Make Some Room: Powerful Life Lessons Inspired by an Epic 16-day Colorado River Rafting Trip Through Grand Canyon

Introduction

In June of 2013, my husband Nelson and I spent 16 days rafting 225 miles of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon. Having never done a trip like this before, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

Thankfully, the friends who invited us prepared us well:

Take everything you think you will need and leave everything else behind.

Turns out, everything I needed fit into a bag about the size of a large Golden Retriever.

During our trip, our six rafts held the rest of the gear we would need: kitchen and food, bathroom set up (aka “Groovers”), and assorted emergency gear. The motto of Grand Canyon is “Pack it in; pack it out.” And that means EVERYTHING.

So it went that I spent 16 days sleeping under the stars and Milky Way, keeping track of trash and crumbs (called “microtrash”), and eternally trying to keep the sand out of my contact lenses.

Here’s what I learned during that trip:

• It doesn’t take much to keep 16 people happy. A filling meal three times a day plus some snacks goes a long way.
• Wearing pretty much the same clothes for days on end isn’t a big deal.
• Taking a bath (in the 49 degrees-cold river) every three or four days makes being clean all the sweeter.
• Nature is all around and she is beautiful. Slowing down and paying attention is like creating the most delicious meditation+prayer milkshake.
• The rapids were big and fast and the water was cold. I was scared shitless more than a few times. There was no option but to keep going. So I did.
• Laughter, conversation, and connecting with those 16 people were a crucial part of each day.
• I didn’t think about money on the Canyon. Except for one stop at Phantom Ranch (deep down in the bottom of the Canyon) for postcards and lemonade, there was literally no place to even use money. If we “needed” anything, we traded for it. Beer for toilet paper. Beer for ice. Will swim for beer! It turned out beer was quite the bartering tool.
• “Drink more water.” That was the answer for everything from general crankiness to major headaches. During this trip, I learned I was chronically dehydrated; even today, I drink three times more water now than I drank before the trip.
• Simplifying your life down to a bag and a boat showed me what was important. I fell in love with the simplicity and rhythm of each day.

The Make Some Room Manifesto

In a world where our modern lives tend to be chaotic, noisy, and over-scheduled, making some room can be a real challenge.

My goal in this book is to help you take a breath. Eliminate some of the chaos. Slow down.

I created my Manifesto – my public declaration of intentions, beliefs, and opinions – after this life-changing experience showed me what was truly important.

One of the things I champion is not only understanding but also moving into ACTION. So, to help you learn how to make some room in your life or in your business, I decided to write this “how to” book. It focuses on the 20 ideas outlined in my Make Some Room Manifesto (see illustration, right).

I want to help you sort through the noise and create some space and time for you to think about simplifying your life. I want to show you what is important to me so it can help illuminate what might important to you. In other words – I want to guide you to Make Some Room.

I found that my time on the Colorado River and down in Grand Canyon created the space and time for me to think about my life very differently. This trip set the stage for me to write my Make Some Room Manifesto, which I’m sharing with you in detail in this book.

My wish is that everyone has the opportunity to have a Grand Canyon-like experience at least once in their lives. This book is my way of sharing my experience. My hope is it hits you like a ton of bricks…or a 2 x 4 upside your head…or that it quietly but relentlessly tickles your Soul like a gentle feather…something, anything that can wake you up to life and inspires you to begin living your life on purpose.

I believe you will benefit from what I learned and discovered. Throughout this book, focus on what feels important to you. Leave the rest behind.

But wait, how do you do this?

In a nutshell, you must figure out what’s essential for you.

What’s essential? It’s a sweet mix of:

• Your goals and values.
• What you love and desire.
• How you wish to make an impact in the world.
• What you need and want.
• And most importantly, what makes you come alive.

This process of “figuring out what’s essential” doesn’t have to be hard; in fact, the simpler, the better.

Once you figure out the essential stuff, you can eliminate the rest. And that’s where making some room comes in.

Since you’re reading this book, I assume you’re ready to make some room in your over-stuffed life. You’re in the right place!

Let us end the introduction here so we can begin a journey together to guide you to make some much needed room in your life.

One final note: Each chapter of the book contains stories about my time on the river and then goes “Beyond the Canyon” with thoughts, ideas, tips, and even checklists to help you focus on what’s essential for you. I’m also thrilled to include a chapter on the Colorado River, contributed by the fantastic organization River Runners for Wilderness. Their goal is promoting river resource protection through wilderness management. This final chapter highlights the challenges being faced by the Colorado River. We ALL need to understand how vitally important our waterways are – there is MUCH to be done to protect the Colorado River and the waterways in our own backyards.

Stay tuned for Chapter 1 next week!

[all content and photos are (c) 2016 Angela Mattson Stegall and Nelson Stegall for the book, Make Some Room: Powerful Life Lessons Inspired by an Epic 16-day Colorado River Rafting Trip Through Grand Canyon.]