Bicycle is free psychotherapy.
05-29-14, 09:40 AM
#26
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to the OP ... RIGHT ON!
05-29-14, 09:47 AM
#27
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Beats AA too, at least for me. I quit boozing a few years ago, and started working out and riding again. I feel MUCH better, and enjoy life to a degree that wasn't possible when I was abusing alcohol. The bike is my "escape" of choice now.
05-29-14, 09:51 AM
#28
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How ironic this marriage stuff is. I was made fun of at work cause I wasn't married. The same person who told me to get a mail order bride is now divorced herself. I hate office work for this reason, gossip and vow to never work with women again.
05-29-14, 09:54 AM
#29
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Well, not exactly free, but after the initial outlay for equipment...
....getting divorced at age 57, leaving my 13-year-old son behind, going from a big, comfortable two-story house to sharing a small condo with a neurotic roommate I found on Craigslist. At work, being micromanaged to death by managers who were in kindergarten when I started in the industry.
....getting divorced at age 57, leaving my 13-year-old son behind, going from a big, comfortable two-story house to sharing a small condo with a neurotic roommate I found on Craigslist. At work, being micromanaged to death by managers who were in kindergarten when I started in the industry.
FIFY. Hope no one got here before me. Just giving you a little...stuff.
Sounds rough, really. I agree, rolling is really the way to go. Glad we have that 'out.' Not really happy myself and the bike is one of the very very few ways to clear the system of both emotional an bodily toxins.
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FB4K - Every October we wrench on donated bikes. Every December, a few thousand kids get bikes for Christmas. For many, it is their first bike, ever. Every bike, new and used, was donated, built, cleaned and repaired. Check us out on FaceBook: FB4K.
Disclaimer: 99% of what I know about cycling I learned on BF. That would make, ummm, 1% experience. And a lot of posts.
FB4K - Every October we wrench on donated bikes. Every December, a few thousand kids get bikes for Christmas. For many, it is their first bike, ever. Every bike, new and used, was donated, built, cleaned and repaired. Check us out on FaceBook: FB4K.
Disclaimer: 99% of what I know about cycling I learned on BF. That would make, ummm, 1% experience. And a lot of posts.
05-29-14, 02:18 PM
#30
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05-29-14, 02:41 PM
#31
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05-29-14, 03:51 PM
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Wait wait...cat 6?! Can I take my comfort bike to that?
i dunno about cheap. You can probably spend as much as you're willing to, especially if you do MTB or tri's or whatever. unless your pockets are really damned deep.
cycling is definitely my anti depressant and anti anxiety drug of choice right now.
i dunno about cheap. You can probably spend as much as you're willing to, especially if you do MTB or tri's or whatever. unless your pockets are really damned deep.
cycling is definitely my anti depressant and anti anxiety drug of choice right now.
05-29-14, 03:55 PM
#33
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FWIW, cycling was my first healthy outlet for coping during stressful times in my life. Yoga was the second, and it's actually a very good complement to cycling. I feel a lot better both on and off the saddle when I practice regularly. It's also very easy and inexpensive to get into, and is more versatile that cycling in that it can be done anywhere.
05-30-14, 11:07 AM
#34
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As I am both a rider and therapist I agree......riding is like meditation
Last edited by thehammerdog; 05-30-14 at 11:07 AM. Reason: mispelling
05-30-14, 11:44 AM
#35
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Well, not exactly free, but after the initial outlay for equipment...
....getting divorced at age 57, leaving my 13-year-old son behind, going from a big, comfortable two-story house to sharing a small condo with a neurotic roommate I found on Craigslist. At work, being micromanaged to death by managers who were in kindergarten when I started in the industry.
Bicycle doesn't care about any of that. Bicycle is always ready. I get on and ride, ride ride. As the miles pass by, all the toxins from my body and mind are swept away. I come home feeling renewed and refreshed.
That's why I ride, that's how I roll....
....getting divorced at age 57, leaving my 13-year-old son behind, going from a big, comfortable two-story house to sharing a small condo with a neurotic roommate I found on Craigslist. At work, being micromanaged to death by managers who were in kindergarten when I started in the industry.
Bicycle doesn't care about any of that. Bicycle is always ready. I get on and ride, ride ride. As the miles pass by, all the toxins from my body and mind are swept away. I come home feeling renewed and refreshed.
That's why I ride, that's how I roll....
