The Zone

Many athletes use breathing to get there- others through long-term practice or a natural shift can simply be there in an instant. Once in this “zone” you have transcended your ego self- and have dropped into what is called many things, including Enlightenment, Infinity, Buddha Nature, and/or God Nature.

But you cannot have the goal to be in the Zone. Oh no. If you try to be the Buddha, you'll never get there, because: you already are the Buddha.

While being the Zone, this is where the projections of the mind are no longer experienced, where the body no longer feels, you move beyond both to become your true nature- who you truly are. This is why sport is so nourishing--as essential as food--for it has the potential to change your reality and bring you home- if only for an instant while running down the street.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” Though sports, if you pay attention and not miss the lessons, you can be powerful beyond measure. You can access and express the connection of everyone, and everything that exists- including the mountains, the skis, the streets, the bike and the water.

Or... sports can be nothing at all.





Ski to Live
www.kristenulmer.com

Your life as a movie...

A little bird is flying in the forest. Suddenly he sees a great fire below, raging out of control. "My home!" he cries, and flies to the lake to gather a beak full of water. Flying back to the fire, he drops his little bundle of water onto the inferno, then races back to the lake. Over and over he repeats the gesture until he becomes so exhausted, he falls into the fire and dies.

Is this a beautiful story or a sad story for you?

I used to be a professional Big Mountain skier- basically I jumped off cliffs and skied you-fall-you-die exposures around the world for cameras. Now I facilitate the intersection of sport, adventure and Infinite wisdom in clinics called Ski to Live and in private sessions. In sports- we have exhilarating moments, sure, flying around our own forest, yet like the bird we also struggle- through injury, through disappointment, through aging, for our entire lives. I know as I get older and nurse my ski injuries, my new goal as an athlete is to get worse at my sport every year, yet be ok with it. I continue pouring beakfuls of water on such fires, daily.

What if this story were made into a movie? Most of us love sad movies, eh? They're familiar. They move us, comfort us, make the struggle of being a human being seem more touching. Perhaps if we see this story as a sad movie, it won't seem sad, it'll seem beautiful. Graceful. Like a kitten struggling for it's first breath. Like an athlete struggling to learn some hard lessons.

I love the hard lessons, maybe more than the easy lessons. I love fighting the fire. That’s why I prefer vacations that help me explore my own existence. The challenges and sadness of life make me feel the most alive and curious.

That's a movie worth watching...

Come visit my web site at www.kristenulmer.com

WHY WE DIG SPORTS


When you have a secret, can you keep it from even those closest to you?

"Yep, like the best poker player."

When you're angry or upset about something, can you hide it from other people?

"Sure, I just smile and keep quiet."

When you're skiing the moguls, can you fake being better than you really are?

Errr, no.

How about rock climbing, if you say you climb 5.12 but it's simply not true, when it comes time will you rise to it?

Not a hairy fingernails chance. Same with baseball, football, golf, cycling, race car driving, all of them.

That's the thing about sports, you can't fake anything. You can't hide from the truth in sports like you can the rest of life. You can't pretend to be stronger, faster, more intelligent, more charming, more sexy than you really are. And so sports, my friends, are the ultimate mirror. A mirror solidly held and no matter how much you try to squirm away, you cannot avoid the reflection.

That's why I choose Sports as Spiritual Practice, as my church. No bullshit. Just living.

They bring us to our knees and little else does...

The Ultimate Path of the Athlete

Sports are the ultimate test. They offer a great mirror. We can fake other aspects of our lives- like we're actors in a movie- but we can't do any such thing in sports. It’s just not possible to pretend to be better than you are while hanging it out on a 5.12 rock climb or in golf tournament. Sports break us down into little pieces, show us clearly our strengths, our weaknesses. They offer us lessons, an opportunity to wake up to what it means to be a human being. But alas, most of us miss these lessons...

The greatest lessons of our lives.

Will you take advantage of these lessons? To become more conscious makes you a better human being, and to be a better human being makes you a better athlete- in whatever way that matters to you. That's good incentive.

In the words of Paul Valery: "The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”

Skiing Without Fear

This is a blog for www.kristenulmer.com and the Ski to Live clinics.


People ask me all the time, "How did you do it? How did you ski without fear all those years as a pro?"

They want to get rid of their own fear, so they can ski better, of course.

I always answer: "You're asking the wrong question."

The question should be: "How do you embrace fear?"

Much like a whining child, the harder we ignore fear the louder it whines. It simply will not stop yowling until we listen to it. If we listen, instead of being our enemy, it becomes our friend- our warning bell. The one who has our back.

Take it a step further now, and embrace fear not like a friend, but like a lover, and you'll see that it is fear, actually, which creates our passionate for this sport. Without fear there is no challenge, no adrenaline. Without fear, skiing would have little appeal, no fire.

I love fear like I want to love Brad Pitt.

Now THAT makes for good skiing...

Reverend Ulmer

Recently performed a marriage ceremony for two close friends at Burning Man. This is what I wrote/presented. Thought it would be nice to share:



We’re born and very quickly we feel so separate from one another. From the earth. From the universe.

So we spend our lives searching. For what- sometimes we’re not sure, but the search goes on regardless. We come to Burning Man to continue the search, and here, if it’s a good year and our eyes are open, we find.

Find what though?

When we watch the man burn tomorrow perhaps we recognize ourselves, Standing up there, arms in the sky, feeling the power, the magnificence, the knowing of who we are and what we are. And instead of searching for, perhaps we can finally find…

Connection. Not just to other human beings but to our own skin, connection to the ground, to gravity, connection to the earth, the atmosphere, to others, to the sky, connection to the stars, to the universe, to beyond even that which we cannot grasp.

In this place, we can finally, with great relief, experience a collective, universal consciousness and truth- a connection to everyone and everything. The other 51 weeks of the year, you are you and I am me. But here, I am you and you are me. Most people never have this chance.

When two people get married, whether it be in Africa through a tribal ceremony or in India with an arranged marriage, the world comes yet another step closer to the truth, that we are all connected. Just like a butterfly beating its wings in Africa affects a child’s cry in Peru, A marriage at Burning Man effects the murmur of the whole world.

This connection doesn’t have to wait through a two-year courtship though, or even for the guy to get his act together and ask, it can happen in an instant. Imagine a world with everyone in love, where there is no fear or confusion. Imagine a world were you can even tell total strangers that you love them.


***(The following is a ceremony)
Look for a partner, best if it’s a stranger, now stand and look into each other eyes

First person say slowly, repeat after me: “I love you. I have always loved you. And I will never stop loving you.” (second person, same)

Pause for crying, hugs, happiness, celebration***


What you just did is what David and Kelli are doing today. Even after two years, they’re still strangers, even after 50 years, they’ll still be strangers, but they’re willing to love, always love, and never stop loving. Not just for themselves and their own lives but for all of you as well. To change the murmur in their lives, but to also to create something so much more for human kind.

Now take that energy and on the count of three I want you to send it, arms extended palms first with the word BANG to David and Kelli, and also past them out onto the playa, and beyond.

My hope is that the whole world will feel it.

Three, two, one