Duotone NOW Magazine No.03 2022

Our bodies are not designed to have so much adrenaline and cortisol in our bodies all the time, without any breaks for recovery. Constant stress makes you ill: it increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes, increases the risk of mental illnesses, causes back pain, digestive problems, tinnitus, inner irritability, tension, you become passively aggressive, grumble at those around you, have problems concentrating, develop sleep disorders, your immune system no longer functions properly and can even lead to continual small infections. Permanent stress simply has an extremely negative influence on our health, both physically and psychologically. Just the thought of the next session on the water can take us out of this vicious circle. Small „daydreams“ or thought journeys to the next kite session are absolutely useful therapeutically. A quick glance at the cell phone at the last vacation photos, the latest products or video clips, or five seconds to close your eyes and think about the next kite session already pulls us out of negativity and can bring you relaxation. Simply checking the wind in destinations such as South Africa, or how much is the next flight to Maui would cost. Dreaming is extremely useful therapeutically, we also use this in therapy as a relaxation method. So you call for spending asmuch time as possible kiting on the water? There can‘t be too much inner motivation to go kiting. When we finally stand at the beach after days or maybe weeks of abstinence, we really live in the moment. We are mindful of what is happening around us. Mindfulness means: you are in this moment, and what you feel there you just accept. As you have so much to coordinate when kiting, there is no time to glorify it. For example, in Hawaii, the water would be warmer or the wind more constant but instead you are simply feeling what is happening right in the moment and telling yourself ‘this is it now, here I am’ and you live in the moment. You have completely forgotten to ‘live in the moment‘ in an extrinsically motivated everyday world. One goal is always caught up by the next goal and this continues to build, we lost in it and don‘t even check what‘s happening in this moment. Kiting is simply a sport where I am forced to be in the moment. Kiting teaches you to appreciate the moment: I‘m on the water and I‘m embracing it. I’m not thinking where will I be in three days, or in five years and that is the definition of mindfulness. then when faced with a project with five just parameters; who do I have to inform, when is the deadline, it doesn‘t challenge me as much at work. Then I can make clear decisions in these situations as well. So kiting strengthens the ability to make decisions. And improves overall mental health? Yes, kiting keeps you psychologically healthy. It has been scientifically proven on a broad basis: Sport, especially in complex forms like kiting, can significantly protect you against mental illness and has a clear antidepressant effect. When we coordinate complex movements like we see in kiting, we are automatically prevented from brooding and negative, depressive thoughts, because our brain cannot complete both tasks at the same time. When we move and coordinate the body mechanically, the motor cortex is engaged in the brain. This precludes us from using our frontal brain at the same time. The frontal brain is where the worry, fear, negative and depressive thoughts arise. The brain has to decide: do I move my body and coordinate this or do I worry about my future and ponder how I will pay off my debts. It can only do one or the other. When I‘m on the water and have to reconcile kite, board, water and wave, I can‘t fit in the conflict with a colleague at work or the relationship problem. Sitting at home on the sofa and staring at the TV, of course you can brood, your frontal brain can work on negative thoughts and this is how mental illnesses can develop and blossom. So you are sayingmany kitersmay now say they are psychologically very stable? You still benefit, because kiting strengthens resilience. We learn to become more persistent by waiting for wind and waves. This helps us in many other areas of life as well. When we have become programmed to go to the spot again and again even when the forecast is mediocre and conditions are difficult, it gives us bite and stamina. If you arrive to a spot with anticipation and full of motivation and it‘s not what you expected, it won’t stop you from trying again the next time, the same way that with a positive attitude and a good feeling that you start your day thinking it is going to be an awesome day. I don‘t perceive it as a setback. This self-fulfilling motivation also teaches us in everyday life not to give up right away because it didn‘t work out the first time, instead to persevere and deal with setbacks. I often wish that many more of my patients would do water sports. So the famous comparison of seeing the glass not half empty, but half full? Exactly, or in other words, kiting teaches us serenity. Acceptance that we can‘t always perfectly control some parameters of our lives. This also has a positive effect on the restlessness in everyday life. We by nature are control freaks, we want to control everything perfectly. When I‘m kiting, I can look at as many apps as I want, when I get to the beach that is what counts and that can be completely contradictory to what I saw on my apps moments before. I then have to be able to deal with it, okay this is the way it is now and also be able to except that there are always parameters that I can‘t control. If the wind is not right, I learn to say I‘ll just wait another hour or tomorrow it will be good. That is a very positive aspect. Because acceptance and composure are key preventive parameters for reducing one‘s risk of mental illness. In Germany, for example, one in three people will develop a mental illness once in their lives, this includes kite professionals, athletes or strong men. Acceptance and composure have a very positive influence on everyday unrest. There are coincidences, positive and negative and if I have a certain composure and know that I have experienced it multiple times, I thought today is no longer possible and suddenly the wind comes and I have the session of the season, then it teaches me for my life that I must be open to the positive turns. I cannot control everything it can always be worse, but it can also come significantly better. You could also say; the permanent search for wind and waves keep you young and awake. Young and awake? Kiting teaches us to adapt to new conditions again and again, to make the right decision taking into account many parameters and then to trust ourselves with all of these consequences. As a kiter you have to be very open: sometimes the spot is too crowded, sometimes the wind direction is wrong, so what alternatives are there? That is extremely important for our psyche, that we stay open for new branches and new views and that we don‘t get stuck in fixed thought patterns. Doing repetitive things the same way over and over again makes us inflexible, ages us faster and makes us ultimately, lonely. Imagine, I drive the same way to work every day and every Tuesday I play volleyball in the hall. It never rains there, it‘s always the same floor, always the same ball, always the same colleagues: These familiar repetitions are rather conducive to me becoming inflexible as a person and thus, in the worst case, a stubborn person due to my inflexibility (although volleyball is a great sport). It‘s important to overcome entrenched thought patterns and say: Hey, today I‘m going to do things differently. I‘ll go to another spot because the wind might be better there, or I‘ll even try out a different sport like foiling. That keeps you extremely young. Kiting teaches you this perfectly and virtually forces you to break out of your prefabricated path. What happens in the process froma medical point of view? This maintains the plasticity of the brain. The normal aging process in humans is that brain cells die irreversibly, but a brain cell that is still active can also make new connections. And new connections can only be made when we have new experiences. This neuronal plasticity enables, for example, the ability to train the hand after a stroke so that mobility returns. Existing cells can therefore create new connections. New connections are also responsible for mental ‘freshness’ in old age and are important for delaying the aging process. Even the decision to make a spontaneous turn on the wave or to use the wave for a jump creates new connections because it works your brain in a different way than driving on a race track where you always take the same curves. The simplest sundowner session on a lake might create new neuronal connections. Having to constantly look for the next chop, for the hole in the wind, I have to permanently act, I am always challenged and active. This may sound very simple, but it‘s true, kiting keeps you young. As a kiter, you are forced not to get stuck in deadlock of thought patterns, but to be open to new events. Kiting can be very relaxing. Does it also help to relieve stress? If we have occasional stress, that‘s no problem at all. The big problem in the increasingly accelerating world of work is that we end up in a state of permanent stress that many people can no longer break out of. Photo  Toby Bromwich 65 E N A B L I N G D R E A M S 64 E N A B L I N G D R E A M S I N T R I N S I C M O T I V A T I O N