Sports Psychology for Paragliding: Train Your Mind to Fly Better with Yvonne Dathe

Pilots come to me if they have stressful situations in the air or they want to be more focused, and then they come to me and then we try to solve the problems. I think it, it was fascinating to me when I, I don't know how I got exposed to your website, but somehow the name captivated my imagination very well. Because the name says win mental, yes. Would you, would you like to elaborate a little bit on that? Like what does Win mental mean? I mean, I believe it's a German site, but for English speaking audiences, how do they make? That. Yeah, win is winning and mental is mental perspectives,

psychologist perspectives. And so it was a combination from win, mental, win with mental strength. But for now, I'm not happy with mental strength, mental things. I think it's better for paragliders to be flexible flexibly with your mental sides and not with mental strength. Because mental strength is, yeah, it's very on one point, but it's necessary to be open and to be flexible with the situations, yeah. For sure. And I think that that kind of transcends in other aspects of life as well, where where you know a lot is within your control, but a lot is like outside your your scope of influence and being flexible or kind of setting your

expectations accordingly is the way to avoid disappointment in some way. But like what what I'm curious is that we do have the technical side of sport, which is being dived into and explained very well. And then we do have educational side of the sport, which we impart while bringing in the new pilots in the game and kind of showing them how it's done. But almost nobody at no stage in their career talks about the mental side of things. So from your eyes as a sports psychologist, how does how does that look and how would you define that side of how do you put the importance on on that aspect?

Yeah, you say that if we train a lot in the school, we train a lot with our power glider. But if the health is not working, then you can not do the, the, the skills you have. And therefore the mental side is, I think, very important, especially for beginners, but also for for competition pilots, because if you stand on the take off and there are a lot of people when you are nervous, then you do a lot of mistakes. And so beginners can use mental training to improve. Yeah, to be relaxed and to be calm and to be focused on what is to do for now. And this whenever people are

here or the conditions are not very good. And so it's very important I think. And also in the air, if you have fly in the terminal and then the terminal is not very smoothly, it is a little bit bumpy, then a lot of beginners have problems with the terminal because yes, they have fear and they have anxiety in the air. And so you need, I think a way to handle this emotions and with your thoughts. And of course for competition pilots also. If you hear pilots, if they are very good for a long time, then they said, yeah, paracliding flying depends also from the head and everyone is flying, but

less people. But I think there's a very good pilots train also the mind as a mental state. If you hear, yeah, I don't know, Creedle Mauler was and I interviewed Creedle Mauler and he said he's a good dreamer and he trained with in the night a lot of strategies, how to fly ancestors, mental training, if you dream, if you visualize your strategies or your processes. Yeah, I think that resonates a lot with visualization. And maybe in modern day terminology, it can be called as manifestation, which is a new age word being thrown around where you kind of dream and they eventually like if you dream long enough, they become your

reality, right? So. No. OK, please educate. Me. What did I? Where did I miss? Sorry, but if you visualize your your goals and you think OK, this is my goal and I will visualize this one time 2 * 3 * 5 time, Many people think then it will be they will achieve his goals, his goals. But in reality, the scientist shows that if you only visualize your goals, then our rewarding system in the in the brain is activated and our brain, our yeah, our mind means OK, we reached or we also we have already reached the goal and we have nothing. It's not necessary to do

something. Therefore it's more important, of course to visualise the goal, but also to visualise the obstacles, to say, OK, what are the obstacles on the way and what can I do, which plans I have, this strategies I have to solve the problems, to solve the obstacles, and what can I do to yeah, to come, come closer to the goal. And this is most important, not only visualisations. The goals? Or is this the obstacles? I completely agree. Maybe I did not elaborate myself, but like a realistic visualization where you're not just dreaming about the podium, but you're dreaming about the take off, the flight, the hard work, the landings, the decision

making, all the technical things, and then the podium. So yeah, like take the whole process and not just the cherry on top basically. Yeah. Makes sense. You want, let's, let's talk a little bit about a beginner perspective. I'm very curious about it because when I was going to do my course, I mean, first of all, the thing was I was fascinated with flying even before I got into paragliding. And I did not get into paragliding for the sake of paragliding. I got into it because I loved being in the air one way or the other. Like even in a commercial flight, you know, I keep on like

I'm one of those guys who books a window seat no matter how long the flight is. And I'm happy just staring out and getting fascinated by how the world looks from above. My beginners course, I couldn't wait to get started and I used to dream about from whatever references I had. Of course, YouTube was there, which showed me the point of view that pilots see and otherwise a little bit that, you know, imagination of how the birds would fly or something like that. But let's say my preparation was satisfactory enough that when I got in the air for the first time, I was brimming with joy. I was shouting and excitement

and stuff like that. Whereas this process is a bit different for a lot of other people where they have to overcome their nerves. And you know, there are like a lot of other emotions that kind of come with such huge amount of stimulus that comes into you when you fly for the first time in a, in a harness and a string and the glider. So how do you prepare yourself for the very first flight that you are going to take or one of the first flights? You know, I mean, like I'm sure there are pilots who are been there, done that kind of a thing. So how does early stages of visualization look like from

your point of view? Yeah, I think the first stage is to see the teacher, to see the teacher how it how he is handles the flight and the take off. And then you have instruction and so you train it of course at the training hill. And then if you first flight then you can realise that you are nervous, you are on the take off and it's may be steep and higher than the training hill. And then you recognise this odds and your emotions. And then it's important to connect with the service to now this, yeah, this my body and this what is here and to take off.

