Surfing

I was just trying to decide whether to add surfing as a form of healing to this guide when I, coincidentally, opened a magazine to an article about a charity in America using surfing to help wounded soldiers regain their confidence and joie de vivre.

As well as the huge sense of achievement that can come from learning to ride a wave, even if you're just clinging onto the board, surfing works in many different ways to heal us.

I remember going for my second ever surf and being completely obsessed about a situation in my love life. I couldn't concentrate… so I got hit in the head with a wave, then another, and another, until I was forced to pull my mind away from the treadmill of the situation and focus on the here and now.

The discipline of surfing is all about getting in tune with the ocean, watching it, waiting for the swell, the wave, knowing when to paddle, when to try and stand and it's this effort of getting in sync with nature that is, for me, a huge part of its healing propensity.

(It's also very good for your physique, for sinus problems and for sun exposure if you need it.)

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