Samantha Livingstone

It depends on the athlete and what they're already doing, but spending more time training our brain and tending to our mental health in the same way as physical aspects of our sport can help us tap into a higher level of performance. Knowing ourselves and having mastery of our internal world can improve our quality of life and freedom.
 
Transcript: "Do you believe athletes should focus more on their mental health and wellness? Well, I don't know. It depends on the athlete and what they're already doing, right? So that word should is, oh, it's actually a pretty activating word because we feel like things are being done to us. So I'm not really a big fan of it. I think we want to ask the questions of, you know, is what we're doing working and are we able to get our mind and body in alignment so that we can touch that space of thriving and flourishing as a human being? Not that we stay there all the time, but do we have the skill set to meet ourselves in challenging moments to be able to positively cope? And if we're wanting to grow there, then yes, absolutely. Spending more time training our brain, tending to our mind in the same ways that we do the technical components of our sport and the physical components of our sport, because we can do all that. And if our mind isn't able to get online with our body, right, we're not able to tap into those that level of performance. And not only that, we're human beings at the end of the day. And so the more that we know about ourselves, the more that we learn how we work, what works for us, overall, the improvement in the quality of life and the freedom that we feel because we have this beginning level of mastery of this internal world. That's what I think."

The most significant decision I have made in my life so far is allowing myself to receive help when I need it.
 
Transcript: "What is the most significant decision you have made in your life so far? Whoa. One. That word, the, trips me up. One of the most significant decisions, when I read this question, I'm brought back to being 19, navigating a really dark space, being pulled out of the water with the need for shoulder surgery, and making the decision to give the mentor who I was sent to see, right, so Greg Harden, giving him a chance in actually doing the homework that he assigned, even though there was a huge part of me that was like, shh, I ain't doing this, I don't need help. And so, I would say the most significant decision I've made in my life so far is allowing myself to receive help when I need it. And that's a repeating pattern throughout my life."

When athletes struggle with their mental health, it is important for them to meet themselves with compassion and curiosity instead of judgment. It is also important for them to remind themselves that their struggles are not permanent and that they don't have anything to prove by going at it alone. Connecting with others can be a great source of support and understanding.
 
Transcript: "What advice would you give to athletes who struggle with their mental health? So I am going to push on this question a little bit to say that every athlete struggles with their mental health at some point because every athlete is human. And as humans, all of us, five in five of us, have mental health. And we experience, just like we do with our physical body, ebbs and flows. We have moments where we're touching, thriving, and feeling great. And then we have moments where we're dipping into that sinking, struggling space. And how we meet ourselves in those moments matters. So the one thing that I think may be really challenging and is really important is to meet ourselves with compassion and curiosity. Which is instead of meeting ourselves with judgment about what we're going through, kind of beating ourselves up internally for being where we are, is to start to talk to ourselves as if we were talking to someone that we care about, a friend, a loved one. And start talking to ourselves and giving ourselves that reassurance and reminding ourselves that, yes, of course, we're humans and therefore we're going to struggle. And so reminding ourselves that it's not permanent, number one. And number two, that we don't have anything to prove by going this alone. And so connecting with others is not a burden. Others want to help, especially when we're navigating those parts that feel really hard and heavy. So understanding that you are not alone and that there's nothing to prove by going solo."

Success is measured by connecting with our core values, asking ourselves if we are living in line with them and showing up in the way that we say. If not, we need to meet ourselves with kindness and grace so that we can move back into alignment faster.
 
Transcript: "What is your definition of success and how do you measure it? I love this question because if you would ask me decades ago I would have told you it was achievement only, right? It was like in school it was all A's and it was number one and that was the sole metric and it's so much greater than that. I think that we measure success, one way that we can measure success, first my golden rule is that there's not a right or wrong way and that we as individuals get to decide. Our society and culture institutions are gonna tell us there's a right and wrong way to measure success. Even our parents are gonna tell us that there's a right and wrong way to measure success and it's this is a journey where we go inward and we ask ourselves what matters most to us. So when we think about our lives and how we're showing up and what kinds of things we're prioritizing we want to connect with what our values are as individuals like our core values. What matters most to me as a human being and that's what we use as I say like the North Star, the metric, that's our measuring stick is am I living in alignment with my values? Am I walking with integrity? And when I don't because we're human and we're gonna fall off am I meeting myself with kindness and grace which allows me to get back into that aligned space faster. So measuring success for me looks like asking myself to reconnect with my core values and then saying like am I showing up this way? Am I actually doing the things that I say? Am I honoring the things that I say matter?"

I think that it is important to consider how we are using technology and social media, as it can easily pull us into a habit of unhealthy comparison. The key is to assess if what we are doing is adding more stress or if it is helping us show up in the way we want to.
 
Transcript: "What is your opinion on the role of technology in society and its impact on humanity? Lots of thoughts. So one area that pops up when I read this question is social media and its impact on our adolescent population and our young people and even all of us, right? No matter what age we are, our brains are processing so much information every second when it comes to our bodies, really, processing all this information, the sensory information. And it's a lot and our attention gets pulled a lot. And I think that it is not about whether or not social media is good or bad. It's really about how are we using it or is it using us? And is what we're doing working? Is this healthy and in alignment with how we wanna be showing up? Or is it adding more stress and pulling us into that space of comparison way more than is worth it? So asking yourselves how we're using it."

Speak to yourself with kindness.
 
Transcript: "If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be? To speak to myself with kindness. I mean it's that simple and it's really hard. I thought when I was younger that talking to myself with a really critical judgmental voice was what drove me to success and what I know now is that actually just kept me in a threat state where stress responses spiked and it actually was getting in the way of my ability to perform and to tap into those levels that I was working so hard as an athlete to get to. So it would be speaking to myself with kind words that I would use to those that I love around me as well as to a friend."