And so it's, I think the best way is to breathe two or three or five things. So breathe deep in and out maybe two or three or five times. And then you are connected with your body and with your body. You are in the now, in the not in the future or in the past what will come, but you are in the now. And then it's important to connect what is to do and then you visualize how is the process of the take off, what is to do, what is the next step and then have a commitment to do it. And then, OK, I have the trust

from the training here that I do it and now I do it. It's the first time. It's normal is that you feel anxiety or you are nervous because it's not sure that it works. It's your first time but you are prepared from the training hill and you know in your mind how is to do and then realize against the process in your mind and then connect with with your body do it. The breeding part is very important and I want to come to that, but I just for the perspective of our listeners who are racing and competing in in the World Cups, let's try and put ourselves in their shoes. They have to go out and fly a

task basically they have to think about the day, visualize their road to take off on the take off, clipping in, strapping on like inflation of the glider, you know, be it reverse or forward, depending upon how are the take off looks. Then circling in the Google, you know, reaching the top and then the first glide and then the next trigger point and then the final glide is is, is that like basically you kind of look forward to what are the possibilities, play them in your head and then be ready for execution when the time eventually comes. Yes you can do plans, you can different situations. You can the start gaggle with

your lies. OK what is to do in the start gaggle? You have to do circle with the other ones and come up and be the highest to take off the start time supposed to be the best and then OK the first client and then circling again and how to push and how to circle with the other pilots. And yeah, since you can visualize and if you have distractors like thoughts or emotions during the flight, what's what is to do if you have sister structures from outside, maybe the mobile phone is ringing or something else. And what is to do if this comes? This is this, Yeah. And then you have a plan and

this plan you can also visualize. OK, I hear it. And then I breathe in the air. OK, do the mobile phone out and focus on the next waypoint or the next climbing. And yeah, do it. But the most as if you have distractors from the outside like a mobile phone, it's important to preparate it in front of the flight just as well. Switch off the sounds, the ring sound maybe, Yeah. And from the inner side, thoughts and emotions, they can come. And this is not so light to switch off. It's difficult. And for such situations, it's in my opinion good to accept them because it's not possible to yet to switch off their thoughts.

But you can switch off the struggle with the thoughts and the with the feelings. You can accept, OK, here is the thought of whatever and I have the feeling of fear or whatever. I am a little bit nervous, OK, I feel this. I have the thoughts and then OK, I breathe in, breathe out, connect with my body, OK. And what is now to do to do is focus on the next term, auto cycling with the other pilots. So you said that it's not possible to switch off the thoughts, but it's possible to switch off the struggle with the thoughts. Let's elaborate a little bit upon that. Because thoughts are just a

natural part of your daily existence and they can't be switched on and off within a day. Like it takes a process. It takes a specified way of life which you develop over a period of time, like habits and stuff like that, where your thoughts become in a certain pattern and then they just don't come that spontaneously or that aggressively. But when it comes to the struggle of thoughts, I'm a bit confused. Like how do you switch off the struggle with the thoughts? Breathing of course is a way to oxygenate yourself more and but I'm hitting a roadblock here. Could you please explain this topic? Yeah, if you have thoughts as

it's not possible to stop your flow of thoughts come and sounds, sounds, thoughts goes and maybe the change in your head and you have a big choice of thoughts in your head. Some thoughts are helpful, some thoughts are not so helpful and but there are thoughts. And if you have a thought that is not so helpful, then it could be that you are struggling. So you say, OK, I don't want to have the thought, it's not helpful. I want to stop this, I want to avoid the thoughts. And if you do this, my experiences and the signs say the same, that you try to avoid thoughts and feelings, then the thoughts and feelings will

become bigger and have more power. This is not very helpful. I tried it in the past and the beginning of my mental training time. I say to pilots OK if you have not had for the thoughts do stop sign say in your in a loud stop and then change it to a positive thing. And this is also not possible for light thoughts not so more not so important thoughts as possible. But if the thoughts are anxiety, if you have fearful thoughts, then it's not possible to to change it in a positive way. Then you have devil and until on your shoulder and the one says, OK, I can't do it.

