Oban, Lismore and Finding Your Flow

I’d had a stressful week and the pull of the West Coast was especially strong so I booked a last minute hotel and headed to Oban with my bike. Oban is one of my favourite places, it’s where lots of my island adventures have begun so I feel a real fizz of excitement whenever I arrive there.

I got into Oban late on Friday night, had a quick walk by the sea and headed for bed. By 8:00am the following morning I was on the ferry to Lismore and already I could feel the stresses of the week fading away.

I don’t have a car so I’ve almost exhausted the places I can get to via a combination of train, ferry and bike but I’d never been to Lismore and I love nothing more than unchartered territory!

After a short sharp climb from the ferry port at Achnacroish I freewheeled almost all the way to Port Ramsay without seeing another soul. I sat on the pier and waited for my next ferry to Port Appin, I say ferry, it turned out to be a very small boat with a friendly crew of two who transported me safely across the water.

I set off from Port Appin and was pleased to discover that not only did my route take me past Castle Stalker, a castle on it’s own little island that I’d always wanted to see, but that there was a cycle path almost all the way back to Oban. The first 10 miles were flat and easy which was lovely for my legs but not so good for my mind. I rely on the push and pull of the pedals to help my mind work through whatever’s bothering me but today I was struggling to switch off.

I’m reading a booked called ‘Mind of a Survivor’ by Megan Hine, in it she talks about ‘Flow’ which is when your mind and your body are totally in sync and everything else falls away. Or in the words of Wikipedia:

In positive psychology, flow, also known as the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does and loses sense of space and time.

I’d never heard anyone put a name to this feeling but it’s the reason I love cycling (and hiking, kayaking, all outdoor activities really) and it’s what I was hoping would happen today, but my mind wouldn’t settle and worse still I had an ear worm, there was a song stuck in my head that would not leave me alone.

A few miles down the road tho I entered a section of hills, my thighs were burning, I was out of breath and I was finally finding my flow….until my chain snapped!

Some days it happens, some days it remains elusive but I’ll always chase it. I find meditation a battle, in most yoga classes I’m thinking about what I’m going to have for my dinner, the outdoors is where peace lies for me and despite this day not going exactly as planned I returned to Glasgow feeling better and with my perspective on life and it's worries back in place.