Natural Health Family! I hope everyone had a great weekend. The past weekend I got to play golf with some friends and it helped me see things in a different perspective. Golf is an interesting sport that requires us to stay present on the task at hand. It also showed me how easy it is to get frustrated at something that was meant to be enjoyed. Let’s talk about how golf can show us some simple lessons that can be carried over into our lives.
Just like any new sport or activity we must learn the basics before we can do well at it. Like a kid who learns to ride a bike, he or she first learns the steps one by one. Then when the child feels comfortable enough he or she doesn’t have to think about it and it feels more natural to just ride. We must learn the basics of a new activity first. However, for many this can be a frustrating process. Learning something new we are starting to fire and wire our brain in new ways. This can feel uncomfortable and unnatural because our brain is literally creating new neural pathways. Like golf, the first time we do something well such as hitting the ball we then know that we can do it again. We are starting to build the confidence to know we can based on experiencing the event of hitting the ball well. Many times we forget that as kids we had to learn new things all the time and that it was uncomfortable at first. Nonetheless, we pushed through the struggle and achieved the desirable outcome. It was that child-like curiosity and playful mindset that helped us learn the new skill. The old saying “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” is only based on the old dog not exposing itself to new environments and challenges. Embracing the struggle at the beginning with a child-like mind and acknowledging that we still need practice helps us achieve what we are striving for at the end.
Another aspect of the sport was the willingness to stay relaxed when it doesn’t go the way we want it to. This of course is a skill to have with any activity that we do. I realized that when a shot didn’t go the way a person wanted that they would get a little upset. However, if they let that frustration stay with them to the next shot it would again lead to the same issue. It wasn’t until they relaxed, accepted the bad shots, and turned towards having fun when they started to shoot better. Sometimes when we have some bad shots we want to try to figure out what all the problems are and fix them one by one. This can take a while and if anybody is trying to help you with little tips and tricks it can be sometimes even more frustrating. Not until a person decides to just have fun with what they are doing and just swing away do they start to do well. They also feel more willing to receive the little tips from others that could make them that much better.
Life sometimes requires us to make changes in our lives and we have to learn new skills to adapt. Learning new things can seem difficult at first, but when we choose to do it with a sense of gaining confidence and having fun does it seem to get easier. It might be easy to get caught up in everything going around us, but we can also remember that we can enjoy any new thing if we have a good attitude towards it.
Have a great week!
Dr. Chip