I'm a good pilot. And the devil said says, oh, there is a look. There is a paraglider is have a collapse and you are not able to handle the and say and she says, OK, you want you are a good pilot, you have train it and you can't do it. And the devil says, Oh no, it's a very turbulent day-to-day and you are not able to handle it. And though you have a discussion in you and this is strangling struggle with the sorts and to try to avoid it or to try to bring it back. And this has cost a lot of energy and this energy you need to fly to in flight to, to take

good decisions. But if you use the energy for this discussion or to avoid the thoughts, you lose a lot of mental energy. And it could and you are not focused on the flight. And so you can stop struggling with the thoughts and accept, OK, here are the thoughts. The thoughts I have it OK, maybe it's helpful or not, but it's the thoughts or I connect with my body, make a deep breath in, out and then I show make a reality check. Maybe fearful thoughts maybe have a good reason. Maybe the weather is changing also. Then I can say, OK, the thought are right. The weather is changing, the flying conditions are not really

safe for now it's good. Then I can say, OK, thank you brains that you give me the thoughts. It's a good decision to go landing. Then it's good, but sometimes the thoughts are not helpful. It's also it's just in my head, but it's not the reality. Then I say, OK, it's a terminal day, it's a little bit bumpy, but it's not dangerous to fly further. It's just in my head that I have thought, OK, then I breathe in, breathe out, connect with my goal. My goal is in the competition, fly to the goal. OK, I fly further and the conditions are safe and I flew further and the thoughts can be fly with me or not, but I focus

on the next terminal. I focus on the way on my route on the next Turnpike. But I don't use energy for fighting against my thoughts and feelings. It's OK if that the feelings are here. It's maybe I don't like it maybe, but it's OK that they are here and I focus on what is necessary to do. And this is focus on the next terminal, on the next turn point, the next. Step. Yeah. So basically to sum it up is accept your state of mind and focus on the task on hand because that is the only thing that will get you out of it. Yeah. Makes sense because otherwise

it's a. Yeah, it's the most important thing to be focused, to stay focused, to realise, OK, I have it, I have the thoughts, and then to diffuse from the thoughts and connect with the thing, to do what is, to do what I have to. I'm very curious about the power of breathing. You know, I've, I've heard the miracles of deep breathing over and over at different times, different point and times in my life. What happens when you take a deep breath? What is the science behind it, and how does it make clarity become a mainstream from all the fog that you're dealing with that that time? As a priest have a lot of

impacts. The first impact is that you come from your head and your body, and so you switch with your focus from your head and the body. This is the first thing. The second thing is if you make a deep breeze in your, what is this here diaphragm, stomach in your stomach? Yeah, if you make a deep breeze in your stomach, then you activate your Patterson particles and this is the player against the stress reaction. So you calm down, you relax, the body relax. And if you calm down, if you are in a stress reaction, then your brain, your rational part of your brain's cortical cortex is

not working very good because it's necessary to survive in a dangerous situation. And to the rational part, who decides, OK, which is the best decision now is not necessary for the for the survival in a really dangerous situation. And therefore it works not very good. But if you calm down with the deep breathe, then you gain time and the body relax. And then your brain can also work again and then you can make good decisions. But the other side and this breathe, it depends on the way you breathe. If you breathe deep, then you can relax. If you breathe in and for a longer time outs and it's also for relaxing.

And if you breathe in in a very fast time and in a very fast out, then it can also activate you. So if you as your body isn't survey you breathe, have influence of your feeling. And yeah.

Makes sense I want to talk a little bit about the power of warming up before entering activity I come from a conventional sports background where I played hockey on a fairly high level land hockey not ice. But the thing that I learned during those times was that warm up has incredible power to shape your gameplay time because it is basically that you're preparing yourself for what's coming. You're talking to your body, your body is talking back to you. You're sending signals to your brain. You're kind of getting ready for the action ahead in a cross country flight. That was the one of the biggest surprise to me that you just get

out of a car or a cable, like whatever it is. Like if it's a hiking flight, it's a different thing that you are still a bit active and you've kind of thought about it on the way. But most takeoffs when you take motorized form of transport on the way, you just get out there, you chill on the takeoff for a bit and then you jump into the harness and then you're like playing the game basically. Like let's say air is the field of play. So you enter the field of prey play right from the dressing room. There is no warm up field in between. This was very surprising to me

because I have always been told that there is a buffer between the dressing room and the field of play. That is the warm up pitch where the you prepare yourself for whatever is coming and you set the tone for it. In World Cups it's a little bit different because before the start time goes, you are above the start gate and you're circling for a little bit. So it is not the most optimal, but it still gives you a bit of a headway. What I've been thinking is that since breathing has so much power and of course meditation and focus and everything is like so in tune with it, would it not make sense for our sport to have

a 1520 minute warm up session which consists of breathing or yoga or some form of meditation or or everything included where you go to the take off? And I'm not saying that you go out and run and stretch. I mean OK stretching helps. I have tried warming up my body as well before going out on the on the World Cup goggles or something like that where I'm like I want to be sure if a collapse comes I won't be sure that my muscles are warmed up and ready to act quickly. But how would ideal warm up session look like, which might consist of yoga, meditation and breathing exercises according to

you? Yeah, I think it's the individual thing, but you are right the warm up have also the function of OK I have a ritual and sys ritual brings me to the spot and sys ritual is also helpful for paragliders. And I'm recommend to to make own ritual because, yeah, I think the most important thing is 6 are the conditions quote yes, as the conditions good for flying or not? Or could it a little bit could there Yeah, difficult whatever. And therefore it's good maybe to come at the take off and take 5 minutes or 10 minutes to yeah, to see the vessels conditions. And then it would be also good to focus on yourself to set, OK,

