Rock-climbing, a metaphor for life’s challenges

Lesson #1: Be mindful and in the moment.

Imagine yourself hanging onto a sheer vertical rock face attached to a rope that is protected by some safety gear 20 feet below you with your climbing partner waiting to catch you in case you fall. What are the thoughts that could be going through your mind? 

“Wow, when I look down, I see we’re so far from the ground.” 

“My foot is precariously weighted on a ledge that is 5 mm wide.” 

“There’s so little to grab onto with my hands.” 

“I could die if I let go or if I mess up.” 

The reality is that these kinds of thoughts probably have passed through most climbers’ minds. But are they helpful? Not really. When you are fueled by fear, the tension in your body prevents you from being able to move, everywhere you look the options seem out of your reach, and you start to panic. This is where mindfulness comes into play. Take a few deep breaths. Be aware of your body being in contact with the rock. Slow your thinking and be in the moment. Offer yourself a little self-compassion or kindness if you need it before you try the next move.

Lesson #2: The road to success is achieved one step at a time. 

Most of the time when I am climbing, I feel like I am in the zone, totally calm and energized at the same time. However, there are occasional moments of paralyzing fear, particularly when I am climbing at the limit of my ability or on a part of the climb that is very exposed, that rudely yank me out of that flow state. The planned climbing route that at the beginning of the day seemed so fun and exciting suddenly feels so insurmountable. 

“We’re only on the 3rd pitch, and there are 10 more before we summit.” 

“My forearms are burning, how am I going to climb the rest of the route?”

What helps in these moments besides mindfulness is narrowing my focus. Instead of thinking about the hundreds of moves I need to make to get to the top of the climb before the end of the day, I remind myself that right now, the only thing I need to think about is the next move. 

“Just focus on the next move, you can worry about the rest of the climb after that.” 

You relax the grip of your left hand, you shift your weight onto your left foot, you reach out and grab the next hold, and suddenly all is right again with the world.  

Lesson #3: Trust and believe in yourself.

I always climb with friends; I have never done any free soloing. However, even when you are climbing with friends, there is still a lot of time when we end up alone with our thoughts and are occasionally out of sight and earshot of our partners. Even though there is a whole safety system including ropes, helmets, harnesses, cams, nuts, and slings that help keep us safe, the only way we make progress is by pulling ourselves up the cliff. Nobody pulls you up the cliff with the rope. 

I’ve talked a lot so far about the moments of self-doubt and negative self-talk that happen while climbing. Letting this be the only voice that you hear means that you will either have a serious fall or end up giving up the sport entirely. Maybe this doesn’t happen to other climbers, but I have even had fleeting moments when I imagined myself letting go of the rock and falling, when my self-doubt was so overwhelming that this failure option seemed to be the easiest way out of my situation. Fortunately, I have been able to drown out that voice during those moments, re-finding my confidence by reminding myself that I am fully capable.   

“You’ve got this, you’ve done this before a thousand times.”

In these moments, I also draw my courage from my climbing partners. We often encourage each other at the start of each climbing pitch with this mantra:

“Climb like the beast you are.”

Not only do I have to trust and believe in myself, but I also fully trust and rely on my partners to keep me safe and catch me if I do fall. I also don’t want to let them down (joke unintended) as it is only by working together as a team that we are able to achieve our climbing objectives.

Lesson #4: You can’t make progress without taking risks.

I recognize that rock-climbing outside of a climbing gym for many people represents a level of risk that is unacceptably high. I had one near-miss accident years ago. I grabbed onto a big rock that was part of a ledge, which gave way as I put my weight on it. Fortunately, my climbing partner was standing off to the side, so the rock didn’t hit him, and he quickly caught my unexpected fall so all I ended up with was my confidence temporarily shaken and a few abrasions from the rock scraping my arm as it hurtled towards the ground.  

The reality is that you may only feel completely safe while rock-climbing when your feet are on the ground, on a big ledge, or at the top of the cliff. Everything else is a calculated risk. You check and hope that the rock is solid when pull on it or place your protective gear. You trust your climbing partner to be fully attentive and not distracted by someone or something else. You take a risk every time you shift your weight to move to the next hold. But unless you take those risks, you’re stuck on the cliff and can’t make any progress towards your ultimate goal. Without risks, you just end up on the ground looking up and dreaming about what will never be.

Regardless of whether you are a rock climber like me or someone who prefers to keep both feet firmly planted on solid ground, we all have experiences that we can draw from as metaphors for life’s challenges. Being a type A personality with hyperactive tendencies, I knew I would never have the patience to meditate and realized that I was already practicing mindfulness when I was rock-climbing. What about you? How can you practice mindfulness? What’s your metaphor for personal growth?