London to Brighton Charity Ride

The most significant cycle ride in my life so far. A true mission during which I realised one of the most important aspects about myself ever.

1767 views

4 minute read

Inception

Every now and then a thought comes to one's mind to do something a bit different.

Something that is a little out of the comfort zone.

Something that puts us on a mission.

Mission in a religious sense.

To discover ourselves.

For me, a mission isn't taking a 1st class plane flight to Amsterdam.

It has to be something that reconnects me with the ... nature of nature.

In this ride I made a gut feel decision to sign us up to London to Brighton charity cycle ride.

It was to be the second time we did it.

But the first time we did it as part of the crowds.

Before The Ride

I never thought this ride was going to have much significance in my life.

I thought it was about, at best, getting more cycling miles onto my Strava log.

That's it.

And something different to do.

The mission bit above would be a super-nice-to-have outcome.

It was inevitable considering that any 50km+ ride always makes us think about life in a greater sense.

All in all, I was not expecting to get any major epiphanies on this ride.

The Day Of The Ride

On the day, the weather was very hot for UK standards.

A 30 degrees Celsius is high heat and a humid experience no matter what.

I quickly realised my mind wasn't set right at all.

I started complaining and looking outwards from the very few spins.

I continued to complain throughout the ride.

I heard myself do it very much.

I was complaining so much that I started feeling like complaining about my complaining.

It was terrible.

On the way up one of the hills I was suffering.

Suffering from myself and my mind's negative chatter.

Then I spoke to a 71 year old man who had suffered two heart attacks before.

And he was happy to ride that day with a massive smile on his face.

After him I saw a woman who was cycling with a special bike.

A bike that had her ~12 year old quadriplegic son in the box in a wheel chair.

She was happy to cycle with that massive extra weight and, again, with a massive smile on her face.

I started realising I had to change.

Change and redesign myself from the ground up.

I had no idea what it was going to be.

Getting To The Top

Once we climbed up the highest and hardest of hills I broke out into tears.

I knew I was not right at all.

Everything was functioning 'just fine', but I was not feeling well mentally at all.

I had to do something that is completely outside of the techniques I had applied to myself before.

I appreciated being on top the highest of hills on this ride.

I took the moment to deeply contemplate on what was happening to me.

I was looking forward to finishing the ride.

Cooling Down In The Sea

For anyone who is familiar with UK and its sea, they will know it is f***ing cold!

It's not fun to swim in at all.

On this day I felt different.

It was a hot day and I felt that my mind was heating up way over the top too.

So I decided to do what would have been the unthinkable for me up until then.

I decided to swim and cool my legs off straight after the ride.

It was a very therapeutic and calming feeling and I gained a sense of real balance in my body.

I knew I had to do something about retaining this kind of a feeling going forward.

Embodying it deep inside me throughout every sense.

Forever.

It dawned on me that day that this ride was a real mission.

Mission to help me realise I needed help.

Help to save me from me.

It was the most significant cycle ride I've ever taken so far.

It set me up on the most significant self-redesign process I ever undertook.

And it was all for charity.

I felt like I received the biggest charity that day.

The gift of greater self-realisation.

Rebirth

The ride took place on my 36th birthday.

Birthdays usually were something that I didn't like the idea of.

On this day, the decision got made inside of me to rebirth myself in a new light.

A light I actually enjoy seeing myself in.

It was time for me to wash away all the naggy, complaining and negative characteristics I held onto.

The true mission had only begun!

Published on: 16 Aug 2017