what is my goal today? What will I achieve today? Is it excel flight? Is it acro manoeuvre? Is it a competition or what is the goal? And OK, it's good to feel also the mental and the physical situations. And I'm fit meant from my body and from my psychology side. Have I stress or what is the problems or have I no problems? I'm really fit to fly. And meditation would be a great thing if you take 10 minutes maybe from the take off to sit down and to please and to connect with my goals and current situation in competitions. You say, OK, in World Cup some

pilots have a return, some pilots have headphones and hear music. And this is also to come in the optimal zone of function to because if you are too bored then you have not the optimal function and you are not in the good shape to handle good in the air. And if you are on the other side, you are have fear and you are very stressful, then you're also not in the optimal or function. So it's necessary to have the balance and so you it's necessary to feel OK. Are I am too relaxed or are I'm too feel too stressful? And what can I do to come in the optimal area of function?

And if you are too nervous then it's good maybe to make a deep breath brace or to change your body posture. If you have a big powerful body posture then you'll feel more confidence and can handle better instead of you have a small body posture. Or if you have, if you are too bored, too calm, then you are also not in the optimal area, then you have to activate you and therefore it makes sense to take time before you start to to feel how is my mental and my physical shape the moment and then to do something to came in the optimal area. Yes, I think of warm up to be

good. Some pilots make ground handling in the front of the take off, but it's not really good if the take off is full of Yeah as a. Violent. Yeah. Then it's. Not to recommend, but it's also a wave to to warm up. And in the competitions you say, OK, you fly and then you have the time from take off to the start time. And in this time you can warm up a little bit and you can feel how is the air today. And this is a way of warm up and says can you also do an an XF fly? I fly out and surf try OK how do I feel today and how is the air

today and then go to my XF flight start to my XF. Yeah, like just don't jump into the flight right away, you know, take your own time and assessing and talking to your body, mind, glider everything, muscles, you know, all around it you want to like. OK, very short quick tip on breathing. Let's say, what is the simplest breathing technique that pilots can apply at any given point in time and flight to help them get more mental clarity?

Focus on your breathe and breathe in and out is nothing to do or is the focus on your breathe look OK? How breathe in and how preside out and feel how the Prius is on your nose and in your lungs and maybe on your shoulder. Where can you feel the priest? It's the simple thing. Just focus on your priest. That is one of the simplest forms of meditation as well because I, I've been to 1 of this Buddhist monk meditation workshops and they said that one of the easiest way to get your thoughts together is to just close your eyes and either listen to the sounds that the

nature is giving you. I mean, if it is natural or man made, it doesn't matter. But the other one is to focus on your breathing, which resonates to what you just said. Unless you're super close to the Cliff and you have to kind of make better decisions at that time. So then prioritize your reality more than you know mindfulness at that time. But talking about poses you want, I wanted to talk about the importance of posing. Of course, your posture you said, reflects a lot. Do you know about this thing called power pose?

Power pose is basically a position in a body where you stand with your hands on hips. Of course, that one is as well where you, where you raise your hands, That is a different one as well. But the other one is where you, you know, there's a very famous Wonder Woman character which is standing on the hips, having hands on hips and with that. So I, I'm not sure how scientifically true this is, but I heard that doing power pose for up to a certain time increases your testosterone or concentration up to a certain percentage. And I did not know this. I had no idea that this used to be done.

But then I realized after I, after I read this that I have been subconsciously doing this at every single take off before going on to the flight. So what is the science behind these kind of poses that make us feel a lot more confident from our current baseline? And we gained 1520% extra for no reason. The person I don't know but Amy Caddy Caddy. Amy Caddy is a psychologist from America and she makes a lot of studies about body postures. And this one, she make a study of this, this hands up and the feet like U.S. star. You stand there like a star and you look to the to our path and you are smiling.

Yeah. So it's a very powerful post. And if you do this for 5 minutes and then you go to the to a very important meeting, then you are more able to be how you are naturally be. And you can, I don't know in English. You're more confident. So you, yeah, you are more confident and you can say what you want to say and you feel better. And also CIS poacho is also. Hands on hips. Yeah, all powerful poses. You make your big and your stand very. Solid. Solid on the ground then you feel good and it's had also on your head influence on your feelings. And if you make you a little bit smaller, women's tend to be

makes them smaller than men. Men have bigger postures than women. And if you make your small and not powerful potions then you are more depressive and you have a bad feelings and you feel not so confident. Instead of I have a big poster powerful posture posture. So what can let's say to all the women pilots listing out there, What can they do to not be in their usual small state? Because I think, I don't know if it's instinctive or natural or something, but they tend to do it more often than men. So what is their way? Or if there's any man who doesn't go out and make himself bigger, like, how do you

