Olympic Body-Spirit Awareness

Physical activity is one of the easiest portals to clearing the mind and accessing our intuition. Whether its hiking a mountain, riding your bike, digging your fingers in the garden dirt or carving turns through the snow you must be present for the moment. The focus required by physically challenging activities demands that you be on your game to prevent a misstep. Your power of concentration clears out all of the chatter in your head. There’s no room for distraction when you are centered from the core, this is especially heightened in extreme sports. It’s not only the adrenaline high that pushes many people to pursue great athletic feats but the bliss of having those moments of 100% you in your intuitive space.

Watching the Olympic athletes compete has reminded me how powerful and capable the human body can be when trained, intentionally disciplined and free of distractions. Cheering on the athletes is a way to live vicariously through their risk, to witness the glory of human potential and the body-spirit connection. The professional athlete has exceptionally refined their responsiveness to specific activities which occur within a fraction of a second. In the Olympic snowboard half-pipe competition one of the athletes was up in the air going for a grab and missed the edge of his board. Instead of falling flat and crashing he immediately responded with his awareness and skills to save his run. Midair gyrating his body in what they call the funky chicken he reclaimed his center of gravity, landed and finished the run. His response relied on the instinctive body-spirit connection, clarity of mind coupled with action founded in deep experience. Witnessing this awareness of where his body was in space, willingness to trust it to respond as he directed and courage to push the limits inspires us all to have greater presence in the moment.

How can this awareness help the non-Olympian who’s honing their intuitive skills? When your mind is cluttered physical activity is a simple and quick way to clear it and refocus on your own information. Being in your body free of distraction is critical for intuitive truth (it) to present itself.