How Boxing and a little Plant Medicine is Transforming my Brain

A few months ago, I had a random thought, I wanted to start boxing. I was clear I didn't just want to hit a bag and get sweaty. I wanted to learn footwork and proper technique. It was also evident this would be an investment and practice that I would have to commit to for a while.

When random thoughts, ideas, or hits come to me without logic or good reason, I follow them as I believe this is how your heart, soul, or spirit speaks to you. Your brain is excellent at creating ideas or plans that make sense. However, when something has no logic or reason, it often comes from deeper within. I say follow it and follow it fast because it will vanish as quickly as it appeared.

I quickly got a recommendation for a trainer, did a free session, and was a bit nervous about the investment and commitment, but mostly what scared me was what if i sucked.

But I said yes, and jumped in.

And over the last few months, my brain started rewiring itself. This wasn't part of the plan. This wasn't something I expected or was hoping would happen.

I'll explain how boxing made this happen.

When I'm boxing, my trainer, Danny, asks me to do many things simultaneously. My feet, hips, shoulders, arms, hands, and breath all need to be in unison and move together in sequences I am not accustomed to. Boxing is much more like a dance than baseball or basketball movements that I am more comfortable and familiar with.

I would hold my breath, not move my feet in a prescribed way, and awkwardly move out of sequence or rhythm like a baby learning to walk. I wish there was a video because you would laugh. When these things happened, Danny would say, nope, try it again, or watch again. However, almost every time, what I would hear in my mind was "you suck," "you can't do this," "this is too hard," "you don't need to do this," or "maybe this isn't for me." I never said anything aloud and kept working and following his instructions, but that was what was happening in my head.

There were weeks or sessions I felt I was improving, and then the next week or session, it felt like nope, I was three steps backward and getting worse. Aside from the sweating and exercise, it was hard to feel good about it.

I would try and practice not beating myself up mentally, but that was almost harder than the new skill. My mind is fierce and protective regarding new things I'm not good at. I say protective because I no longer have to suck or struggle with it if I stop the activity. It's a great strategy to stay safe and protect myself from failure.

I started to practice accepting myself for where I was. This can be challenging as when we don't like where we are, how do we get to a place where we can accept where we are. And that's the key. It's not about liking or not liking where we are, but simply being with where we are, just as it is without opinion or judgment.

Over time I felt myself not being so hard on myself. And then, about a month ago, I went on a psychedelic plant medicine journey. This experience was one of the best of my life, life-changing, and deeply healing and spiritual. While I will write more about this experience in the future, what is relevant for this article is the experience I had with accepting fear and how that translated to boxing.

In the journey, I faced parts of myself that scared me. I couldn't deal with some deeply terrifying thoughts, visuals, and ideas that showed up. It created extreme anxiety and discomfort. In the experience, I kept trying to calm myself, soothe myself and make it go away. But it wasn't working. The more I wanted to escape it, the more it pulled me in and got more intense. Then suddenly, I simply acknowledged that I was too afraid to face what it showed me. I acknowledged that I was ok with being scared, I was ok with being where I was on my journey, and I was ok with the fear. I then acknowledged that maybe one day I would be in a different place where I could face it but today wasn't that day. At that moment, I stopped pushing the fear away. I stopped running away or avoiding it. I just accepted it as it was. And at that moment, the fear vanished.

When I returned to boxing, I brought that mindset back with me. When Danny would stop me because I was doing it wrong or my movements were off or out of sync, I would accept it and move forward. There was no "you suck" or "you're not good enough," just a blank mind without judgment or opinion. And I would go again.

This is a life-changing awareness. Do you realize how many things in life are not as we would like them to be? Do you realize how many people don't act as we want them to? Do you know that the earth, other people, your body, the weather, your job, your kids, traffic, or anything else doesn't care how you think it "should" be? That it's actually arrogant and frankly silly to believe that because we have preferences, the world should follow suit or oblige our preferences. And to think how much energy and upset we create over life and people not matching our desired preferences is insane. The good we could put that energy to would be life-changing for most of us.

When we learn to accept things, life, and people, it doesn't mean we like it or agree with it but acknowledging that it is what it is. With that acknowledgment, we end our tug of war with the issue, situation, or person. From that place of acceptance, we are free. We are no longer controlled by the whims, circumstances, and drama of the issue, situation, or people. We become truly free, and from that place of freedom, we are no longer in a state of reaction to something else. When we are reacting to something else, it is controlling us. When we accept and allow it to be as it is, we are no longer controlled and can freely choose who we want to be about it going forward. We stop being reactive and step into who we are committed to being or creating from our passion or purpose.

When it comes to boxing, I get to get better and grow physically and mentally. I get to keep my peace and move forward at the same time. I then get to bring this acceptance into other areas of life. When I do this, I create more overall freedom, peace, ease, and joy. This allows me to be the man who leads, inspires, and creates change from a place of commitment, passion, and genuine desire instead of moving forward from drama, anger, disappointment, or frustration.

We will never really know whether it's boxing or plant medicine that changed me. I know that my brain's neuroplasticity and neuro pathways have changed. It's beyond evident as my automatic behaviors and thoughts have entirely shifted. I know that getting out of my comfort zone, being with the unknown, and fear presented a fantastic opportunity for massive change. This set me free in ways I had previously been trapped, stuck, and living in anger and frustration. I am happier, calmer, and less stressed. I have been able to simultaneously create and do more while also slowing down and connecting with others in ways that previously felt challenging.?