In 2015, I suffered a concussion that completely changed my life. My entire career I have been someone who prides themselves on working hard. If someone tells me I’m not going to make it, I say “thank you” and add fuel to the fire.
During our offseason, we are in control of our training. For me, most days are double days, at least, and then I’d spend my free time at coffee shops writing.
But this offseason, I couldn’t even walk, ride in a car, or be around people for extended periods of time without debilitating symptoms.
Despite my symptoms, I was determined to get back in time for the start of the NWSL season. .
But my body literally wouldn’t let me “work harder” to get back.
When you lose the thing that you dedicated your entire life to, when you have to drastically reduce your daily activities, and when the sole purpose of your entire day is to just get through the day with minimal symptoms, it makes you think about life differently.
I asked myself questions I never pondered before:
Why do I want to play soccer so badly? Who am I if I don’t have soccer? Why am I so desperate to find answers? What’s the purpose of my life?
It is this self-examination of my motives and feelings behind my aspirations that has had the most profound impact on my life-far beyond any workout regimen, diet, or training strategy.
My concussion has been by far my biggest life teacher.
The extreme lack of resources out there for proper concussion treatment is astounding. I have searched far and wide for answers, traveled across the country and up to Canada to see a neck specialist, implemented a new nutrition plan, and tried out dozens of other unconventional approaches (which I plan to write about).
I want to share what I have learned. But above all, I want to provide hope for anyone who is going through a difficult time, even if it’s not a concussion.
Even though my symptoms were immobilizing, the internal struggle far exceeded the physical pain.
I know that feeling of hopelessness and loneliness: no one understands my situation, why do things like this always happy to me, will I ever get better?
We all have our own unique struggle, that’s no better or worse than anyone else’s. It’s just life.
And this is mine.
I have a separate “my concussion story” section on Arrow Living in which I will continue telling my story, as well as interview specialists, and people who have helped me along the way.
If you know anyone whom you think this would help. Please pass it along.
Full written article: http://www.arrowliving.com/why-i-saw-strange-men-in-my-room-and-am-telling-you-about-it-9-months-later/
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I never used to understand people who made their bed. Why bother taking the time when you are going to be getting back in and making it messy at the end of the day anyways?
I am inherently a slob and tend to be suspicious of those whose living space smell of Windex and resembles a vacated crime scene.
What are they trying to hide??
But, awhile back I read a quote from Commander Navy Seal, William H Mcraven, that peaked my feathers.
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do one task and then another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed and It will reinforce the idea that the little things in life matter.”
A recent study showed that “71 percent of bed makers consider themselves happy, while 62 percent of non-bed-makers admit to being unhappy.”
Find out the benefits of making your bed in today’s episode!
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In today’s episode, I interview US downhill and super G ski team member and Olympian Jacqueline Wiles, aka Janky Lil’ J . Take a look at Jackie’s Instagram (@jankylilJ)and you’ll see beautiful snow-capped mountains ranging from Chile to New Zealand to Switzerland. Jackie is living her dream, but her life isn’t always glamorous. Behind those photos are grueling traveling schedules, hours spent in the gym, and races lost by just .01 of a second.
After years of sacrifices and climbing the ranks, Jackie became one of just a handful females in the entire United States to be a member of the U.S ski team.
In our conversation, we dig into:
-how Jackie qualified for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics just weeks before the event
-why Jackie posed naked on the mountain to assist her in raising the $25,000 needed to pursue her dreams
-becoming the first ambassador to her teammate Lindsey Vonn’s foundation, The Lindsey Vonn Foundation
-how Jackie deals with skiing’s uncontrollable factors such as weather and slope conditions
-Jackie’s specific visualization technique before races
-Competing in World Cups (which are a lot different different than soccer World Cups)"
-how Jackie travels and lives out a suitcase for the majority of the year
-Medicinal mushrooms and why Four Sigmatic Mushroom Tea is one of her favorite products to improve her performance
-what she’s thinking about when she’s bombing down the hill at 70mph
-And a lot more
I really enjoyed hearing form an athlete who plays a different sport than myself. Our conversation reminded me that the hunger for improvement is a common mindset amongst all elite athletes.
