Staying focused over the holidays

On the cross country side of Nordic Combined training, there’s no way to get to the top other than to pay your dues: which means long hours of hard, yet smart training, and the right amount of recovery between sessions. The rest of my teammates are from out west (we all live in Park City, UT now). In my years growing up in Wisconsin, I spent hours and hours training on my own. This last week, training on my own, away from the team, was nothing new to me. It’s probably impossible to stay present for an entire two or three hour ski, but I do make an effort now to occasionally bring my mind into the present. A few minutes of just feeling my breath, the movements of my body and skis and the winter air provide as good of an opportunity to be mindful as any. Practicing Headspace taught me the value in this simple exercise. The way I see it, you don’t have to sit cross-legged in a dark room to meditate. Now, I’m back overseas to the first competition of 2015 in the Black Forest of Germany. In the next couple months, I’ll compete all over central Europe, then in Sapporo, Japan, and in Finland, Sweden and Norway. I have a lot of travel and a long road ahead. I’ve got goals to check off and am sure to have highs and lows ahead of me. But with the help of Headspace I’ll take one step at a time. I’ll stay focused on the present and the process, and the outcome will always be there.