challenge that notion and come out of it? Yeah, keep attention on your body posture and if you see that your shoulders go down and your head goes down, then make an other posture, change it, make it big. Do your hands here or not much better do this. But maybe it looks a little bit strange if you stand on takeoff and makes, but maybe you can do it on the toilet or in the wood or wherever and then make a big poster and hold it for 5 or 10 minutes and then you will feel that poster will influence you in your mind. And with my clients, I try to

find a motto goal and a motto goal has the poster inside. And what to go from me is I go further like elephant in the in the and if I see it in my inner eye, an elephant, then I'm naturally go in a big post body posture that's very good. So I have an elephant also here on my wall and on my desk and me OK, I'm an elephant and go further. I like an elephant and go further. And if I think on the elephant, so my body posture is actually naturally because then I think not on this fascinating. So it yeah. So it's good to find goals in

what I want to do and this inner feeling I want to have. And then it's good to find a picture that's represent represent this image that helps to find naturally the right posture. A quick question comes to my mind. You want Paragliding is more or less a solo sport. Once you're in the air, you're by yourself. There's nobody making those decisions or reaping the rewards for work, for your actions. But let's say it's still a social sword on the way to the take off, at the landing, on the take off, before you get in the air. How do you handle conflicts with other pilots in these situations?

Because it could be a group of pilots, they could have their own priorities. Some of them are good friends with you, some of them are not so good friends with you. There could be healthy rivalries, animosities, you know, just banter. So when it comes to dealing with friction with other pilots, what is the usual go to thing that a pilot themselves can do to try and avoid themselves from those kind of energies? Friction. You OK? You mind the conflicts? They have other goals like me or 6. Could be anything as I said, you know, like they, they could have their own friend circle which you're not a part of or they

could have their own kind of XC group which does better than you or anything like you know, anything which is not meeting your expectations as a social animal and you are not a part of that tribe at that time. OK, I'm the first thing is to recognize this, this behaviour. Then I can go to the pilots and if this is a problem, OK, the pilots land, not land on the landing field, but go not to the place to where normally you have to pack in the clouder. Then I have go to them and say, OK, I see you pack the clouder here, but not on the right

place, no problem because we have problems with the farmers here. Please go to the right place and yeah, send maybe the pilot do it or not. If not, then I say, OK, I told you it's important that you go to this place, but you don't do it. But that's the reason. Please tell me why do you not hold on the rules and if you have the problem with you said, OK, I want to I want a big flight and I don't reach it, but as a pilots do it. So it was part of your question then it's important. OK, what was my goal? And if I remember on the beginning at my XT flights, I

have in the XT contest some pilots where I from which I sort of they are on my level. And so there I look how far they will fly if I've if on my flying days. And then I had a really good flight for me and I achieve a goal, a big Tiger on a big values champ that I didn't achieved before and I was very happy about after the flight. And then I go to the exit contest, I load up my flight and then I see as a pilot on my watching list flew 10 kilometers further. And so I feel shit, yes, and such a stupid because I achieve a goal, a very big goal.

I did this very champ. And so the my recommendation now is focus on your goals, focus on your flights. And if you achieve your process goals, process goals, then it's good. And it's not important if some people fly 10 kilometers more or some people is in the competition in front of you on or not. It's important that you reach achieve your process goal, your chemist. And so it's a reason to be happy to achieve your next step. So you're basically saying that FOMO is like FOMO has to be taken out of the equation, and the only way to do that is to be content with what you

accomplished because somehow to me, like FOMO exists to everyone. Yes, for my for everyone, and maybe you have the thoughts like I'm frustrating because I didn't are so good like the other one or whatever. Or I'm missing this good flight because I have to work and other pilots were flying today because the conditions were very good and I have to But then it's the same thoughts in the air. Accept that the emotions and thoughts are because it's naturally that this thoughts can come and send. Do the same like in the air, make a deep breathe and then connect. With the. Present moment crowning yourself and come to your body and then

clarify your values. What is important is to come a step further. I go further like an. Elephant in the step. Clarify your values and then do what is the next step. And also important is to be as friendly with yourself. Kindly with yourself recognise that this feelings are common and a part of our human life. It's normal and it's not necessary to to fight against ourselves, but are kind full. And. Accepts that this thoughts can come, but connect with your values and your goals. What is important for you in paragliding? Yeah, try and look at the positives and the task on hand. And not be to develop on

whatever has happened and is behind it's behind for a reason. Basically I'm very curious you want, I don't know if you can answer this or not, but did you interview Kregel after the exalts or before the exalts? Not after the last exiles. No, it was, I think one or two years before. Yeah, after the last excerpts, I didn't interview. I was like wondering how does a person? Like him, who has seen his reality take him to a legendary status, navigate missing out on a podium because obviously you know, he has he has a certain set of discipline which kind of trains which allows him to handle his emotions.

But then suddenly having such a huge challenge in front of your life where you're not on the podium, like what would be or if you can kind of elaborate on that, like, what would be the ideal steps to be taken? Yeah, when something that big happens. Yeah, I think. Creedal will. Not. Have a bit, a big struggle with the situations, I think. I'm not sure. I think because in my interview he said. I asked him, OK, you've won so many times, it motivates you to be a part of the excerpts again, because he can lose. He can, Yeah, he cannot. But his reputation is at stake every time, yes.

