Social Stamina - marathon or sprint?

With the Olympics underway and the country opening up we have started to move on and out into the light - heady with the joy of getting together with friends and family and trying to get holidays under way. 

Over the past eighteen months many of us have changed our routines and added exercise and training classes which have helped with the drudge of lockdown and prepared us for increased physical activity in the coming months. 

But an area that is often overlooked is the mental approach to getting released from lockdown. How mentally fit are you for a return to greater daily engagement? 

When the joy of the summer subsides and the shorter days approach, together with the possible threat of further viruses, we need to get in place a technique which is more than a short term and arbitrary solution. We need something which is going to give us the calm and connection to go forward and grow and which is above all sustainable.

I am often struck by how people looking to learn to meditate are expecting it to be the panacea for all ills. It is easy to believe that the plethora of meditation techniques available via apps, books and YouTube will solve a multitude of personal issues. There is no doubt that they can work but without a real live teacher to reach out to for essential non-judgemental and compassionate support it is hard work. It takes a great deal of determination and effort to go it alone and in my experience this usually results in frustration and disappointment. When people think it doesn't work it sometimes puts them off any further involvement with meditation.

All successful athletes have behind them a coach who has shown them the way, given sound advice and always believed in them and their capability to do the work and achieve the shared expected outcome.

When in my teens I was at school training for rowing teams the coach had an important role, and there were subtleties which I didn't appreciate until much later. On one occasion he briefed us before we raced against an older and more experienced freshman university crew by saying 'What you have to remember is that unlike them you don't drink, smoke or fornicate.' Little did he know how wide of the mark he was but the point was taken that we were going to win the race not only by strength and technique but by mental approach. We had proved ourselves before and he believed, and we believed, we could win again - and we did.

That support from someone with more experience, with our interest at heart and the supporting belief that we were capable of more than we imagined made for a powerful and satisfying set of results over a couple of summers of competition.

The interest and support of all students is paramount to me. I am here to introduce them to a new way of approaching life, showing them a technique which is easy to learn and simple to practice, and to help them find their stride and become self sufficient.

You don't have to wait for the big occasion to get going. Right now is as good a time as any, and your coach is available.