What does climbing the Pico Mountain at 2.351meters hight has taught me?
Besides teaching me that watching a sunrise over the Atlantic ocean with 5 islands at sight is one of the most amazing views one can have, it also taught me 3 short yet important lessons… Lessons worthy of any Super hero’s tale and story.
I’M NO SUPER WOMAN
My mind and spirit are unbreakable. But not my body.
I have always been very active but I am not a sports person per se. Being a bit adventurous I have done a few things most people dream of trying such as rappel, slides, hikes, trekking, snorkel, skiing, rafting, skydiving, etc etc. in many amazing places all over the world. And at all of those wild experiences my body was always there for me. Always with the right amount of strength, stamina and flexibility. Always ready without me even needing to check it. But so it seems that is not the case anymore… I can still do the wild things I like and wish to do but now I do it with more effort and with more risk of injuries. And it takes way longer to recover…
Pico Mountain taught me that my most precious tool in life, this body of mine, needs more rest, more maintenance, more care and more of my attention moving forward specially if I intend to keep putting it to the test. I need to take better care of myself.
My mind and my spirit were unbreakable the whole way up and down the mountain. But not my body… Because I am no Super Woman.
COURAGE IS A SUPER POWER
Believing is the first step. Doing it is the leap of courage.
This climb was already a challenge even before starting it since I have never climbed a mountain and it’s out of my comfort zone and it scared me. And that is exactly why I decided to do it: because it would really, really be a challenge of courage. For some people this mountain is easy and they would do it with ease. Good for them! But I knew from start that that wouldn’t be my case. And that is why I decided to do it in the year that I am overcoming many of my fears and all the limitations that come with fear. To me this was indeed an act of courage. And it was courage that gave me the strength to do it. Always believing I could. And I did it. In spite of the fear, the pain and the effort. Because courage is resistance to fear and mastering of fear, not absence of fear.
GUIDES ARE SUPER HEROES
Those who guide us in a a mountain are also those who save us.
There are many guides and examples of people that dedicate their life and their work to save, help or provide a good time to others. And this calling and dedication sometimes goes above and beyond their responsibilities as professionals. They indeed can be heroes. And that is where I place a mountain guide after climbing Pico Mountain with Renato Goulart, the guide who has done it more than 2.200 times. He was the one who supported the whole group and provided help to the ones in need of it, myself included, to get up and then out of the mountain and to achieve their purpose, goal or desire. I always say I am an “Others & Self” made person and again this climb was the proof of that. If I am a more determined and courageous person now after climbing that mountain it is because I had an’Other person helping me achieve my goal.
Thank you Renato! 🙂
