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Mental strength in climbing. The stoic perspective.

Much is said about the need for mental or psychological training for climbing. By now it is widely recognized the role that the mind plays in our performance on the rock. Our mind influences every decision, every move, every step. It determines in advance the possibility of achieving something or not, playing a more crucial role even than physical strength. But what is the goal of mental training?

 

The goal of any mental training is to develop mental strength. Just like physical strength, mental strength can (and should) be trained. Simply because it can be developed. Just as we know that we are not physically weak but that, in any case, we may be weak now and if we train we can be strong, so it is exactly the same with the mind. It is not that a person is fearful per se. Or is anxious. Or is easily paralyzed by frustration. We can stop making excuses based on “that’s just the way I am”. In the “I’m afraid of this and I can’t change it”. Because it is not true. Mental strength can be developed and we can deal efficiently with all this thanks to it.

Which brings us to the next question: what is meant by mental strength?

Mental strength is the ability to manage our emotions, to remain calm in stressful situations, to control our thoughts, or to deal with psychological pressure.

It is what allows us to act appropriately in any situation without getting carried away by emotions. Keeping calm where losing it means failing.

Climbing provides us with clear examples of the importance of developing this strength and the consequences of not doing so. If you are afraid of falling you will take less determined steps and will probably fall. If you don’t trust your foot holds, you will apply less pressure on the rock and slip. If you climb anxiously, you will forget to rest or even to breathe, causing you to exhaust yourself before you reach your goal. On the other hand, if you climb too confidently or believing that something is too easy, you may not pay enough attention to what you are doing and catch yourself failing at what you took for granted before you started.

Some keys to developing mental strength (inspired by stoicism) that can be developed through climbing.

-Expand your comfort zone. Practice discomfort.

Expanding your comfort zone is synonymous with expanding your freedom. Expanding your possibilities. When you expose yourself to discomfort and you see that it is not so bad, that you are capable of overcoming it, you free yourself from your fears and your limits imposed by the known and comfort.

When you climb something above your grade, at first you will be uncomfortable, it will be difficult, you will fail. But, little by little, you will gradually make climbing that grade comfortable for you. At this point you have expanded your comfort zone and, by dealing with the discomfort at first, you have gained the ability to perform better on slightly more complicated climbs. You have more confidence in your abilities and are better at keeping your temper in more and more situations. Lead climbing or practicing falls are good examples of how we practice discomfort in climbing.

-Correctly identify situations and do not get carried away by perceptions.

Without hardly realizing it, we impregnate all situations with our subjectivity. We believe that things are as we interpret them… until we realize that our interpretation was wrong.

For example, we judge a hole in the rock as an easy or difficult grip, without realizing that this assessment is totally subjective and is also conditioning our performance. I might think it is difficult so much that I don’t leave room to find the angle from which it is easy to grab. Or when I think it is easy I don’t force the position too much and it turns out to be easy.

We must always try to be as objective as possible, avoiding contaminating our experience with erroneous judgments or unnecessary emotional reactions. Simply accept what is there and do what you can.

-Accept what comes and learn from it all.

The Stoics reflected extensively on a very interesting concept: amor fati. Translated as “love your fate,” it basically means to accept willingly whatever comes your way.

Whatever comes your way, you accept it and deal with it as it is, without suffering because it is not as you expected or wanted it to be. Things are as they are and come as they come, in your hand (or in your mind) is to choose how you take it, if as a suffering or as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Going back to climbing, we can apply this in many situations. Imagine that you are about to send your project and you fall in the last steps, which are also the easiest. You can choose to get upset for the rest of the day or you can accept the situation and learn not to relax prematurely, to stay focused until the end and take the opportunity to keep improving.

-Focus only on what depends on yourself.

Once you have managed to accept the situation, what you need is to know what to do about it. And I am not talking about techniques or methods, but about identifying what you can do and what you cannot do. What depends directly on you and is under your control, without trying to control the external, what depends on other variables that, if you try to control them, would only produce frustration.

It is not always easy to identify what depends on you. On more than one occasion we tend to think that we have more control than we really do.

For example, if my body is tired, if my mind is distracted, these are NOT things that depend on me. What is up to me is what I do about it: whether I rest when I need to, whether I try to take a deep breath and refocus, whether I go an easier route, or whether I make a point of trying a couple more times.

Not forcing myself into battles I cannot win, but looking for what I can do to move towards my goal by doing what really depends on me and not on external or uncontrollable factors.

Mental strength will serve you for everything

The best thing about developing mental toughness is that you get benefits that will serve you in any area of your life. Whether you’re facing a rock wall, a new project, co-workers or any kind of challenge life throws at you. If you have developed your mental strength, I am sure you will be able to remain calm and solve the situations that come your way in the best possible way, without being dragged down by negative emotions, identifying and accepting the situation as it is, using your energies efficiently only where you can produce the best results.

This is mental strength. It can be trained by climbing, but it is probably one of the things that has the most relevance in all areas of your life.

*This article is based on the book “Stoic climbing. Finding wisdom on the rock” where the application of Stoic wisdom to climbing is extensively reflected upon.

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