When life gives you lemons, drop those suckers in some hot tea and put on your comfy pants.
Seriously, I planned for 2 head races this year and I was denied both by tropical depressions. Hurricane Ian canceled the High Point Rowing Festival and Hurricane Nicole shut down Head of the South. To say that I was disappointed is a bit of an understatement.
Rowers know the trials and tribulations of the weather. Mother Nature frequently thwarts our plans. It is one thing when it is practice but race day…ah c’mon…really. And 2 of them? Why!? Anyway, with practices, we learn to adjust and find other workouts to do while waiting for the weather to clear. This year, I learned to accept that all that training and practice I have done to test my improvement in the shell will just have to be continued building toward whatever future awaits. C’est la vie. *sniff*
I must recenter. Daily meditation became an essential part of my life while I was caring for my mother. As we slowly watched her health decline and her spirit depart, I found comfort in simply sitting quietly and thinking of nothing but my breath. That grief and despair associated with the things that come with living with the loss of a loved one is inevitable in life. It is as inevitable as breathing. Breath is a true constant in life. Taking some time to just sit and feel my breath and to let go of thought, emotions, and sensations for 10-20 minutes each day became a kind of lifeline.
I also found that the mind body connection also connected with my awareness on the water. I could connect my breath to each stroke a little better. You likely know that realization of when you are practicing (or driving your car) and you set into the familiar motion and the mind drifts off. We start thinking about various to do lists. We think about conversations or events both past and future. We disconnect with the present moment. We trust the autopilot a little too much until the coach or cox calls your seat. Oh right….right…..pause drill…got it. Jerked back into the present moment by a bull horn. (Or if you are in your car, the guy that wonders why you didn’t stomp the gas when the light turned green.)
What I have learned since adding mindfulness to my practice is that I do a better job of setting those distracting thoughts aside and focus on my practice. The port oar was a little deep on that one. My right leg is a little stiff on the recovery. Yup, my shoulders are visiting my ears again. These thoughts are much more productive in practice. Oh, the other things still pop up, but I can recognize the distraction and set it aside more quickly. The point is that there is little value in thinking about a grocery list or that last performance review at work while we are on the water. I replace breathe in and breathe out with blades in and blades out. I have learned a lot this year and I was ready to test my new skills. Could I use them to shut down those mind games that come up in a race?
Enter the regatta killing hurricanes of 2022. All those intentions for each practice and all those scenarios rehearsed in my mind are vaporized, never to be realized.
Saturday morning, when I should have been waking up in Augusta, Ga., I awoke here on Frog Pond Farm and headed to town for a consolation row. Our coach was calling it, Nape of the Cape. She set some boats and we rowed around our little island and celebrated all the practice we had put in for HOTS. It is what rowers do. When you cannot do what you planned to do, then you find a way to do something else that will suffice for now. Oh and someone brought fresh baked bread. I loved being with the club as I always do, but just as the remnant clouds of Nicole hung over our boathouse, so hung my hopes for the weekend.
Sunday morning, I was debating how I wanted to set up the coming week. How do I reset after a disappointing end of the season. Winter is coming which will bring more indoor workouts. I have to maintain some optimism. I opened my Insight app and was presented with a meditation for dealing with regret. I didn’t really feel like I was regretting anything, but I was feeling a little let down. I opened up that selection and took to the meditation cushion.
The meditation starts with the usual prompts. Sit comfortably. Take a deep breath in. Let it go. Drift closed the eyes. Another deep breath in. Let it go. Then the guide starts talking about things in our life that are holding us back. What will you let go of today? My answer came quick. Disappointment.
Then he introduced the mantra. OM MOKSHA RITAM. I spell it here as pronounced in Vedic teaching. Almost everyone knows OM. It is a cliche for most meditation joke punch lines. And I will admit, I am a little self conscious, in my own home, that our dogs and my husband will roll their eyes and shake their heads when the hear me chanting ah-OMMMMMMMM in my sunroom/study/home gym. I do it anyway.
Om is really the meditative tone meant connect us to universal energy and vibration. The tone creates a vibration on the back of the throat or base of the skull. Maybe it is the Vedic feather duster for the mind? There is a reason it is used so frequently in meditation. It is comforting and simple.
Moksha is emotional freedom and release. It is your liberation. Maybe Elsa could have sang Moksha in the Disney film Frozen, but that does not rhyme with snow. Let it go is better in that case. Maybe a meditator could replace Moksha with let it go. But the word is kind of fun. It has the ring of a Klingon battle cry. I like it. Moksha! Qapla’!
Ritam is the rhythm of the universe. Ritam IS rowing. Whenever we think of rowing, we rarely leave out discussing rhythm. That is universal.
You can try it right now if you like. Pull your shoulders up to your ears, hold them for 3 seconds, and let them fall. Take a deep breath in through the nose and then out through the nose. When you close your eyes and take another breath begin to repeat the mantra at least 3 times, silently to yourself. OM MOKSHA RITAM. Okay, close your eyes.
As you open your eyes take a brief moment to feel your breath and take in your surroundings. Maybe place your hand on your heart or throat to help feel the breath. Sometimes just a brief moment like that can help recenter our focus. Get our minds back into the rhythm of daily progress.
The idea is when you use the mantra Om Moksha Ritam, you are attuning to your best self. Letting go of what you no longer need and feeling the rhythm of nature.
Just as when you are in your shell you are attuned to the balance, the freedom of the glide when you release the blades from the water after the drive and then the return to the catch. The rowing stroke becomes it’s own mantra.
So let the hurricanes blow where they will. A rowers rhythm will not be denied. We go on to the next stroke. OM MOKSHA RITAM. Be free of the disappointments that are inevitable in life. Breathe deep the joy of your movement. Let go of the unmet expectations. It is time to find a new rhythm and start a new plan because 2023 is coming. Another chance to dream of a shining season.
OM MOKSHA RITAM
Namaste baby!