Great article here about power lifting that expresses exactly your point to a level of insight that makes for great reading IMO: Folding Inner Space, Part III – Pure Awareness and Deep Athletics in Action | Strong Medicine
I've taken up photography which I find very calming. I've found particular success with long exposure night shots. Had some good results with Deer at Woburn over the Christmas break, too. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I flew from Aboyne in Aberdeenshire which was renowned for wave being in the lee of the Cairngorms. It also flew 365 days a year weather permitting with paid staff working alongside club members . The British Gliding Association web site would tell you which club is close to you. Most are small clubs run by members primarily at weekends but there are some larger more professionally run clubs about. Do your research and have a chat with someone before committing.
Is the jump planned in detail before hand ? I could see a problem if someone deployed their chute directly below someone else still in free fall :Wideyed:
Interesting thread this. I've found the hard way in the last few years the importance of shutting out the daily grind and getting lost in something that either totally focuses your mind or allows you to lose yourself. After a couple of very tough years at work (huge organisation changes that caused massive issues for customers) my health went downhill and was eventually diagnosed with severe ulcerative colitis, which was probably triggered by stress and is with me for life. It's made me refocus on what's important and "switch off" activities to refresh my mind, rest my knackered body and generally enjoy myself. On a day to day basis, walking my two nutter jack russells keeps me sane, I'm lucky to live on Salisbury Plain so loads of great places to walk. Also get lost in music when there's nothing on the telly and it's too cold in the man cave. I tried golf a few years ago, bloody stupid game, so flogged my clubs and bought a shotgun for clay shooting. Great to help focus and cracking good fun. But, the most consistent thing I've done over 30+ years is to cock about on motorcycles, can't beat it, got the bug as a kid, got an FS1E at 16, the rest is history. The recently aquired 1200R Monster is the realisation that life is short, so bloody enjoy it!! No matter how I feel before I go out on it, by the time I get back I'm grinning like an idiot Bikes rock!
Absolutely John, there's a plan always, if it goes tits up and it does, there's a ceiling and wave off at generally 5k feet where skydivers indicate by the "wave off" that there's no more work and track to a position of safety and separation to open canopy. Especially important when there's lots of jumpers. For serious multi plane group jumps (world records) there's waves of tracking groups to ensure seperation
Don't laugh at me it another relaxing hobby of mine is doing jigsaws Great for losing track of time and great for focus and concentration Wasgij puzzles are fun you have to puzzle what you see so the picture on the box isn't what you make it gives you clues and you make your puzzle from there
My parents had two Jack Russell's, one long haired and one short. Lovely, clever, mad dogs. I'm certain my own illness was at least partially stress-related. I too made changes to my lifestyle as a result, including re-starting my kung fu training after a 15 year "break". I used to have target practice with my brother when we lived on a small holding with our parents, and have subsequently done clay shooting a couple of times. Great fun.
Rich at Louigi said to me years ago when i got my first hyper...."youve not bought into a biking marque....youve bought into a social club..." he then proceeded to say "watch...the next people through that door will stay here and natter for ages.." within a half hour 7 blokes turned up with one petrol tank to be sprayed up and emptied his biccie barrel....i was there cos i had to be having my bike dyno'd - although that time it was me that supplied the biccies...!
Essentially, it boils down to finding something easy to repeat that totally focuses your mind in the 'now', to the exclusion of everything else. By doing that, all the other thoughts in your head evaporate and leave you 'in the zone'. Stay in the zone long enough, and your brain/body will create feelings of bliss. Doesn't matter if it's due to riding, aiming at a target, tube riding or merely focused breathing. It's the reason that so many of us feel so good after a long ride.
Yeah thanks John, been doing a lot of that over the last 18 months and on some fairly heavy duty meds, getting better though and I'm not going to let it rule my life Ped
ok, I've finally thought of something! Cleaning my bike! Yep.. That takes my mind of everything pretty much. Finding ways to get into hard to reach spots, cursing and swearing and grazing knuckles in the process. getting pissed with mates used to be good too but these days I largely drink alone so it often has the opposite effect. used to be motor cross, tennis, kung fu, shooting, hitting the gym and drawing all of which used to work for me because I get really into it. but 30 years of manual labor has taken its toll and the physical stuff just makes my life more painful. The drawing I never seem to be in the mood for.
