How mindfulness is helping crews survive mammoth Atlantic row challenge
Military personnel and veterans are among the teams setting off on the 'world's toughest row' in under 24 hours.
A record number of entrants have entered the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge this year, all looking to battle sleep deprivation, hallucinations and hunger to take on the unique experience of crossing an ocean in a rowing boat.
What has been made apparent by many of the crews is the importance of mental mindfulness.
The extreme endurance event sees the competitors row more than 3,000 miles, travelling west from San Sebastian in La Gomera, Canary Islands, to Nelson's Dockyard English Harbour, in Antigua and Barbuda.
They will be enclosed in their rowing boats for more than a month, so ensuring the crews maintain calm is crucial.
"We've done a lot of preparation mentally and physically," former member of the Royal Artillery Chris Harvey from Team Emotive said.
He added: "We've got a good team around each other. We all know how to push each other's buttons and how not to push each other's buttons."
Team Emotive, which also includes a Royal Navy veteran in their fours crew, entered the rowing challenge to raise funds for the charity Veterans At Ease.
"We've come through a dark place of very poor mental health. We are actually rowing across the ocean with our therapist, who actually saved our lives," Royal Navy veteran Jason Watkin of Team Emotive told Forces News.
He also shared a unique technique the team will be using to help when they are out at sea.
"We have a codeword which is 'TM', which stands for too much. Which means that at the moment you say TM it's not what you are saying it's how I'm currently receiving it.
"It's something you can't measure...TM just means stop saying what you are saying, back off, reset the conversation and go back to it in a different way or when the person is ready to receive what you are saying."
There are more teams than ever before: 43 crews, 127 rowers from 17 countries with a huge proportion of them being from the military.
Team HMS Oardacious is a team made up of Royal Navy submariners, who are back this year to showcase their "professionalism and adaptability" as submariners as well as pushing themselves both physically and mentally.
The team has worked with a psychologist to develop their mindfulness techniques ahead of this mammoth challenge.
"Mindfulness isn't just breathing exercises to calm you down," HMS Oardacious team captain Lieutenant Commander Hugo Mitchell-Heggs said.
"It's the elements that help us bond as a team. How we can give each other feedback, you know, we are in an extreme environment, exhausted, fatigued, how to give feedback to someone when you're feeling a little bit tired and grumpy can actually come across a certain way.
"So developing those team bonds through mindfulness practices is really useful," HMS Oardacious's team captain said.
Lieutenant Commander Callum Fraser, who is also a part of Team HMS Oardacious, revealed the mindfulness techniques their team will use to survive.
"The key one that we are going to use is a daily check-in. So between all four of us on deck, listening and engaging with whoever is talking."
Lt Cdr Fraser said they will answer some "simple questions".
The questions are:
- What can we do?
- What are we enjoying or excited about?
- What's currently stressing us out or getting at the back of our minds?
- What could we do to make the boat go faster?
"It's a daily opportunity to air any grievances, talk about what we are really enjoying so, hopefully, that will boost everyone else's morale," Lt Cdr Callum Fraser said.
He added: "It's also a good way of letting off a little bit of steam to say 'it's really stressing me out how you are doing this, could you change it?' and then address that early before it becomes a problem."
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