The Rock Warrior's Way: Mental Training For Climbers

your adopted beliefs and achievement-oriented self-worth, their power begins to dry up. They lack the heart and the force that accompanies a true inner guidance system. One of the warrior’s first tasks is to establish an internal value structure that taps into deeper reservoirs of motivation. This structure will increase the power available to respond to challenges, in climbing or in any other aspect of life.
    Developing a new, internal value structure requires increased awareness, but the process of becoming aware feels threatening. New beliefs and new ways of thinking—by definition—threaten the comfort zone we build around ourselves through familiarity. This comfort zone is complex and full of defenses. It is composed not only of self-limiting habits, but of unconscious mechanisms designed to protect those habits from the harsh light of objective self-examination.
    Habits protect themselves by staying hidden or unconscious, but once noticed, their cover is blown. We begin to feel foolish for indulging in them. Once we’re aware and suspicious of them, self-limiting ways of being cease to be unconscious habits that produce automatic—and often negative—results and responses. They become part of consciousness, subject to revision and change. The mental energy that old habits once required is liberated, and the components of the old value structure become raw material for a new and powerful mindset.
    Prepare yourself to be challenged and to be uncomfortable as you read further. If these words have struck a chord within you, you have already embarked on the process of Becoming Conscious.
    The Witness
    As with all the Rock Warrior processes, the key step in Becoming Conscious is to focus attention. In this case, you focus attention on your inner self, on the flow of your own thoughts. Sit back for a minute and let your mind wander. You may be thinking of a hard climb you haven’t been able to redpoint, which is what led you to pick up this book. Soon your thoughts drift off to what you’d like to have for lunch. Maybe the image of a person pops into your head, or a random memory of something that happened last week. There seems to be no logic or order to these thoughts. They simply pass through your head like a movie, apparently out of your control. The point is not how these thoughts come about or what they might mean. Rather, you can stand back and watch them. They are not you. When you “stand back” like this you have done something important; you have located the Witness position.
    By identifying the Witness position and going there, you separate yourself from the complex goings-on within your conscious mind that affect your life and climbing performance. This separation allows you the objectivity necessary to analyze and change habitual or unconscious ways of being. It also provides the sense of autonomy necessary to examine issues that threaten your Ego, such as, how you develop your self-image and assign your self-worth. Knowing there is an inner you independent of any beliefs or thoughts gives you the power to change.
    As the Witness position creates a place for you to conduct your observations, it also effects the thoughts and feelings you’re observing. By itself, it will not reverse self-limiting thoughts, but it does help these thoughts be less overwhelming. In 1985 I was going through a divorce and was overwhelmed with feelings of negativity. One winter night during this time I was driving with my mother through the country. A full moon reflected off sparkling snow that had just fallen. As we were driving, I was feeling bitter, angry, and resentful. All of my attention was focused on these negative states. My mother noticed my state and asked why I had to be so sad and angry. “You don’t even see the beauty of this winter evening,” she said. She was right, and her comment stirred the Witness in me. I noticed my sour attitude, the beauty of the evening, and my resistance to letting go of the unpleasant mood in which I was immersed. Even though I wasn’t able to let go of my negative thinking, I noticed it and knew that I wanted to let it go. My awareness was piqued, and it was the beginning of the transformation of my attitude.
    Performance, Self-Image, and Self-Worth
    Self-worth is how valuable we feel. Self-image is our sense of who we are and what we can do. Self-image directly affects how we perform. Regardless of our actual level of fitness, if we feel strong, agile, and