Fear doesn’t only appear in life-changing moments. Sometimes it shows up in front of a one-meter wave at a surf pool in Rotterdam.

Most of us know this feeling:
There is something we secretly want to try—a hobby, an activity, an adventure—but the thought of it makes our stomach tighten.

For me, it was surfing.

I had already made several ridiculous attempts. Each one seemed to confirm the same conclusion: surfing just isn’t for me.
So I did what many of us do when desire meets fear.

I watched other people do it.

Video after video of surfers gliding effortlessly across waves while I remained safely on dry land, convincing myself that watching was good enough.

Until it wasn’t.

Walking Toward the Wave

Eventually, curiosity won.

One afternoon I headed to the surf pool in Rotterdam city center. As I walked from the metro station toward the water, my body was in full protest.

My heart climbed into my throat.
My legs trembled.
My pulse raced.

And this was for the smallest wave in the pool.

My mind, of course, had plenty to say about it.

This is a bad idea.
You’re going to embarrass yourself.
You’re definitely going to fall.

If you fall, you will break your neck.

But this time I tried something different.

Instead of forcing myself to be brave…
Instead of arguing with the anxious voice in my head…

I simply let the fear be there.

Thanks to a meditation practice I had learned at Mundo Armonía, I stayed present with the sensations and offered the fear to Source. No fighting. No convincing. Just allowing.

“Bring meditation to the city,” they had said.

So I walked to the surf pool meditating with every step.

Something Unexpected Happened

That day, I caught almost every wave.

Not only that—I finally felt what surfers talk about: the joy of playing in the water. The rhythm, the movement, the pure fun of it.

I walked away stunned.

Coincidence… or Something Else?

A few days later, my rational mind began its usual investigation.

Probably just coincidence.

So I decided to test the theory.

I went to the nearest skate park and faced another fear: dropping in from a ramp.

Again, the familiar physical reaction arrived right on schedule:

Sweaty hands.
Racing heartbeat.
Spiraling thoughts.

This time, I simply took a breath, did the practice, and dropped in.

The moment the wheels touched the ramp, the fear disappeared.

All that remained was speed, thrill, and a vivid sense of being alive.

Practicing Freedom

Surfing and skateboarding may sound like small, even silly situations.

There are no life-or-death stakes.
No major consequences.

But what if the mechanism behind these fears is the same one that appears in the bigger moments of life?

The job change.
The difficult conversation.
The creative project we secretly want to begin.

Maybe hobbies are more than entertainment.

Maybe they are training grounds for courage.

Places where we learn to meet fear without fighting it.
Where we discover that fear can exist in the body without having to decide our next move.

Because sometimes the lesson isn’t really about surfing.

Sometimes it’s simply about standing in front of a small wave in a surf pool in Rotterdam…
feeling your heart pounding in your throat…
your legs shaking…
your mind predicting disaster…

—and discovering that the wave was never the real challenge.

The real discovery is that fear doesn’t have to decide what happens next.

And once you see that, something opens.

Suddenly, life becomes full of small waves waiting to be ridden.