As you know I love being outside in nature, and cycling is one of the outdoor activities I’ve come to enjoy. I know my limits though: mountain biking a while ago in Italy up and down steep gullies was definitely a step too far!
My husband Nick, though, really does love cycling in any form, whether it’s on or off-road in cities or in the countryside. He loves mountain biking on narrow single-track routes, often steep and rocky. Foolishly I joined him on one such ride a while ago and met a sticky end. I wasn’t keen to try that again, so now he tends to go mountain biking with one of our sons. They both love challenging themselves. After a strenuous uphill ride the thrill, I’m told, comes from a fast descent, weaving down snaking switchbacks and controlling the bike over steep rocky drops. A lot of technical skill is required and they’ve both benefited from some proper training.
When I returned to Boulder, Colorado this autumn for the ATNS conference, Nick came with me. While I was having the best time reconnecting with colleagues and meeting new ones at the conference, he rented himself a mountain bike and set off for an adventure up ‘Canyon Boulevard’ in search of the one of the area’s most iconic trails. Work and family responsibilities had been taxing recently, and he thought that having a chance to get away from it all was just what he needed. We also knew that the trails in Boulder were challenging, and I suspected he might be a little apprehensive.
After his ride we met up with a few people from the conference that he knows. He was in a very positive mood, sun kissed and invigorated, and proud of himself for making it happen. We all listened with amazement as he described his adventure along the trail with its spectacular scenery. The ride had been tricky - narrow and rocky with a steep slope down to one side through the trees. He recounted how, after a slow and slightly insecure start, he’d gradually begun to relax. ‘My grip on the handlebars loosened and my shoulders came down. As I relaxed I coped better, my confidence grew and my body remembered my previous biking.’ One of the group asked what he meant, and Nick described how he’d started to use his balance to sway in harmony with the bike, rising and falling over the bumps and moving back and forth as necessary to ascend and descend. He was amazed to discover that the more he relaxed, the better he dealt with the challenges of the ride.
Someone commented that concentrating so hard must have made him tense, but Nick said it was just the opposite. The need to focus on both the trail and the bike consumed his immediate attention, leaving no space for other cares or concerns. He described how, when the track emerged from the trees, the view of the mountains opened up and his senses awoke, smelling the warm pines and feeling the warmth of the sun on his back. In these exhilarating surroundings he felt in harmony with his body and the bike, and tensions melted away. He felt relieved and liberated.
Like the tension dissolving on this demanding bike trail, neuroplastic symptoms can disappear when the brain is distracted. The body remembers intuitively as it sinks into relaxed focus and an information exchange takes place between it and the mind. You don’t, of course, have to be taking part in a strenuous outdoor activity for this to happen. Artists often describe getting lost in their creative work. A friend might say ‘where did the time go?’ after choir practice or a water colour painting session, as body and mind become at one with the experience. As Nick discovered, loose and easy leads the way in this positive cycle.