the sand as I go about my day.  The ability to slow down.  To quiet my critical brain and listen to my heart.

We all have the answers, the wisdom, inside ourselves.

We just need to quiet our mind and listen.

Salty Kisses,

Karen