Realizing You’re Part of the Greater Whole

Carlos Alcaraz couldn’t bring home Olympic gold for Spain. Even though it seems like a distant memory now, we all remember the bitter tears he shed, feeling like he had let his country down. Fast forward to the Laver Cup last weekend, in the deciding match against Taylor Fritz, it seemed like everything was under control. Alcaraz led comfortably in the first set and halfway through the second, but when the moment came to close out the match, the pressure hit hard. He stumbled, and let Fritz back into the game.

Anyone who’s played tennis knows how difficult it is to close out a match. There’s always the fear of losing, but sometimes there’s an even deeper fear – the fear of winning. The pressure tightens your muscles, makes your legs feel heavy, and stiffens your arms, and the mind becomes its own opponent. On a professional stage, that pressure is magnified tenfold. Now imagine not just playing for yourself, but for your team. And how much more intense must it feel when the weight of a whole nation rests on your shoulders?

Alcaraz managed to pull through in the Laver Cup, but in the Olympics, the burden seemed too much.

Perhaps the key wasn’t about playing for others at all. What he missed in that moment was the realization that it would have been enough to just play for himself.

What went wrong? Perhaps the key wasn’t about playing for others at all. What he missed in that moment was the realization that it would have been enough to just play for himself. In doing so, he would have played for the whole, because he is the microcosm in the macrocosm. We often forget this profound truth – that we are already a representative of the larger, whether we are aware of it or not. It’s that profound moment of realization – I am that. When you truly grasp that you are none other than the very thing you’ve been striving toward or feeling pressure to represent, everything becomes lighter. There’s no separation between you and the whole. By simply being yourself, playing for yourself, you’re already fulfilling the bigger purpose. It’s a deep, spiritual alignment that takes away the burden and lets you move with ease.

Image: taken from Instagram account @capslock.tennis

Image: taken from Instagram accounts @carlitosalcarazz

This is perfectly illustrated by the story of the Tenth Monk:

In a monastery, there lived ten monks. One day, they set out on a pilgrimage and crossed a river. Upon reaching the other side, the abbot counted the group and was horrified to find only nine monks. He counted again, and again only found nine. The monks, distraught, began searching for the missing one, without success. A passing shepherd asked what was wrong. “We’ve lost one of our brothers,” they said. “We were ten this morning, and now we are only nine.” The shepherd calmly reassured them, “You haven’t lost anyone. Count again.” The abbot counted, reaching nine, and then the shepherd placed his finger on the abbot’s chest. “You are the tenth.”

It’s that profound moment of realization - I am that.

Like the monks, Alcaraz may have forgotten that he was part of the whole, the very essence of what he was trying to serve. There was no need to carry Spain on his shoulders – he was Spain. In playing for himself, freely and without the crushing weight of expectation, he would have played for his country too, because the individual and the collective are one and the same.

In the end, we are never separate from the whole. We are not just participants in life – we are life. We are not just part of the universe – we are the universe. We’re not merely worshiping the Divine; we are the Divine.

Alcaraz didn’t need to fight for anyone else; he simply needed to play for himself, knowing that in doing so, he was already representing the whole.

In the end, we are never separate from the whole.

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Carlos Alcaraz expectations Laver Cup macrocosm microcosm Olympics pressure tennis