At 58 years young, I too am facing a divorce. I love my current home, been living in the same house for more than a quarter century, I love my neighborhood and I love all the bike rides just waiting for me outside my front door. But unless I can manage to buy her out, I will have to sell the house and split the profits. Gotta love California's community property laws.
Fortunately for me, the children are grown adults and, except for a couple of boomerang kids, they have their own place. My work situation, though not as "tight" as yours (by this point in my career I have achieved a certain amount of autonomy and respect in my position) is still tough (I have a high stress job).
Like you, I ride to get away from my problems. And, like you, the more miles that I put on my bikes the less stressed out I feel.
If it were not for my bikes and the places they take me to (physically and mentally), I would be in a corner of the garage, bashing my head up against the wall.
Hoping that all works out well for you.
05-30-14, 11:55 AM
#36
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Funny you should say... I got off my bike just this morning at work and felt like I'd just toked some reefer. Thought for a second that I should take up that habbit again, then immediately rejected it in favor of the bike.
05-30-14, 11:58 AM
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Riding has also been helpful in my post divorce era, and my son, who has mental health issues, finds it is a key stress management tool. Of course it is possible that any exercise is beneficial in this way, but cycling is easy on the body.
05-30-14, 12:06 PM
#38
You gonna eat that?
On the other hand, I've been stuck in a hotel the last couple nights and I'm trying to ride every day of Bicycle Month. Let me tell ya, a stationary bike sucks the soul right out of me.
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I stop for people / whose right of way I honor / but not for no one.
Originally Posted by bragi 
"However, it's never a good idea to overgeneralize."
I stop for people / whose right of way I honor / but not for no one.
Originally Posted by bragi "However, it's never a good idea to overgeneralize."
05-30-14, 01:01 PM
#39
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I don't want to be over dramatic about it, but cycling quite literally helped me reclaim my very essence.
In late 2011 I was in a horrible head-on collision where the other guy suddenly ripped across the centerline and creamed me... well, creamed us both. He was killed. 1995 Land Cruiser trumps late 80's van, game/set/match.
I came to my senses several hours later in the hospital with a brain contusion from the sudden deceleration and the airbag. The following 18 months were a psychological horror show of redlined anxiety, depression, PTSD, massive impairment, and outright despair. At the root of it- I now see- was that I'd lost myself. On some very basic level I didn't believe I was "me". I had left, and what had returned was a very different person, and not in a good way. Best illustration I can give was one time, a few months in, I remember I was setting the table, and I thought, I wonder if I should set a 5th place in case Jeff (me) shows up! Surreal stuff. It reached its nadir when I got absolutely torched by an old somewhat obscure Dylan song.... one with lyrics about being unable to see his reflection in the water, or know the sounds of his own name. I understood how people can commit suicide. It was a very, very dark place and as alone as a person can be, when you aren't even sure you are YOU.
In fall 2012 against doctor's orders I did a solo high-altitude backpack deer hunt in very rugged country. I still had tangible processing impairments, speech issues, sensory sensitivities, high anxiety, depression, and "self" issues. In fact the above Dylan incident (damn his hide, anyway) came after this hunt. Well, I got a deer at around 9000 feet elevation and 4.5 very steep miles from my truck. It was an insanely physical 4 days. Ridiculously aerobic. But I felt great afterwards!
It didn't last, because I was still healing, and after I got home winter settled in and I failed to understand or further pursue highly aerobic activity...
Until last spring! That's when a buddy had a 50th birthday and had a bunch of friends come up from Colorado with the intent of doing difficult double-50 mile rides. I bought a bike and started training. Lo and behold... I found that I loved climbing hills; I loved the rush of it, the sense of being firmly planted in my (suffering) body -MY body, dammit!- and that the process washed away the anxiety and depression I was still battling. In short it cured me.
Thats my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
In late 2011 I was in a horrible head-on collision where the other guy suddenly ripped across the centerline and creamed me... well, creamed us both. He was killed. 1995 Land Cruiser trumps late 80's van, game/set/match.
