Anyone who
has learned to snowboard knows the importance of finding your centre of
gravity. But for Michael Symonds, the experience was also about exploring his
spiritual centre.
Symonds has
studied with renowned spiritual leader, Deepak Chopra and
is a
personal growth facilitator and certified primordial sound meditation
instructor.
After
living in Vancouver’s west end for over 20 years, Symonds decided to retreat
from the “up-town experience” of the city to the quiet beauty of the mountains.
“Even
though Whistler itself is a busy town, the truth is, you can escape up on the
mountain or into the parks or the forests and get away,” says Symonds.
And now he
has taken his experiences and put them in a new book, ZEN Shredding. The
about-to-be published work is about the pursuit of dreams, and chronicles
Symonds own foray into the world of snowboarding, using vignettes from his
personal experiences to outline the process and explain the risks, fears and
insights he gained during the process.
“It depends
on the angle you look at it from,” explains Symonds of the book’s content.
“It’s a book of insights, but it’s also kind of a journal of my whole
exploration of learning how to snowboard in the past three years.”
While some
of the vignettes are personal and specific, the insights and ideas drawn from
the process can be applied universally.
“I think
that someone reading, even though they might not be a snowboarder or might not
be a skier, or even play on the mountains in the snow, they’ll be completely
able to relate to the questions and the insights,” says Symonds.
Learning to
ride wasn’t exactly an easy process for Symonds. During his first season in
Whistler, he was too busy working 50 to 60 hours a week in the resort to learn.
“I was
intrigued by it, and also, by being in Whistler, you’re also kind of seeing it
24/7,” says Symonds. “I spent a lot of time just hanging around the bottom of
the hill and watching all these people having fun.”
He took one
lesson the next season, but it was icy and intense, and he gave up. It wasn’t
until the following season that he decided to give it another shot, this time,
signing up for four back-to-back lessons, immersing himself in the process.
“It ended
up being very magical for me, because I’m a more mature learner in terms of
snowboarding,” says Symonds.
Now, he
continues to take lessons and has progressed to play in the park and ride in
the trees.
Symonds
attributes a lot of his recent personal growth to the drastic change of
environment he experienced when moving to Whistler.
“Environment
has a huge impact on us – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, if
you’re into that kind of thing,” explains Symonds. “Being up in Whistler was
really like a new start for me.”
The new
surroundings and community has helped to inspire him to take on new challenges
and explore a different side of himself.
“When we
get older or spend a lot of time in certain environments or cultures, there’s a
tendency to limit ourselves in terms of what we’re doing and who we’re being,
and so to pick yourself up and move to a completely new environment sometimes
opens doorways and also opportunities that weren’t there before,” says Symonds.
He is
currently in the process of approving the final draft of ZEN Shredding, but
says the book should be available by the end of the month.
He is
working with a Victoria-based company, Trafford, which takes an on-demand
approach to printing, eliminating the need for excessive inventories and
allowing lesser-known authors an opportunity to see their work published.
He is also
using the web as his primary marketing tool, and has released a 13-minute
presentation on Google, YouTube and his own website,
www.zenshredding.com
.
A portion
of proceeds from book sales will go towards the Zero Ceiling Foundation, an
organization that brings at-risk youth from Vancouver and Montreal to the
slopes of Whistler, the Laurentians and Mont Tremblant for adventure-based
learning and employment skills training.
Symonds
says he wants to help make a difference in the community.
“I’ve
started to recognize under the surface of the superficiality of what Whistler
can sometimes be perceived as, there’s a great activity going on in terms of
volunteerism and just supporting all the different organizations.”
He decided
Zero Ceiling’s mandate meshed well with his own life philosophy, and some of
the main messages in ZEN Shredding.
“It’s an
unbiased organization, and I think that really spoke to me in terms of taking
people off the street … and putting them in a different environment, like I had
been put in a different environment, and seeing how that environment can shape
and open doorways.”