But he said to. Me and that is the most important part, he said to me he want to be perfect and he finds all the time some parts of his process which are not perfect. And his goal is to be perfect to to be to do perfect process and the whole competition. And I think this is exactly what I say. It's important to clarify what is what are my values for what want I to stay? For me, it's important to be connected with the nature. For me, it's important to have fun, to be connected with other people, to have a team and send concentrate the sys values and

focus on sys values and do the next step. And I think Kriegel will also concentrate on the next step. OK, Some things were not so good at the last excise maybe. And so you've been changed those parts. And I think he will try it again at the next time and focus on the next step. OK, what can I do? And result is out of our control zone, out of our zone of control because we cannot control the result, we cannot say we are first or 10 or 100 in the competition. But what we can control is our mind, our as well our mind in the sense of OK, I keep focused, I accept my thoughts, I'm

connect with the present moment. I connect with my values and my goals and I do what is necessary to do, set us what I can connect control, but I cannot control the result. And I think this is important. And also if you don't achieve your goal if you. Achieve your process. Goals and you are connected with your values and it's a big success. OK, I have a. Question this is. Something that I've struggled with myself, a lot of us. Know this I'm pretty sure like. 50% or probably more listeners who are tuning in to us right now are aware of these things, that they exist and that's how

you do them. But why are such tasks easier said than done? Because having knowledge about them is one thing, but like, putting them into action is a whole different thing. Yeah, it's raining. To now it's easy. You say it, it's. Easy to know this, but to be to stay in the present moment, it's very difficult. Yeah. But if you meditate in the first time, maybe you try to count your breezes and before you reach 10 breezes, your thoughts are. It's whatever. Yeah, it's. Totally normal. And it's training. If you do it often, if you do it the tenth times or say 100 times, that it's easier.

And I think the most important thing is to know it and tend to do it. And if you do it often and you do it 12345 times, then it will be easier. And then it's easier to stay in the present moment. And I'm also, I train for a lot of time, a long time. And of course my mind is sometimes also distracted from whatever. And the important thing is to recognise, OK, my mind is far from my flight, and then come back to the flight and connect you with the present moment and do it again and again and with the time. It's easier. Yeah. But thank you for your honesty. Yeah.

It's not so easy. I'm I. Know it. Because yeah, I think it deep down. It comes down to discipline. And like, how much of you of it do you want to have in your life? And discipline doesn't come easy. That's a lot of hard work, building habits, patterns and saying no to dopamine hits. But yeah, we're talking about. Sorry. Go on. Yeah, Yonka, but since 8:00. OK, if you do his course, he has the course manual for mind phone and base stress reduction. And in this course, if you do it, you have the duty to meditate one hour per day for eight at least. And it's a lot, yes.

But in his, in his opinion, it's if you meditate one hour per day for eight weeks for the during the course, then then it's, then it's, but find the actual that you do it again after this time. It needs a little bit discipline to do it. But I think it's not necessary to meditate one hour per day. But if you start with 5 minutes per day or 10 minutes per day, it's enough. And it's important to come to a mindfulness and a more mindfulness life, more mind from his flight and recognize, OK, I'm not mindful, and then come back and focus on what is to do. I think the 8.

Week time period is. Given based on the 40 day habit formation, you know, timeline, because that is a common thing, then a lot of people say that if you want to form a habit, do it for 40 days and it becomes I think but talking about, you know, we were talking about dopamine rush and hits at that time beforehand. But like social media is a huge thing and doom scrolling or the ill effects of it are becoming more and more common. I mean, OK, this might not be that relevant for pilots who are above the age of 4045 because by that time you're kind of like some are reaching a point where

they're not scrolling as much. But for anybody who is spending more than 15 minutes, or I mean, the, the upper limits are pretty mad. Like people are spending 910 hours scrolling sometimes as well. How does scrolling make you a bad flyer? Because I'm going to put it out that simply like comparison is the root of all evil. And if Instagram is showing you a super cool flight location, flight being done in a super cool location, or somebody you know, smashing his actual tricks or somebody flying in a guy, well, you're going to end up comparing by default. So that's why I want to simplify. This question that how?

Does scrolling make your flying bad? Yeah, 1. Thing is FOMO. Pair with. Other pilots and. See, OK, other pilots are already flying and I'm working and that makes you frustrating and maybe more stressful because as a pilot, to start with, you paracliding and OK, they make more progress than you and so you feel also bad. And if you feel bad and frustrated, maybe, yeah, the paradox thing is maybe you're trained less, and if you're trained less than you will not. Make good progresses. And also you are distracted, this is scrolling also YouTube or whatever. And you're distract from your goals and from your values. And it's important that your

focus on your goals and values and your own progress and not what other people are doing. And there are studies that's too much social media time have never negative effects on mental health for depression. Yeah. And so on. You know, I, I want to. Clarify for some people who might be having the notion that social media helps up to an extent. Because a lot of times I get this, I get this message that no, I only look at good accounts. I only look at people who teach something, but for me, when was the last time you learnt how to handle an asymmetric from an Instagram reels that you can remember in an SIV, learning

does not happen in 15 second scrolls. And to me the learning, the best form of learning is writing it down or you know, doing things on hands because that is practicality. In fact, even typing is very different because back in the day when we used to write everything with our own hands with a pencil and a paper or like on a pen and a paper, it used to register in your heads much more than what it does today. Let's talk about learning from scrolling. Is it really effective up to an extent, or is this just a joke that is being thrown around so people can still stay addicted?

