Because of surfing I have ended up snorkeling over colored coral cliffs, earning a degree from the University of California Santa Cruz, skydiving over Cloud Break, adopting my Mexican godchild Sarah, backpacking with a surfboard, being surrounded by a pack of zainas…and settling for many years in a small, sleepy fishing village on the Pacific Coast of Central America where a friend and I began Venus Surf Adventures.
Venus offered all-inclusive surf trips, boot camps and Spanish immersion surf camps for women (mainly) from all over the world. My partner came up with the name Venus and I loved it. The deity is born out of ocean wave energy and, whether you consider the water literally or symbolically here, there is something transformative that occurs when someone is completely and utterly immersed in it.
It is this transformative process that keeps us lively and interesting. People have highly adaptive capabilities and transformative powers and an intuitive knowledge of his or her potential, dreams and where to find bliss. We have an inveterate desire to grow and become stronger, healthier, smarter, more beautiful and more alive. As a compassionate person, I enjoy initiating, igniting, cultivating, supporting and being a witness to this transformation however grand or slight.
Every day we wake up and have a chance to return to the same muddy path or to embark on a new path that may bring us closer to the life that we dream about. Sometimes this may require that we relearn skills: how to walk and move (using correct musculature and posture), how to listen (to our needs and desires) and how to eat to nourish ourselves. The new path may take us steps closer enhance our strength, skills and lifestyle to peak performance in a sport or climbing Kilimanjaro.
Healthy exercise and training has nothing to do with sweating on the treadmill (just another 23 minutes and 53 seconds)–hoping to painfully mold an aging, aching body into some semblance of an airbrushed drugstore magazine cover–grumpy with dissatisfied narcissism, drinking diet shakes to drop more weight or popping supplements to build mass. When exercise is compartmentalized and not, at least in part, done for the joy of the process there is something missing. I joke a lot about running—that I only run for beer, that, and the best thing about running is stopping running. The truth is, I run to get into THE ZONE, for rapid sightseeing, cardiovascular health, at times for competitive thrills and even sometimes for beer.
Rather than compartmentalized, healthy exercise is an integral part of life and will incorporate skill, art, or nature. It is in our nature to develop our skills (in canoe paddling for instance), to express ourselves through art (like in dance), and to develop a relationship with nature, whether that consists of the simplicity of appreciating the wild orchids on a walk or the delicate dance that happens inside of a wave’s energy created by wind 2000 miles away. The gym, the barbells, the Swiss balls, the treadmills are tools to help support and cultivate this lifestyle and to help us to move and enjoy life free of injury and pain.
It is great to see that when people start taking care of themselves, working out to be pain free and for better performance, getting a massage when needed, eating whole, non-processed foods, they begin to feel more energized and focused, have more mental clarity, sleep better and feel more productive at work and in other activities. Losing weight and looking good is one of the perks of the lifestyle.
When I help someone start to enjoy the steps in this process I get really happy and excited. I love to hear someone say, “I think my lower back pain is going away” or “I’m driving the ball much farther now and I think it is all the core work we are doing” or “I just lost another 10 pounds and noticed I can run without knee pain now” or “I can feel much more power in my legs while surfing.” That is pretty awesome! I love working with people, helping them through these transformations and watching them take off on their own adventures with vitality and confidence. I am grateful that this is my work.
Thanks for taking the time to read about me.
Ingrid