I Know Why You Wrestle, Do You?
Wrestling is a strange endeavor. Any craft we commit great personal resources to beyond those that satisfy our basic human survival can feel extra and unnecessary. Why do we put so much into mastering a combat sport when we no longer live in a physically combative society?
We cut weight, skip meals, sweat off five pounds just to drink back four. We enter into competition that will return emotional and physical pains. We step out on the mat in front of our closest friends, family and complete strangers dressed in outfits that most of our parents wouldn’t let us wear to a Halloween party.
It all seems pretty nuts. Irrational. Why make life so much harder than it has to be? You could be watching that new Netflix show and eating your favorite pint of ice cream after all.
The answer is clear. You wrestle because you are courageous. You are courageous enough to acknowledge the call to your own Hero’s Journey.
Inside each of us is a deep need for growth. You have been drawn to a unique path that provides you with the experiences and challenges that are most appropriate for the growth that your unconscious craves.
In the book, The Man Who Wrestled With God, John Sanford writes,
“The unconscious constellates as difficult a situation as it can in order to get the most out of us. The call to psychological growth is universal.”
There is a wisdom inside of each of us that knows our potential and demands it to be recognized. We can ignore the inner request for psychological growth but it will return. This inner restlessness will manifest itself again and again until it becomes so loud we cannot deny it. It may stir up chaos or melancholy in our lives until we find ourselves in a situation that will demand the change and growth that we hoped to ignore. Either we choose our unique outlet for challenge and transformation or life will choose it for us. One way or another the unconscious will lead us to the challenges that will transform us into who we are meant to be.
Something in you recognized wrestling as your precise outlet for psychological growth. Your courage allows you to acknowledge it. Your action allows you to live it. We become our whole-selves only through living out our Hero’s Journey.
The need for growth is universal. For others growth may come from mastering a musical instrument, traveling the globe, a meditation retreat, or speaking out about civil rights. But for you and me, it is wrestling. At the end of this path we will have earned a better version of ourselves to be proud of and to give back to the world.
I know why you wrestle, now you do too.
-Joe Nord
