When you have a great passion and you have to try to explain it to someone, it’s always a tough situation.
Your motivations are so strong, but when you try to put them into words everything sounds meaningless, it’s like words are spoiling it. Your reasons, your feelings are deeper than words, go further than logic. They are tied to something deeper than anything that logic can contain.
You just can’t explain something so deep.
You can just give it a try, but you can’t open your chest and say “Here it is! Watch this! here’s why!” and quit the conversation.
When I have to describe it in few words I like to say that for me it is like a form of meditation, the most powerful and straightforward I know. But it is not a gentle meditation that slowly leads polluted thoughts away. This type of meditation is a bit less kind, it literally kicks them out.
I love to call it “my reset button”.
But I guess it is better we start from the beginning.

Unfortunately I can’t post a picture of my emotions and motivation. I think that the closer thing I can do is take you with me through the process that brings me out pedaling.

Step 0 – To go out or not to go out: that is the question

You are indoors, it could be home or office, and you are a bit confused, or your head is just full of everything. Your thoughts are too many to flow smoothly, so everything is stuck in there, your thinking is useless and goes nowhere.
You know that going out with your mtb could lift you up, but you are so stuck in your confusion that you are disconnected from yourself, so every decision you take seems to be the wrong one.

Step 1 – You decide to go and where

Suddenly you seize the initiative and you decide to go out pedaling, even forcing yourself. You need it, you deserve it.
As soon as you are thinking where to go, in your head, you are already riding trails.
While doing this something wakes up in you and you become to feel excited, because you are coming back to life and you are doing this by yourself, you are starting to reconnect with your potential.
You already feel so good and new that you start wondering how that answer was so well hidden.
Your adventure is yet to come, but everything you will do from now on will be different, tastier.
Everything you have to do before leaving makes more sense.

Step 2 – Getting ready

The time has come. You just have to fill your backpack, grab the bike and go out.
You are so excited, but even if your mind is already out on trails, you have to stay focused or you will forget something useful to bring with you.
One more time you ask yourself: “how can it be possible that I had to dig so much to decide that?!”.

Step 3 – Departure

You are out! You are on the saddle and you start pedaling, another step towards finding the lost harmony with you and the world.
The very start is often not so easy. Especially when you start climbing, as long as your body and your muscles are still sleeping all you feel is struggle.
It’s just like that, your mind was so shut that your body was frozen. But now you feel you are on the right path to get rid of it.

Step 4 – Mind liberation

You keep on pedaling, your legs do the right thing and this repetitive and regular movement becomes your mantra.
The heaviness of your thoughts slowly fade away, the nature surrounding you seems to help you with this.
Your worries are going to disappear without you even realizing it.
You find yourself in silence admiring the landscape, inhaling odors, listening to sounds, coming back to your senses.
Everything goes with the flow, purifying you, relieving you from yourself, while what surrounds you keeps on changing and amazes you. You could be on your usual trail or on a new one, but it doesn’t matter, nothing is routine, all is brand new.

Step 5 – The warrior’s rest

You reach the top, what was your struggle has became the center of your meditation. Your muscles are warm now, nothing can stop you, it’s almost a pity that the climbing is over (almost! sometimes more, sometimes less so ?). At the same time the satisfaction of achieving your physical target amplifies the reaching of your inner goal.
Once again you enjoy your new superpowers. Your super smell, your super hearing, your super sight. Now you can see all the beauty because everything is full of life again, you can feel the flow in and out of you.
You enjoy this state of freshness and openness, while your legs are resting and your head is full of gratitude that you are free again.

Step 6 – Downhill

Ok, you rested, you appreciated the landscape, maybe you also ate a sandwich that despite being very basic was super tasty. Now it’s time to use your super senses to definitely kick out what stops you from being a real human being and feeling one more time the childhood joy you felt when you used to play outside and nothing else mattered.
So you put on your kneepads and your helmet, strike the pedal, the saddle goes down and you start going downhill.
Suddenly every part of your body, even the remote ones come back to action. Your chest is about to explode and your heart pumps like a kid’s one.
You and the nature that surrounds you, are the same thing. Nothing really exists except what you are doing. Right here, right now. Past and future don’t exist and it’s not your business anyway. Every fiber of your body, the whole focus of your mind, every element of your spirit are absorbed by it. The porcelain that was covering you explodes into a thousand pieces, that suddenly fade away in the air.
You are that tree you are avoiding, you are the earth you are hitting, that rock that lets you jump, you are a woodland elf, floating in the air, bouncing here and there, following the natural flow. You are the flow.

Step 7- Everything is possible now

You did it.
Your heart is still strongly pumping, but little by little it beats slower while you are coming back to reality.
But you are not the same as you started.
Everything is now fresh and vivid.
You would love to instantly share your experience with the whole world, but how can you do it? The only thing you can do is trying to write a post then.
But the most important thing is that everything is possible now, once again.
And as long as it is like that in your mind, it’s like that, that’s it.

P.s.: be careful, when you are riding downhill, it’s better you don’t laugh and smile too much, or you will eat a lot of mosquitoes.

Too hyped? Maybe, or maybe not. It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t even matter what your tool is. Some use a mountain bike, or a snowboard, some a surfboard, others climbs rocks etc.
As long as you do what you do searching a connection with yourself, the one and only you really care to challenge, well, that’s already  joy.
No matter how overwhelming thoughts and problems might seem, I know that if I go out with my bike, then everything will be manageable again.
I was completely stuck, but the perspective zooms out and I come back to see things in the right proportions.

It’s amazing having such a passion, It hooks you so strongly that just doing it, it purifies you. It’s a great fortune.
Just enjoy the ride! ✌?️

What’s your experience? How do you live it? Write it down in the comments, share it, and once at least, let us come with you!