Finding purpose

Rise andshine

SURFING CHAMP LAYNE BEACHLEY’S AWAKE ACADEMY OFFERS THE TOOLS REQUIRED TO BUILD A SENSE OF PURPOSE

Surfing legend Layne Beachley is all about living life “by design rather than default”, but even the best laid plans sometimes benefit from a stroke of good luck.

First illness, then the global pandemic delayed work on her Awake Academy, forcing her to slow the process of creating the self-empowerment platform.

Heavily in demand as a keynote speaker, the seven-time world surfing champion used the extra time to keep building her online toolkit.

“I took the time to take a snapshot of my life and realised how unsustainable it was,” Layne, 48, says.

“I felt like a bit of a hypocrite, to be quite honest, talking to people about mental health and personal wellbeing and finding balance ... while I was doing between 40 and 65 talks a year, and travelling over 50 per cent of the year. My life was out of balance.

“My keynotes are impactful and thought provoking, so it was time for me to create an online platform for people to do the work when it suited them, without relying on me to physically deliver all the time. The perfect platform to go deeper at your own pace. The course and the academy was born out of a desire to shortcut people’s struggles, and shortcut my own.”

Layne partnered with online psychology service My Mirror to support participants dealing with difficult feelings or emotions triggered by the course.

“It’s not my responsibility to shortcut the struggle, however, my passion to help people detach from fear inspired me to create a course filled with the tools and techniques to help design a life you love versus living one by default,” she says.

Layne, who is Surfing Australia chair, would have several overseas commitments in an ordinary year. As the world slowly opens up post-pandemic, she doesn’t intend to stay idle.

“I’m not a kick-back kind of girl. I don’t love to be busy but I certainly love to be purposeful. One of the things that gets me out of bed every morning is thinking about how I can grow and learn and share that with others. I’m always thinking about how I can best serve the world.”

“In essence our ability to laugh at life, at each other and ourselves is the secret sauce to our successful partnership.”

Still surfing “most days”, Layne has taken advantage of extra home time with her husband of 10 years, Kirk Pengilly. Also a prolific traveller, she says Kirk is her opposite in nearly every way — and that’s why they work so well.

While Kirk is one to plan ahead and likes things to be very clean and tidy, Layne loves spontaneity. “I can be very untidy, I often have piles of stuff everywhere, and I can be very disorganised, so we balance each other by challenging each other’s behaviours.

“In essence our ability to laugh at life, at each other and ourselves is the secret sauce to our successful partnership. We’re each other’s accountability partners. We have an enormous amount of admiration, love and respect for each other.”

Layne’sTIPS ON HOW TO START THE MORNING

1Begin every day with a centring breathing exercise, such as box breathing. Breathe in for four seconds, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four, repeat. Breathing helps calm the central nervous system and brings you back to the moment.

2Create an ‘I am’ mantra, something achievable, believable. Even if I wake up feeling hungover or sick, I say, ‘I am happy, I am healthy, I am fit, I am strong.’ Not ‘I am fat, I am ugly, I am stupid.’ It sets the tone for the rest of your day.

3When you get out of bed, make it! Start your day with a sense of achievement.

4Drink a large glass of water. Your brain is 80 per cent water, and we lose a litre of water a night through our breathing.

5Brush your teeth with the opposite hand to stimulate growth of neural pathways between the left and right hemispheres of your brain.