Cindy Present | Get Out Girl

The awe and wonder of nature. Of something bigger, greater and sometimes more mystical than ourselves. By being in the presence of nature, you can gain more perspective, feel more connected, at peace, relaxed, even find clarity and calmness. "Bathing" your senses, your spirit, yourself, in something natural. More and more science is supporting this an evidence-based alternative to "just what the doctor ordered". Check out this article in Organic Spa Magazine for a bit more on Forest Bathing!

I can confidently say that this fifth decade has been the most full, the most challenging, the most "so not about me" that I've lived to date. Friendships lost, parents aging, multiple business paths - and so little time to get it all in. Last night, under the July full "Buck Moon" for six minutes I watched the ISS (International Space Station) cross the sky above me - on this 50th Anniversary of NASA - of which Steve's dad had a huge part of during that generation. The full moon glowed still and timelessly over my left shoulder, while over my right the ISS surfaced from the horizon bigger and brighter than I expected and foraged across the horizon - consistently and steadfast - making me curious at what rate of speed it was truly traveling. 17,200 mph - more than 15 laps around the earth in the next 24 hours. And me, small, inconsequential, standing on my boat dock looking up, realizing that the ISS was traveling at a rate I could not even comprehend...

Smiling after running 17 hours in blistering heat when everything hurts and you're drop dead tired; applauding when you are scared and about to enter 52 degree water for your first Ironman swim; not thinking about the grueling hill ahead, but the crunch of the gravel where you're at. Telling yourself "This Girl Can" instead of asking how the heck will you do it when a huge blood blister shows up on the ball of your foot during mile one of your marathon during Ironman in Kona? Positivity was the difference between a DNF and a "got 'er done"! We LOVE this article in this month's Trail Runner on the science behind how positivity influences your performance!   Click Here!

100 Days of Blue. To be in, near, on or under the water for 100 days consecutively between Memorial Day and Labor Day (ok, plus one extra day if you're truly counting). It's all in the spirit of Blue Mind, the growing science that behind  how water not only positively impacts our lives but our minds as #waterismedicine. We spent 4 days with Wallace J. Nichols over Memorial Day. Many hours sitting in casual conversation with others, in, around or near the water. A recently divorced mom of an 11 year old struggling to find balance, connection, herself. A counselor of vets with PTS and children with anxiety, constantly giving her all to others and not considering herself. A wife, mom, sister-in-law and grandmother, all rolled into one, and consequently carrying the hardships, pains and struggles of a family of over 25 people. A young woman dealing with a chronic auto-immune disease who is discovering water to be her solice, her source of movement, her secret for less pain. T...

getoutgirl.com 1023. The day after. Three days, two nights, 60 miles of paddle boarding with 10 other friends, now teammates, Foundation 1023 Team PTSup. The first to ever navigate the length of Lake Travis 60 miles on paddle boards. Launching in Marble Falls, Texas at Camp Creek at dawn on a Friday and heading south toward Mansfield Dam, ending at Emerald Point Marina at 4pm on the following Sunday. Personally, almost 40,000 paddle strokes, over 11,000 “paddling” calories and 60 amazing miles on a Texas River that I adore and have lived out my entire life on. Most know that this event was a bucket list item that Kristin McLain and I had imagined  3 ½ years ago. What I didn’t know at the time was the story wouldn’t begin or end as it was originally scripted. But that is life - and as I have learned, “Things do not happen for a reason, but it’s what you do with what happens that becomes your reason.” Through the course of the weekend and at the wrap up of our acco...

Three years ago a friend and I were recovering from doing a 21 mile paddle board event the day prior, savoring in the joys of accomplishing a goal and now wondering what was next. "If we could paddle the distance of Lake Austin, how about we paddle the distance of Lake Travis next?" In a mere nano-second later, we were both "in", already conniving how we should do it the following summer. Before the sun set that day, we not only had a new bucket list item, but we had already shared with our significant others our excitement, much to their dismay. (Of course, anyone that knows me also knows that my "what if's" more often than not include a luring of my poor husband to the ends of the earth on multi-mile endurance expeditions! Needless to say he was not so thrilled, as he automatically knew it was in his future!) Less than a year after that item went on the bucket list, Kristin, my friend that shared the same dream, was killed. We had already be...

Anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE mermaids. I’ve always felt I should be a mermaid – the peace, tranquility and flow that water must mean to this aqua-loving species. How water must influence their entire life – not because they live in it, but how it must make their soul, their spirit, their mind feel and respond to everything else that surrounds them. Simply watching a mermaid “flow” has a synergy, a tranquility to it. (Yes, “I believe” ;-) Mermaids thrive in, around or on the water. They live because of it. I do to. I’ve always lived by the lake – except for a hiatus of show skiing at Sea World when I didn’t live by the water, but worked by it, in it and on it 8-12 hours a day. And I never “worked” a day in my life because I was by the water. And I still don’t. I’m blessed enough to not only continue to live on the lake, but I also paddleboard almost daily to Lake Austin Spa Resort where I’m Director of Fitness and Activities. My life is surrounded by water. And that...