SwellWomen is bliss. SwellWomen is love. Above all, SwellWomen is community. Meet Sherri Hayden, Neuropsychologist, who has been on more SwellWomen retreats than we can count! It is thriving women like Sherri who make SwellWomen what it is today, and we know she will inspire you as much as she has inspired us.
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What inspired you to want to learn how to surf?
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I first learned to surf with my sons when they were about 7 and 9 years old with the intention of having a bonding activity. My sons and I surfed together a few time thereafter, although their interest waned as they became teenagers. A few years later, my interest in surfing was renewed with an experience in Maui filled with the bright, supportive group of SWELL women.
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What’s your favorite surf spot?
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Maui always feels like my home surf, despite my Canadian passport, and so I love returning there. That said, each surf spot has been a source of inspiration.
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What’s one piece of advice you can offer to a novice surfer?
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I would just encourage anyone new to surfing to focus on enjoying the experience of learning rather than expecting mastery. Surfing can be challenging, humbling, and at times terrifying. However, the experience of learning to surf can also be filled with some amazing moments of triumph and euphoria. Those moments of exhilaration always seem to offset the challenges!
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What’s your favorite travel and/or retreat memory?
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My recent SWELL retreat in Costa Rica was filled with such joy and wonder. Surfing near this remarkable jungle environment was both healing and inspiring with a number of experiences (like climbing a 70 foot jungle tree) that seemed to expand my heart and courage.
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What keeps you inspired and gives you bliss?
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The love of family and friends, as well as the bravery of patients that I meet in my neuropsychology practice, is a constant source of inspiration. Bliss for me comes in the moments I am near, on, or in bodies of water.
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What’s your favorite quote?
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“Being brave is not being unafraid but feeling the fear—and doing it anyway. Since we are communal animals, find one or more other people who share our experience, and who support us in talking about it and finding a solution. When you feel fear, try using it as a signal that something really important is about to happen.” — Gloria Steinem • Writer, Political Activist, Feminist Icon
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