I’ve been taking adult skating lessons for a month now.
Last year, I confessed to you that I learned to ride a bike, skateboard and cross-country ski late in life. In this column about the sports you’re never too old to learn, I wrote that my next challenge would be skating… Well, I’m a woman of my word.
I still don’t understand what drives me to put two blades on my feet to stand on ice, but I do. (Is any sport, once intellectualized, so absurd? I invite you to do the exercise. I don’t find many as illogical as skating, other than driving in circles at 350 km/h or do spins while springing from a mound, feet welded to two large boards…)
My friends Claire and Amélie didn’t know how to skate either. Every week, we go to the Atrium Le 1000 together and let ourselves be guided by infinitely patient teachers.
The average age of our group is around 40, which surprised me a lot. In fact, I was so surprised by the socio-cultural profile of my companions (mostly young, white and French-speaking) that at the very first class, I was convinced that we had gotten the schedule wrong…
“This world knows how to skate, that’s for sure. »
Well, once on the ice, it became pretty obvious that no one knew how to do it… Have you ever seen about twenty adults refuse to let go of a band?
Looking back, it’s touching, but on the spot, it was terrifying.
If, as a child, the risks of injury did not slow us down, they are now much harder to ignore. Would we be ready to go back to the office without pallets tomorrow morning? The question haunted us.
Obviously, the fear fades over the course, but it remains present. It’s changing… In fact, I had a revelation last Tuesday: I think it makes me feel good to inflict this type of stress on myself.
On a daily basis, I don’t really control what worries me (the environment, the economy, the potential finitude of my loved ones and gluten). So there’s something surprisingly empowering about scaring myself on my own terms.
It’s as if my body took a liking to generating stress to better overcome it. Is that possible? Is it healthy?
Neuropsychologist Catherine Duchesne, who specializes in sports, reassured me from the first seconds of our telephone conversation. Collectively, we associate fear with a state that we must avoid, but in fact, it is essential…
“There is no good or bad emotion, they all help us to live fully! Fear is nourishing, we need it. It is produced so that we can adapt. »
This kind of stress has its advantages: it allows us to mobilize ourselves to learn something new. It benefits our mental, cognitive and physical health.
Catherine Duchesne, neuropsychologist
Catherine Duchesne even speaks to me of a certain euphoria in which I recognize myself… I arrive at my classes anxious about the exercises to come and tired from my day’s work. Once on the ice, I experience a mixture of fear and excitement. Then, I go home very lightly with the desire to celebrate my meager progress.
Learning to skate at 34 makes me euphoric. We are far from the embarrassment or the shame that I anticipated.
“There is a double pleasure here, specifies the neuropsychologist. Sport stimulates the reward system: endorphins, dopamine and adrenaline give us a feeling of pleasure at the physiological level. But the fact of feeling valued in an apprenticeship also brings pleasure! »
And learning doesn’t have to be athletic for that to be true. Singing, painting or cabinetmaking would do just as much… “We like it because it gets us out of sequences planned in advance and out of our automatisms, adds Catherine Duchesne. It connects us to our creative power as humans. »
(I doubt my skating profs associate my braking attempts with any creative force, but I get what she means.)
The fear felt when we tackle a new activity is not bad, on the contrary it allows us to get our brain out of “autopilot” mode.
“What is special about adapting to novelty is that it solicits executive functions, specifies the neuropsychologist. The brain is lazy, it will always scan the things it knows because it takes less energy. When he encounters something new, there is a mobilization of the executive functions. The ability to plan, organize our ideas and inhibit information or not, for example…”
Our brain wants to understand what we are doing so that one day, the gesture becomes banal and can play lazy again. But in the meantime, we’re stretching our attention span and working memory. We do good.
Which leads me to believe that we all need a new hobby.
Too many people prevent themselves from learning a new sport, as they get older. Whether it’s for fear of being judged or of getting hurt, but Catherine Duchesne insists on the fact that several activities can be adapted to everyone’s desires and limitations.
You just have to dare to inform yourself. That’s good, the meeting is one of the many advantages of a new hobby, according to the neuropsychologist…
“And if you start skating with your friends outside to combine all that with the benefits of being in nature, then there will be even more benefits,” adds Catherine Duchesne.
“Okay, but what do you do if you get addicted to fear?
“You’ll take up speed skating!” »