Why Surfers Are So Chill - And How You Can Be Too

Summary

• Surfers are some of the most relaxed group of people you will ever meet. We can be as relaxed or chill too.
• Grounding. Surfers run onto the sand and into the water. This connects them to nature. We can do the same by putting our feet on sand, grass, river rocks, etc. We can also submerge ourselves in water or forest. Listen to the wind blow through the leaves or the waves crash on the rocks. All this is considered grounding and can help you relax.
• Meditating. Meditation is simply focusing on one thing. Surfers will focus on the ocean, waiting for signs of the next best wave. You can focus on one thing too. It could be a sound, word, phrase. Or it can be a hobby, like a painting.
• Stress. Surfing may not sound stressful, but jumping onto a board and riding a wave is stressful. Stress isn’t always bad. Regulate the amount of stress you have in your life. Too much stress can break us down. Not enough stress can make us weak.
• Recovery. After the wave, they hop off the board and paddle out to catch the next wave. At that time they can recover from the last ride and be better prepared for the next. Add recovery into your day to better handle stresses you encounter.
• Repetition. The practice of grounding, meditation, stress, and recovery trains the brain and body to relax. If you graph a surfing session, you will see the relax-stress-relax repeat over and over. It becomes a habit and the surfers become efficient at relaxing. Find a routine that you can do that mimics the surfers and repeat it.

Full Transcript

Hey, David Sabi here with Kids to Athlete. We're going over relaxing, taking it easy, just chilling, kind of like a surfer. And we're going to analyze why surfers are so relaxed and why you as a parent or even as an athlete, should be relaxed. Let's get into it. Why are surfers so chill? Well, let's look at what they're doing. They grab their board, they run across the sand and into the ocean. What are they doing, really? They're going into nature. Nature is relaxing and energizing as well. It could also be considered to be grounding. And grounding is just a term that people use to kind of reconnect with the earth or nature. And if you look at it, not to get too woo-wooy on you, but the earth emits a frequency and that frequency can be absorbed by us. And so we can either be relaxed or energized.

Just if you believe it or not, I mean, whether you're absorbing the frequencies of the earth or not, just go out into nature. Get your feet on the sand, on river rocks, on the grass. It doesn't have to be anything too crazy. And if you don't want to take your shoes off, just go into a forest, go for a walk, go to the beach. Listen to the sounds and the sounds of the waves, the trees, the wind blowing through the leaves. There are so many different ways to just absorb that energy and just to be able to relax. The first thing surfers do, they get into nature. Number two, what do surfers do? Well, they're in the water now and they're waiting for that next wave. They're watching the ocean, they're watching the swells. And I'm going to stop here because what they're really doing is they're meditating.

And again, I know meditation, just that words kind of scares some people. Don't be scared of the word meditation. Basically, they're focusing on one thing and one thing only. You can do the same thing by just focusing on one thing. It could be a word, right? You could do just a little phrase in your head. You can even just focus on something like a free throw shot. If you've got a basketball and you've got a hoop and all you're doing is focusing on that free throw shot, and that's all that's running through your mind, that's meditation. Don't be scared of that word meditation. And that's what surfers are doing. They're getting grounded, they're doing some meditation and then, oh, guess what? What's the next thing they do? They see the wave coming. They point their board, start paddling, match up their speed with the wave. They catch the way, and I'm going to stop here.

What they're really doing is they are handling stress. And I know that you're like, well, surfing isn't really stressful, but it is a stress and stress isn't a bad thing. The problem with stress is if it becomes chronic. Surfing is the stressor and they're doing just fine with that stress. But the most important part is the thing that happens after the stress, the waves over, they're down and they are recovering. And that's where I think most of us go wrong when it comes to stress. We tend to be in a chronic state of stress and that can break us down. Do like a surfer, make sure you get that recovery. Get off the board and just kind of recoup and get back into relaxing, get back into where you should be, in a calm state.

Those are just a couple of things. And then after that, they're back to meditation, they're back to looking for that next wave and then stress. Now, I'm in San Diego so you could technically surf pretty much all year long. And what's nice about that is you get repetition, which is why I think the surfers around here are really relaxed because they practice getting grounded. They practice their meditation, they practice getting stressed, surfing, and then that recovery. And believe it or not, when you have been just practicing that over and over and you're getting the repetition of getting stressed and then recovering, you tend to be able to do it quicker. You tend to be able to recover quicker from stress. So make it a habit. Find your way of getting grounded, whether that's just taking your shoes off and walking on grass. Find your way of meditating, whether it's just thinking of one thing or just thinking of a word or doing one thing and just focusing on that.

And then the stress is usually pretty easy. You'll find stress anywhere, pretty much anywhere you go. But the recovery, find a way to just get off the board, get off that stressful train or whatnot. And again, just let your heart rate come back down and get into a calm state. And so those are my keys to being calm, being stress-free, being relaxed, just like a surfer. Thanks for watching Kids to Athlete. Again, my name is David Sabi. Here to help parents raise athletes. If you haven't already hit that subscribe button and I will see you on the next video.