Another beautiful start to the week here in Bali. Over the weekend I went SUP’ing (Stand up paddle boarding) with 2 friends (Annabell and Ingela) who are madly passionate about it. Annabell is in fact a professional SUP’er who has kindly and patiently taken me on some sessions both here and back in our hometown Auckland.
It’s fair to say I am not naturally talented at SUP – in fact if I was at school my SUP report card might say a solid ‘C’, tries hard!! BUT, I love it and I’m so grateful for my friends introducing me to this beautiful sport and learning something new.
As I kept falling off (tea bagging they call it) in and out of the water I realized that if I broke my concentration letting the monkey mind win with its incessant chatter along the lines of ‘if we get back by 4pm I can take Annabel to a Kundalini class, I wonder if Mandy’s leg is better, I better ring mum for mothers day’ now and on it goes’, I would keep tea bagging more, and it would also stop me from enjoying this aquatic bliss. It’s the same with anything, surfing, yoga, relaxing – its so easy to sabotage the stillness these practices bring by letting a busy mind’s noise win so mindfulness is a daily but very worthwhile challenge for me.
So, as we paddled over the turquoise waters of Nusa Dua seeing bright star fish, pretty shaped coral and sun shinning off the water smiling back at us, I was in my flow, in my bliss and surprisingly fell in a lot less too!
Jen xx