E-Bikes & Bikes Customised to You
Hey guys, Peter here at SixThreeZero bikes and e-bikes. I want to talk a little bit about how riding a bike can help you with your stress and anxiety.
All right. Hey everybody. So this is a little bit of a different topic, but I think that maybe it can help a lot of you. And honestly, I think that there are a lot more people who suffer from various levels of stress and anxiety than we see because we all put on a good front.
And I'll say right now, I've experienced a fair amount of anxiety in my life. I seem to be a little bit susceptible to it. I know how to manage it. I know how to be on top of it. I've got a job that sometimes is stressful. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had a really lucky thing happen, which was a massive amount of interest in our product. But what happened is we only had five customer service agents and our load went up by 800%.
And so, as you can imagine, we had five agents trying to deal with about a thousand bits of communication, emails, or phone calls a day. Five people can't handle that and it just hit us out of the blue. We had no idea when COVID hit and things started getting shut down, I think we were as surprised as anybody that this phenomenon was going to happen.
And so, of course, as you can imagine, we couldn't get through these emails fast enough and that was extremely stressful for me because I wanted to deliver excellent customer care. We all did. And we would just wake up every morning with every agent having to try and get through 200 or 300 emails and phone calls, which is just, isn't possible. A lot of our emails, it's not just one email, but there are lots of replies and back and forth.
Also sometimes phone calls, if it happens to be with assembly help, or what bike to get, those can be more in-depth conversations. Those can take 15, 20, 30 minutes, or more. And so we really wanted to help everybody and we couldn't. It was very, very stressful. It took me about two months to ramp us up from five agents to 38 agents, that's what it took to manage the volume that we were having.
But yeah, I experienced an extreme amount of anxiety at that time. And I was also helping with the tickets. And so I was also helping on the front lines with upset, frustrated customers. And of course, they were frustrated, they were trying to get through, they were trying to get their e-bike and all that, and not getting the help that they needed.
So I just want to share that story with you. I think that we all experience it to one degree or another, and some of us are more susceptible to anxiety and stress. We can kind of let it get away from us. And that has happened to me, so I just want to let you know that, maybe I can help you with that. And one thing that really helps me with my peace of mind is riding a bicycle.
And so one thing that I've heard said sometimes is that anxiety is when you think that you feel like it's bigger than you instead of you being bigger than it and that you can manage it. And the fact the matter is that when we're having anxiety, or worry, or stress, it's strange to say it, but most of it's in our imagination.
Because here you are watching this video right now, wherever you are, you're watching this right now, you're probably safe in this moment. Take out all the other things that keep you up at night that are worrying you, whether it's finance, or health, or relationships, et cetera, et cetera. Where you are right now, you're okay. You're okay. Unless you're in some sort of extreme circumstance, in which you probably wouldn't be watching this video.
So it's about what we are thinking about, what can happen tomorrow, what's going to happen next week, what's happened recently, some sort of conversation that happened last week, or in our past. But these are things that are really in your imagination that you are thinking about, and that are not part of your reality in this moment. Okay.
And so what's really important is to get a grip on where you are and realize that you're safe and sound. You're fine. And the things that are scaring you or causing you to fear are right now, in the moment. Yes, you're going to have to take care of those things. Because fear is important to us, obviously, it's information. If I see a snake and I get afraid, I should run away from it. That's very good.
But then I shouldn't obsessed about the snake. I shouldn't get to the point where I never want to leave my house because there might be a snake outside. That's irrational. Fear is very good information and that's why we have anxiety about things because there are things that we're concerned about and we need to take care of them.
But we can't let it get away from us. And what happens a lot of times ... I'm not an expert, just a guy that's been through it and also rides a bike and it's helped me a lot ... is that we can keep going on the same thoughts and what will happen is the thoughts will build on themselves. And then you start to find yourself in a condition where you're going to need outside help because it gets worse and worse and compounds on itself.
Obviously, if you do need outside help go get it, talk to somebody, a psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, or whatever. But before we get to that, let's just talk about what you can do now because you are in this moment, you're fine, and things that are fine. You are safe. And there are a lot of things that may be worrying you and all of that.
But you need to find this spot where you are realizing what's happening right now, more often. Being aware of the good things in your life and putting those into your mind, being very conscious about the thoughts that you put into your brain and work on that and not let those negative and worrisome thoughts build up.
Okay. But one of the easiest ways to do that ... one of the hardest ways to do that, before I get the easy way, one of the hardest ways to do that, I think is by just sitting in your house, or sitting where you are, or doing the same patterns, because you're going to go to a job that's causing you stress. And it's just going to compound and build and build.
And then when you come home that's still there, what are you going to do with all that? Really moving and getting your body going ... like they say, the motion leads to emotion, okay. So you got to start moving your body and you got to start being in the present more. I know it's a cliche a little bit, but it's because what I think people don't realize is that most of what we worry about is in our imagination, we're worrying about things that are never going to happen.
We're regretting things back in the past that may not even really happen the way that we see them and things like that, or don't even matter anymore. We're just locked in our heads and that all of us, we're all in that state. Okay. One of the best things you can do is just start getting out there and start exercising. Maybe you're not in the best shape. Maybe you don't feel like jogging or some other exercises that are good for you.
