TBP 278: Using Zen Philosophy for Performance Anxiety, Fear, and Grief with Francis Sanzaro

Francis Sanzaro is a 45-year-old climber out of Carbondale, Colorado who's been climbing for about 30 years. He got his PhD in the Philosophy of Religion and has been studying the practice of Zen for decades. In recent years, he started applying Zen more directly and intentionally to his climbing and found that his performance and his enjoyment of the sport increased dramatically, so he wrote a book about it: The Zen of Climbing. I HIGHLY recommend the book! 

I had him on the show to discuss the book and to have him tell us exactly what it means to apply Zen philosophy to your climbing. It's not complicated and you can start using these principles right away. What I took from the book is that I don't have to have as many emotions about climbing as I think I do. All I'm doing is trying my best to get to the top of a climb, and that's all it really needs to be. 

What we talked about:

• What Zen is as it relates to climbing
• How to use Zen with performance anxiety
• How to practice Zen in everyday life
• Dealing with failure using Zen practices
• Dealing with FEAR using Zen
• Using Zen in his grief process after (and during) losing both of his parents recently