I came to my senses several hours later in the hospital with a brain contusion from the sudden deceleration and the airbag. The following 18 months were a psychological horror show of redlined anxiety, depression, PTSD, massive impairment, and outright despair. At the root of it- I now see- was that I'd lost myself. On some very basic level I didn't believe I was "me". I had left, and what had returned was a very different person, and not in a good way. Best illustration I can give was one time, a few months in, I remember I was setting the table, and I thought, I wonder if I should set a 5th place in case Jeff (me) shows up! Surreal stuff. It reached its nadir when I got absolutely torched by an old somewhat obscure Dylan song.... one with lyrics about being unable to see his reflection in the water, or know the sounds of his own name. I understood how people can commit suicide. It was a very, very dark place and as alone as a person can be, when you aren't even sure you are YOU.
In fall 2012 against doctor's orders I did a solo high-altitude backpack deer hunt in very rugged country. I still had tangible processing impairments, speech issues, sensory sensitivities, high anxiety, depression, and "self" issues. In fact the above Dylan incident (damn his hide, anyway) came after this hunt. Well, I got a deer at around 9000 feet elevation and 4.5 very steep miles from my truck. It was an insanely physical 4 days. Ridiculously aerobic. But I felt great afterwards!
It didn't last, because I was still healing, and after I got home winter settled in and I failed to understand or further pursue highly aerobic activity...
Until last spring! That's when a buddy had a 50th birthday and had a bunch of friends come up from Colorado with the intent of doing difficult double-50 mile rides. I bought a bike and started training. Lo and behold... I found that I loved climbing hills; I loved the rush of it, the sense of being firmly planted in my (suffering) body -MY body, dammit!- and that the process washed away the anxiety and depression I was still battling. In short it cured me.
Thats my story, and I'm stickin' to it!
05-30-14, 07:58 PM
#41
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It would love to take narrow-minded people like that to task
05-30-14, 08:11 PM
#42
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05-31-14, 12:55 PM
#43
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Def agree, I tune everything out and focus on my performance. When I get tired, I can cruise and look at the scenery. Once I get home and take a shower I can chill out and relax. For the mind it really is like meditation when I get those two hours to myself, for the body it gets the blood pumping and feels great. I sleep better too
05-31-14, 02:53 PM
#44
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My wife has been sick for most of our married life. She got a double lung transplant at the end of 2010. Her father moved in with us after her mother passed not too long before the transplant. You'd better believe that my bike keeps me grounded.
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05-31-14, 04:12 PM
#45
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Best wishes for your and your wife.
05-31-14, 05:24 PM
#46
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Been down that exact same road, RIRview. Getting divorced and having to leave my home and my 13 y/o son was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
Cycling helped bail me out as well . . . since I had to dip heavily into savings to pay the bloodsucking lawyer anyway, I used some of the cash to make me happy - a new change-of-life Merlin bicycle. Make yourself happy, bro! Soon it *will* get better.
Cycling helped bail me out as well . . . since I had to dip heavily into savings to pay the bloodsucking lawyer anyway, I used some of the cash to make me happy - a new change-of-life Merlin bicycle. Make yourself happy, bro! Soon it *will* get better.
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05-31-14, 05:45 PM
#47
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05-31-14, 09:58 PM
#48
You gonna eat that?
psychotherapy
__________________
I stop for people / whose right of way I honor / but not for no one.
Originally Posted by bragi "However, it's never a good idea to overgeneralize."
I stop for people / whose right of way I honor / but not for no one.
Originally Posted by bragi "However, it's never a good idea to overgeneralize."
05-31-14, 10:14 PM
#49
Senior Member
Been down that exact same road, RIRview. Getting divorced and having to leave my home and my 13 y/o son was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
Cycling helped bail me out as well . . . since I had to dip heavily into savings to pay the bloodsucking lawyer anyway, I used some of the cash to make me happy - a new change-of-life Merlin bicycle. Make yourself happy, bro! Soon it *will* get better.
Cycling helped bail me out as well . . . since I had to dip heavily into savings to pay the bloodsucking lawyer anyway, I used some of the cash to make me happy - a new change-of-life Merlin bicycle. Make yourself happy, bro! Soon it *will* get better.
After a divorce with two kids involved and several broken relationships, plus a medical incident later diagnosed as broken heart syndrome, I took up cycling. There have been rocky patches along the way -- life is like that -- but cycling has given me international travel, several job opportunities, a smoke-free and almost alcohol-free as well as an emotionally stable lifestyle, an enhanced appreciation for everything around me, and best of all, a wonderful wife.
But essentially, getting on a bike and exploring and find that the world does not end at the city limits, was a great therapy at a low ebb in my life.
