Making It Outside is a metaphor I use for describing how I live life...how we all live life. I am borrowing the term from the realm of surfing, as it refers to the process of paddling a surfboard, a body board, or simply swimming through the incoming whitewash to the area where the waves actually break. As surfers, we want to surf the free breaking wave at its peak, so the goal is always to "make it outside" to the breaking wave.
I use this term as a metaphor for this blog because making it outside is sometimes extremely difficult. A novice surfer has no concept of how to paddle a surfboard through incoming whitewash or through pounding waves at the point of impact. Invariably, a novice will get pummeled by the ocean, thrown off his or her board, and may be pushed back to the beach with sand in every orifice, a mouthful of seawater, and usually a humbled ego.
But...this same humbling experience may also happen to veteran surfers. It may be by different degrees but the challenge is the same. The surf may be huge, so the process of getting through the large waves takes more strength and endurance. The currents may be so strong that they instantly sweep you down the beach away from your desired wave. Or, as is sometimes the case with me, you haven't surfed frequently enough to maintain fitness or rhythm with the ocean, so you make mistakes that cause you to get hammered by the waves.
My point is that making it outside in the surf is pretty much like making it outside in life. Life constantly throws whitewash at us that we need to overcome, rogue waves that either push us to the bottom or all the way back to the beach, and severe riptides that sweep us away from our objectives. So, as in surfing, it takes some very specific foundational qualities and values which help us skillfully navigate this seemingly treacherous ocean journey before us.
What is very interesting to consider though, sort of "next level" awareness, is that in surfing we go through this struggle to make it outside only to turn around, paddle hard, catch the free breaking wave, and then experience the joy of riding the energy of that wave back...inside. Once complete, we turn around and repeat the cycle again and again... When we look at life in this way, the goal isn't actually making it outside...that is only the start. The goal is to do the work to make it outside in order to experience the joy of making it inside. We can't experience one without the other...our life journey requires both.
This is my experience with my life, as I have found my journey inside through intense work to make it outside. I have struggled through the various whitewashes, currents, and conditions to discover a moment of peace...a moment of clarity. It was and is in that moment that I realize that the goal actually is to make it inside. I discovered that my journey inside is my journey to my true self.
Making It Outside might be better titled Making It "Inside" but, as in surfing, we must first learn to make it outside before we may learn to ride the waves. But before we may even do that...we must first choose to jump in the ocean and start paddling.
This blog is about my healing journey… and hopefully yours too. It will contain different stops on my path, different musings, and different realizations. And then…it will move on to what is relevant in the present moment. Thoughts, ideas, and truths about today and growing into tomorrow… to stay awake and to make it outside.
I invite you to join me on this journey and to share in this dialogue.