But e-bike is such a wonderful way to go. And this is where I'm going with this whole thing is that when you're riding an e-bike, it's going to put you in the present moment. That's just what you do. You just start noticing the beauty of nature around you. Today's a good day. It's a wonderful day, but if I'm in my head, I won't even be enjoying it.
I can be in this heavenly, beautiful day, and if I'm in my own head, it doesn't matter how beautiful the day is. On the other hand, a lot of things can be going wrong, but if you have the correct mindset you can be doing quite well and managing the things that are happening. Okay. So I just want to encourage people to find peace and just the wonderful feeling that I've found riding on a bicycle and calming my mind.
And the thing about a bicycle that is so great for me, that I've found is that, first of all, your body is moving. That's important. You're getting your blood flowing, and oxygen is going through your body and through your brain, it's calming you down. Your body's starting to sense that anxiety you're feeling, it starts to think of that stress as just something that's happening, that it's feeling because of your body exercising, right.
You're using a type of exercise that is stress-reducing. There are types of exercise, very intense exercises that are actually stress-inducing, that can compound your stress. But if you're doing something like riding a bike gently, you're just gliding along and it puts you in the moment. So that's the first thing, it puts you in the moment. It puts you in touch with looking around at your surroundings, what's actually here, not inside your mind, takes your mind off those worrisome things.
It starts to give you perspective on what's real, here I am, I'm riding a bike. What could be better than that? If you can start remembering that and doing that. Now on an e-bike, you can go farther, you can explore more places and you can spend more time on the e-bike. So that's the other wonderful thing is that it's just like going to the gym, you're not going to go there one day and become Arnold Schwarzenegger, not even Arnold Schwarzenegger can do that.
If you're going to get super fit, you got to spend a certain amount of time, you got to go there every day. Well, it's the same thing with your mind, you want to get on that bike as frequently as you can. And the farther you ride, I'm telling you, the better you will feel. I used to go on rides for 3, or 4 hours, and it was after a while, it's just the most blissful experience you could possibly imagine.
And if you are not able to ride just a regular bike, maybe because of your health or whatever ... and we all have challenges and health is a big one. Also, pain, if you have pain in your joints, your back, et cetera, just getting a nice bike like the EvryJourney that we sell is laid back. It's easy on the back. It's easy on the joints. I've done athletic things my whole life, but most of it's on a bicycle. I've never had any joint injuries or anything like that, just because a bicycle is so smooth and supportive to you.
So obviously you'll start getting your health back into shape by riding your e-bike. And that's another topic because you can get just as much of a workout, if you want, on an e-bike as you can with a regular bike. But also you're going to start watching your mental picture get better and better and better. Another thing that happens is as you start watching yourself starting to enjoy the day more you'll be taking on the attitude of someone who's enjoying life more and you will actually start enjoying life.
It will become an upward spiral instead of that downward spiral that you're in. It's almost like we're always in spirals. We're not really stagnant beings, it's either we're on the way down or the way up. And a lot of it has to be very conscious, but I think one of the easiest ways to do that, is to turn your brain around ... because it's hard to just sit there in your house, or scroll through social media, or watch a television show and really change your mindset, you got to get out there and start moving your body.
Motion leads to emotion. Okay? So start acting in a better way. And again, you can't just do it one day, it's not going to work. You got to do it tomorrow and you got to do it the next day. You got to do it every day of your life until these things become habits. But an e-bike, I can't think of a better way to start a habit like that. You just get on that thing, before you know it you're just gliding, flying through the air.
For me, it's better than running and jogging. I just feel like on a bike I'm going faster, I'm seeing more, there's more wind, and then you start getting your blood pumping and your body starts to feel alive again. You're not going to get that watching TV, or doing other things like sitting, meditating, and stuff like that. It's tough to change what your mind is doing.
But if you start getting your body moving and riding a bike or an e-bike out there, it's going to start changing and happening for you. I promise you, it really will. It's really one of the best things you can do. And people are always looking for an action item, like how can I actually change this situation in my life? How can I change things around? Well, you do, you got to take a step. Get on a bike.
Get on a bicycle and ride it. Go ride it for two miles, okay. The next week you're going to find out you're able to ride it four miles, it's going to blow your mind. A couple of weeks later than that on your e-bike, whatever, you're going to go 12 or 15 miles. You're going to see new places. You're going to explore something. You're going to see a butterfly or a bird, and all of a sudden things are going to start to change for you. But you got to take that step, okay.
Because yeah, what's the action item. The action item is to get on a bike. Get on one of our bikes or get on someone else's bike. But get on an e-bike. It's gentle on the body. It's gentle on the joints and you can go much farther. You can get anywhere. There's no anxiety of can I make it back home because there's a hill or whatever and it's going to turn things around for you.
So anyway, I really hope that that helps you. I know that if you do these things, it will help you. So good luck to you and take care. I truly hope that was helpful for you. If you liked it, please do like it and hit subscribe it helps grow our channel. And if you need any help at all, please contact us. You can call us at 310-982-2877 or email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com. Remember 630 is spelled out, S-I-X-T-H-R-E-E-Z-E-R-OS, theteam@sixthreezero.com. Thanks.