Yeah. It depends. If you use no but like to me. It does not. To me it is. It is nothing but a fake. You know if you use. Scrolling for distraction, for handle stress, maybe to relax then it's avoidance strategy and it's not really helpful if maybe you see I don't know. I think the best I'm with. You I think it's better to do it in reality to go to the trainer and see what is to do. Maybe if you want to learn a full start, it's better to go in the SIV and become become the to get the instruction and then write it down the process like you toilet yeah pen and paper

yeah yeah, with the pen and. Paper. And then go mental through the process and then do it. This is the best way of learning. But yeah, I don't know. As is the most. Dangerous thing of social media I think is the FOMO because you compare with other people and see OK they have a better life than me and this is frustrating and makes your depression. No, no, that is one thing for sure, that. A lot of people are agreeing on, but a lot of times when I ask people that why can't you give up scrolling, they're like, no, we try to look at the good side of social media where we are

learning some things off it. And to me, when you're getting that huge of a dopamine rush, the learning takes a backstage and entertainment takes a first stage. And you know, but a thought just came to my mind that I would like to share is imagine watching something with full immersion and trying to learn it. And then imagine watching like this could be live, you know, for example, there's somebody demonstrating how to make a rope knot in front of you. Like there are endless amount of rope knot types and somebody's teaching you how to make the knots with a rope. And then imagine doing the same process with a cigarette and a bottle of beer in your hand.

Because alcohol and tobacco are going to give you dopamine, right? So imagine learning the process of tying a rope without having these distractions, and then imagine repeating the whole things with these distractions because dopamine is more or less entertaining. It's not like I don't know, I'm not, I'm not into science. But to me, dopamine is meant for entertainment. And then learning is a very different cognitive ability of the brain, which is not getting prioritized when you're getting the rush from a whole different stimuli. So yes, you might learn that asymmetric or that full stall for like those 10 seconds, but within that like short term memory loss is going to hit you so damn quickly that within the

next scroll, when you see something going on in other side of the world or something in the street or some people fighting in a in a train or you know, a scam going around or like 2 animals having a cute laugh, that full stall video is gone. Like your brain is not registering that asymmetric or that full stall that you saw. But somehow you've convinced yourself that I am opening Instagram to watch and learn more things about paragliding. But in in reality, you hear scrolling because that alcohol and cigarette defect is so damn addictive that you just can't let go of it at every evening before going to the bed, more or less Yeah, what you described is

the. Reason. Because people, humans, have shorter time, ability to focus on one. Yeah, the attention spans are reducing. And surface mindful training. Very important because this mindful training to do one thing one thing and not. With. Cigarettes and alcohol and with whatever, just focus on one thing and it's important to to learn and it's important to to train our ability for focus and so many things doing on the same time brings your brain in stress and you are not able to be aware. I find it very surprising that we were. Told to get into multitasking to sharpen our brains, but then eventually, like it has come

back and said that multitasking isn't the way that we are supposed to function. So it's yeah, it's a hidden trial. Like you never know until you try. But yes, enough people have tried and kind of come to the conclusion that stop multitasking even though it is just scrolling a finger on the screen like you can either scrolling, scrolling is also most. Multitasking 1 Pilot says to me, if he come at home and in the evening, he scrolled to the social media accounts and this is for relaxing, but it's not relaxing. You have a lot of input in a short time and yeah, the brain is not able to work with this

short experiences is this experience. It's like somebody saying that I want to go out. For a cigarette break. And I want to relax. No. You want to go out to kill your craving because your body is asking you for something that you're missing. So you're not getting relaxed. You feel relaxed after you fulfill the craving, but you don't understand the want of craving itself is not the essence of relaxing. Yeah, Yeah, I'm. So glad we could bring it out like. Clearly, because these thoughts bounce on and off in my head, but like doing it with a sports psychologist, it's a whole new level of enlightenment for me as well.

Yeah, it's a form of. Addiction scrolling in in social media, of course. Yeah, you want. Before we kind of. Close for the day. I want to talk about balancing life and flying to me. Yeah, this is something, again, which is not spoken about a lot and nobody tells you. I feel one of the most important things that new beginner courses are missing, where we bring in new pilots, is that first you have to tell people the importance of warming up, which can be indifferent. You know, there can be a whole different way to do it, as we spoke about in the beginning of the show. But the second thing is to tell them how addictive flying is

because it actually has the power to take over your life. Like you can end up giving every other possession or want in chasing of airtime. And there are so many of us, me included. Like I had a very different lifestyle before I got into flying. And I mean OK I was fascinated with the air and flying and everything before getting into paragliding. But the moment I realized that it is such a simple form of aviation and the reward is so freaking amazing, I was like, fuck that shit. Let me just leave that stability and chase this whatever adrenaline or, you know, satisfaction that comes from it. So too much of anything is bad.

