The Rest of the Mountain Biking Story

How mountain biking mum Becky Cashman got her groove back

That's the title of a recent New Zealand Women’s Weekly story of the woman in her 50s that learns to mountain bike ride. They liked the blog posts that I did for you last winter and thought it was an interesting story. 

While the article is about me deciding to do something that kind of scared me, it’s really about finding a framework and asking my family to support me to be able to learn something new. It's about turning on the learning, curious mind.

And right now, we can all do with a bit more of that.

At the end of the interview I was asked about the role that mountain biking had played in dealing with uncertainty and stress.

Here’s what went through my mind:

Do I tell her that our business went from growth to staggering through lockdowns and closed borders. Do I tell her how many decisions we made that felt improbable? Do I tell her that I had to go to the ocean for 5 days to give myself the space to decide if I wanted to keep running this business or let go of our beautiful organic property?  Do I tell her that I was not sleeping? 

No, it was too deep of a process to try to keep tidy, and I didn’t want it to take over the focus of the story, so I ended with, 

"Covid has been stressful on every level, and being able to clear my head and just focus on this ride, this moment, this forest… There's no space to think about what's next for the business – to worry. It's a 'present moment' experience and that is a soother to the nervous system."

And it’s true. But here’s a few more details...

After 18 months of adjusting and trimming, we couldn’t keep the pre-covid proposition going.  Last year, to give ourselves some breathing room, we sold our 5-acre biodynamically managed property that we had grown great gardens, trees full of fruit as well as our own children over the past 11 years.  We chose to do this instead of continuing to feel really stressed. After the sale, we went out and bought 3 new mountain bikes to acknowledge the moment (and I inherited my son’s bike, as a marker of doing the first TWENTY RIDES.

We moved in October, during Level 3 lockdown with the first moving day in a cyclone of rain. It took weeks to completely get off our working property and into a lovely cottage house on a section in Kerikeri town. It felt like we broke ourselves saying goodbye, each in our own way, sad. But we all kept biking. 

I also walked. Every day. In August and September I joined Susanne Heaton in her Wild About Nature Challenge. The commitment and practice to walk every day, along with a simple mandate to find a particular letter each day was profound. It’s a sort of fresh-hearted interaction with your natural world shared in a safe, supportive, interactive portal. It was this space that helped me say my goodbye to our property and find peace in the decisions that were the best for us.

We moved 30 bails of hay, 4 tonnes of compost, a worm farm, a trailer of cowpoo and bucket carried 2 barrels of seaweed water, all of which is being put to work growing a tiny garden on the section as well as some newly planted banana trees. We had volunteer butternut squash and four kinds of tomatoes show up everywhere that the worm farm dirt was put, wonderfully, we are still growing and harvesting food.

All during the time October and November, that I was launching Sustainable Sunscreen and all of us working to launch our summer season.

In November and December I continued to ride in the mountain bike park, learning how to do downhill switchbacks (and falling, a lot), and (semi) controlled glides through mud and water. I’d come home satisfyingly tired and mud splattered. I didn’t feel like a 55-year old woman, I felt more like my old outdoor guiding self, reaching into competently riding Grade 3 trails and doing more uphills. 

I was getting better and stronger with each ride. I needed that confidence. Riding gave me what I needed to be able to do the rest of the story.

My health was literally held together by the gift I gave myself of getting outdoors to do something physical or appreciative every day.  

Recently, even though Spirited Women Adventure Race was postponed for 2022, I got to do an Adventure Training weekend, and spent five hours between foot and bike looking for the markers with a team. It was like a treasure hunt for adults. Very, very good fun!

I’m feeling more settled now, enjoying our new home, and growing lettuce on the porch.  I’ve found a new rhythm that is sustaining, and a new daily walk that is absolutely fabulous.

I’m going to do Susanne’s Motivate by Nature Challenge again for April. 

I’ll be in there every day, posting photos of my new neighbourhood and property, and writing my impressions of the day. Would you like to join me? 

You don’t have to wander far to see adjustments you, your friends and family have made due to Covid or its knock on effects. Every single one of us has a story. Every single one of us is better for encouraging the curious mind to turn off the worrying mind and keep a graceful heart.

If you’d like some a simple framework for turn on the curious mind for the next couple of months, a healthy daily walk, and a way to get to know each other a bit better, join me!

This is your invitation to join me for the April's Wild about Nature Challenge.

I’m going to do Susanne’s Wild about Nature Challenge again for April. 

I’ll be in there every day, posting photos of my new neighbourhood and property, and writing my impressions of the day. Would you like to join me? 

You don’t have to wander far to see adjustments you, your friends and family have made due to Covid or its knock on effects. Every single one of us has a story. Every single one of us is better for encouraging the curious mind to turn off the worrying mind and keep a graceful heart.

If you’d like some a simple framework for turn on the curious mind for April, a healthy daily walk, and a way to get to know each other a bit better, join me!

Sign up Deadline is March 29th.

To join, Click this link and Use Wildfriend as the coupon code for $30 off (regular $97).

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“I really enjoyed this challenge. Such great motivation for getting out and walking everyday.  It turned out to be so much more than this.  With each amazing discovery that I found in the natural world; I also found an equally amazing discovery about myself.  It seemed to open doors for me that had been shut for a very long time.  My overall physical and mental health greatly improved.  As the days went on, I started to feel a part of nature and not just a visitor walking through.  I feel it is exactly what we all need, reconnection to the natural world. It would be wonderful if everyone could do this challenge at least once in their lives. It really was an amazing adventure.”

ps. You are good, I know it.  You're handling it, I know.  Let's do that together.

Join the April Challenge HERE>>>> Use WildFriend for $30 off the Challenge

pps. I get no commission for you joining, just the pleasure of getting to know you better. I do take the course for free personally, and in April, Goodbye is a sponsor of the prize for the Challenge. Why do I do that? Because I believe in it.