Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Creating the world you see and seeing the world you've created

Today is a sunny, warm, beautiful day here in NJ.  Warm
water and offshore winds for the 3rd day in a row.  We often
get stretches like this in July and August on the east coast.
Oh, by the way, did I mention that it is flat?  We haven't had
a decent surfable wave in a few weeks now.  Kind of like
some kind of cruel cosmic joke.  Lots of sunlight, warmth,
perfect winds but no surf.

It would be easy during stretches like these to get bummed.
Surfers want to surf.  Best we can do to avoid depression and
anxiety is to control what you can.  It's all in how you look at
it and what you say to yourself.  That is the basic premise of
cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.  Our moods and behavior
is dictated by what we say to ourselves, our self-talk. Chris Mauro,
the editor of Surfer Magazine actually quoted the Nobel Prize
winning physicist Max Planck (amazing in itself).  Planck said
"when you change the way you look at things the things you look
at change".

So this morning I'll enjoy watching my dog play in the flat ocean,
do some yoga, maybe take a swim or go for a paddle,  maybe 
go snorkeling, spear fishing and be glad it's not February.  That's
the world I've created for this flat August day with blue skies, warm
temperatures, offshore winds, and no surf.

No comments: