climbing as a tool for emotional healing

I think many of us have been in this place: when something has gone awry in another part of our lives, we turn to climbing for relief and healing.

Climbing is a wonderful outlet to have in our lives; however, relying too heavily on it as a coping mechanism can go south quickly. 

Lately, climbing has been a hugely important part of my life (even more than it has in the past). Because of this, I’m also trying to be intentional about how I participate in it.

Climbing is something I want to value and not lose due to something like injury or having my relationship with it sour.

Over the next few weeks, I want to share my experiences with both the ways in which climbing has eased pain and also the ways in which I am am wary of going too far with it in the healing process. Today I will talk about:

Using climbing as a distraction vs. using it for escapism

Especially in the initial period after a hard loss or life change, I've found that staying busy is important. When emotions are high and thoughts tend to spiral quickly, it’s help to distract myself and climbing is an excellent outlet.

Climbing is beautiful in that way and is one the reasons that so many of us love it: it takes all of my focus and requires my body and mind to be connected. It’s a great way to drown out the intrusive thoughts that are otherwise difficult to shake.

(pictured: last month I went to the Red River Gorge for a change of scenery as I processed a challenging life change)

However, at a certain point, it's important to face these underlying issues and climbing can't be used to run away from them forever. 

It’s important to remember that climbing is a tool to help us in our healing, but it can’t be the only thing in our lives.

Have you ever used climbing as a distraction or had the experience where it might have turned into escapism?