{"id":2731,"date":"2024-09-04T13:53:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/?p=2731"},"modified":"2024-09-04T13:53:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T18:53:48","slug":"rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2024\/09\/04\/rising\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
By John Schorling<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Olympics recently ended, and there were many amazing performances.\u00a0 One of the things that inspired me the most was Simone Biles comeback from the \u201ctwisties\u201d that derailed her in Tokyo in 2021.\u00a0 Because of the sudden onset of difficulty with spatial awareness she experienced then, she only won one medal instead of the four or five that were expected.\u00a0 She has since spoken openly about her experience, and how she needed to address her own history of trauma in order to be able to perform at the highest level again.<\/p>\n

I think there are lessons for many of us in how she responded.\u00a0 When faced with obstacles that may be manifestations of our own internal issues it is often easiest to turn away or to blame factors outside our control.\u00a0 Rather than do this, Simone undertook difficult inner work, seeking to better understand the factors leading her to be unable to perform.\u00a0 She engaged a therapist for help and guidance, and has stated that she doesn\u2019t feel she could have returned to high level competition without doing this.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it is in our mindfulness practice when we become aware that something is amiss, and it is important to understand that this can happen.\u00a0 In Simone Biles\u2019 case, it happened dramatically in front of a world-wide audience.\u00a0 At the other end of the spectrum, it can also happen while we are meditating, when we can notice what is coming up while we sit quietly.\u00a0 Often there may be nothing in particular, and we find we can quiet the mind and feel calm and present.\u00a0 At other times, we may experience recurrent thoughts, emotions or bodily sensations that call our attention.\u00a0 Even when we acknowledge them and let them go, they return, over and over.\u00a0 When this happens, it can be a signal that there are issues that we need to deal with, and it may be useful to get help to process them.\u00a0 This might be by taking a mindfulness course with a skilled teacher who can provide guidance, or by seeking the help of a therapist, or perhaps both.<\/p>\n

In the Netflix documentary Simone Biles Rising<\/em>,\u00a0Simone states: \u201cI never thought I would be competing again after Tokyo.\u00a0 There were such loud voices in my head\u201d and \u201cI was in jail with my own brain and body.\u201d\u00a0 One of the main causal\u00a0factors she identified was the trauma she had endured under the care of long-time gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar who has been convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse.\u00a0 As Simone says \u201cThe scars of this horrific abuse continue to live with all of us.\u00a0 As the lone competitor in the recent Tokyo Games who was a survivor of this horror, I can assure you that the impacts of this man\u2019s abuse are not ever over or forgotten.\u201d She also noted that \u201cI did not get the proper care before because I just thought I was ok. But your mind and your body are the first ones to say \u2018Actually, no.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So she sought help from a therapist, who\u00a0she says told her \u201cYou can only shove that stuff down for so long\u201d and she largely stayed away from gymnastics for 18 months.\u00a0 Then she slowly returned to competition, and even before this year\u2019s Olympics, stated \u201cI get to write my own ending\u201d which she did, winning another four medals in Paris.<\/p>\n

Simone has a tattoo related to her commitment that states \u201cAnd still I rise\u201d which is in reference to the Maya Angelou poem and, through hard internal work founded in what I think is remarkable courage and self awareness, she has been able to continue to rise.\u00a0 As her husband, Jonathan Owens (who is a professional football player) says in the Netflix\u00a0series \u201cYou grow through what you go through.\u201d\u00a0 That is a lesson that is also at the heart of mindfulness practice.\u00a0 Difficult issues may come up as we spend time in silence with ourselves, perhaps related to trauma we have experienced.\u00a0 Rather than turn away, we can, often with help, find our way through just as Simone Biles has, as hard as that might be.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Olympics recently ended, and there were many amazing performances.\u00a0 One of the things that inspired me the most was Simone Biles comeback from the \u201ctwisties\u201d that derailed her in Tokyo in 2021.\u00a0 Because of the sudden onset of difficulty with spatial awareness she experienced then, she only won one medal instead of the four or five that were expected.\u00a0 She has since spoken openly about her experience, and how she needed to address her own history of trauma in order to be able to perform at the highest level again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think there are lessons for many of us in how she responded.\u00a0 When faced with obstacles that may be manifestations of our own internal issues it is often easiest to turn away or to blame factors outside our control.\u00a0 Rather than do this, Simone undertook difficult inner work, seeking to better understand the factors leading her to be unable to perform.\u00a0 She engaged a therapist for help and guidance, and has stated that she doesn\u2019t feel she could have returned to high level competition without doing this.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it is in our mindfulness practice when we become aware that something is amiss, and it is important to understand that this can happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1202,"featured_media":2362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-musings"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\nRising - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.med.virginia.edu\/mindfulness\/2024\/09\/04\/rising\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rising - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Olympics recently ended, and there were many amazing performances.\u00a0 One of the things that inspired me the most was Simone Biles comeback from the \u201ctwisties\u201d that derailed her in Tokyo in 2021.\u00a0 Because of the sudden onset of difficulty with spatial awareness she experienced then, she only won one medal instead of the four or five that were expected.\u00a0 She has since spoken openly about her experience, and how she needed to address her own history of trauma in order to be able to perform at the highest level again.\u00a0 I think there are lessons for many of us in how she responded.\u00a0 When faced with obstacles that may be manifestations of our own internal issues it is often easiest to turn away or to blame factors outside our control.\u00a0 Rather than do this, Simone undertook difficult inner work, seeking to better understand the factors leading her to be unable to perform.\u00a0 She engaged a therapist for help and guidance, and has stated that she doesn\u2019t feel she could have returned to high level competition without doing this. 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