There's no rocket science to that. How do you understand that at this point in time, flying is taking a toxic space in your life, whereas it was supposed to take it was supposed to be a whole different thing. And. And in all, it's like, yeah, yeah, I. Think. Yeah, I'm with you. Parag lighting is addiction. I'm also addicted for parag lighting, of course. That's the reason why I'm that's. One reason why I'm self-employed, so I have more flexibility with the weather and so on. But yeah, then it's a problem. It's a problem is so you have to clarify what is important in your life. Paragliding is one part of your life, but you have also family,

you have work, you have friends, maybe you have other hobbies and so on. And it's, it's necessary to declare to clarify what is important in my life. And if the family comes to short because you are paragliding all the time or if your works come to to short because you are paragliding all the time, and then it could be difficult or it could be a problem. And I think it's important to clarify what is really important in my life and then set priorities. And if my best friend is my best friend married in May, it's a good paragliding time. Me it was clear in May OK, my best friend is a merit on this

day. OK, if the weather. Is really good. I don't go to fly because. My friend is more important. Than paragliding at this day and so it's important to find the balance and parrot lining Of course it makes a lot of fun and it's a big part of my life but it's one part of my life I have also other parts also for me it's important to be present for my clients. I want to be present for my friends. I want also time for my boyfriend and yeah, for my family and so on. And so far it is necessary to have a balance. Of course, in the summertime

paragliding have a bigger part, but. On the autumn or in the. Winter time I'm also use the time for my friends and for my family and so on, but also is important in my life and of course I am we totally agree with you. It's should be a lesson in education to say the pilots paragliding will change your life. Of course, yes, does to so many of us. You know, like it's. It's almost a shame that we, and I think that is the reason why we lose out a lot of people as well. We don't retain that much, even though it's like one of the simplest forms of aviation because there are so many gaps

in the learning, especially in the early stages that you either have to, you know, I mean, there's a saying called fuck around and find out because that is like one of the easiest ways to do it yourself. But the other one is like, yeah, if you just get lucky or find a mentor or something. But there's not a lot of structured support system that does the hand holding until the level of independence. I'm not saying dependence like that, but I'm not saying like, you know, there are people who keep you who like to stay on radio and stuff like that, but they're in in conventional corporate careers, for example, you are given a structured

schooling up to the high school level and then like the university kind of gives you a little bit of more mature into the job market. And then finally you kind of, you know, get into an apprentice and then you become a practitioner by yourself. Conventional sports, it's a bit different where you enter academies and reach up the levels of the leagues, but here is like, hey, two weeks of a course and then go out and explore yourself and make all the decisions either by paying a lot of yeah, yeah, it's the. Shortest form of becoming a. Pilot in any form of aviation so. And it's hardly regulated.

It's hardly. Which is like, OK, free flight is nice, but a new beginner does not know shit about what world is he entering and we are just telling them how to inflate the glider and flare properly, not even handle the ring folding tendencies or whatever it is like that comes much later in the progression. Yeah, it's also a problem. If you have. In this two weeks perfect weather, then you have your license in two weeks and you flew in perfect weather but after the. Course you come. In different weather conditions and maybe you are not able to handle this. Therefore 2 weeks I decree very short and maybe you are not

enough prepared for the situations. Yeah, you. Won't before we close. When a client comes to you or like, you know, for anybody who's listening, who who wants to reach out and kind of have your services, what is the way, What do you identify? What can they look to improve and how does it work?

Yeah. Yeah, it depends from the reason why the clients come and he will come to me and then I will do a speech with him and I will clear assessment, I think assessment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to clarify what is the reason why he want my service And then we make a plan. How could it works? Often clients come with stress and anxiety. And then the most important thing is I think to accept to learn to accept the thoughts and to learn to diffuse from thoughts and emotions and also clarify my values and my goals. And since we can do it in a session and. Yeah.

And then I think one of the most important thing is also mindfulness, and this must every client do on his own. I can give some instructions. Then it's training. You said it. It's very easy to say it and to know it, but it's very difficult to make it.

And you train online. As well. Or is most of them done in person? Most is yeah. Is. Online less pilots come to me to Fronten. Fronten is a very small town in the South of Germany and the most pilots are not in Fronten. And therefore I'm I work a lot online. Yes, I mean all I can. Say is that you're 1. Of the first ones offering such services in our sport. And I really am thankful that you gave your time to the show to educate people the importance of such a training. And so yeah, anybody who's listening to this, you know if you have been wanting to touch

the sky with glory in a better manner, then here is a solution. We'll link your website to the show notes and probably pilots can reach out to you and take it from there on. Yes, thank you. Thank. You for this meeting, for this session. You're welcome.