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Resources
Click HERE to become a part of Friday Feelz
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Click HERE to check out Jackie's Blog
Click HERE to support Jackie and her dreams
Click HERE to follow Jackie on Twitter & HERE to follow her on Instagram
Click HERE to sign-up for Jackie’s 6 day camp at Mt Hood
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, the Portland Trail Blazers are my favorite sports team. Ever since I was little, my two brothers and I would paint our faces, makes signs, and cheer our hearts out at games. I got so obsessed that I created a shrine of Blazers newspaper clippings in my bedroom. As a teenager, I was convinced that I was going to marry an NBA player. I’m not so sure that’s what I want now, but I’m never one to close any doors. My point is, I’ve been a fan my entire life. And on today’s episode, I have a story regarding that. Back in highschool, my neighbor asked my younger brother Brett to help out with a garage sale. When the day came, Brett decided he couldn’t make it. So, me being the generous sister that I am, filled in for him. Best karma moment of my life. While there, I ruffled through the bins they were selling, and came across a gold mine: a retro, throwback, one-of-a-kind, Blazer crew neck sweatshirt. It smelled like my grandma’s musty old basement, but that just added its vintage value.....My story today still hit’s a tender spot. It’s the day I lost this most prized possession. I still have faith that one day we will be reunited
Full written article with pictures here: The Day I Lost my Most Prized Possession
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Morning people. My college self just threw up in my mouth a little bit. As a teenager, if I had to wake up before my body felt ready, the entire world was dead to me. I walked around with a blank stare, wishing that a UFO would fly down, lasso every human who attempted to talk to me, and transport them to Mars, until I woke up on my own terms.
Legitimately, if someone greeted me with a “hi, good morning!” I’d think how dare you have the audacity to say such a thing to me before 10am.
What?? Is this guy for real?
He brought up an idea, that rattled my morning-hating 10x snooze-button hitting self.
But then, after college, I read an article by this dude name Hal Elrod. He mentioned that the single biggest contributor to his success in life was having a morning routine.
He said that every time you wake up, and hit the snooze button, you’re essentially, saying “I hate getting up, so let me do it over and over and over again.”
Since then, I’ve researched highly impactful athletes and people in this world, and have noticed that the majority of them all have some variation of a consistent morning ritual.
For the past four years, I’ve been tweaking my own routine, and have developed one that get’s me feeling like I’m Cinderella and Prince Charming just returned my glass slipper.
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Professional soccer player, Katherine Reynolds has played in 79 out of the 86 National Women’s Soccer League matches. However, her path to becoming a consistent starter did not come without it’s challenges.
After attending Santa Clara University, Katherine was drafted to the Boston Breakers. Just days before the beginning of the season, she was unexpectedly cut from the team. Katherine ended up getting picked up by the the Philadelphia Union. That season, she seldom saw the field, and considers that year one of the most challenging ones of her life. But, Katherine is someone who prides herself on working hard, and the following year, her career took off. Katherine has played every minute of every game in multiple seasons. It’s incredible feat just to stay injury-free at the professional level, and testament to her reliable, consistent play.
In our conversation, we talk about the responsibility that comes with being the oldest of four sisters, how she became an 8 time state champion in track by her sophomore year of high school and then decided to quit, the crazy story on how she very-last-minute got recruited by her dream school Santa Clara University, how she deals with the stress of playing professionally, her recent engagement and what she’s looking for in a wedding dress.
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Resources
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Today on the podcast, I share a piece I wrote as a reflection to process the first time I lost someone really close to my heart; my grandma.
As athletes, we invest our heart and souls into our sport. We become obsessed with being the best. And we get in this routine of waking up every day wanting to be faster and stronger and better and better and better and when things aren’t aligning the way we’d like, it can be stressful. We get worked up when our coach yells at us for messing up a drill, or we have to run extra sprints, or we show up late for training because of traffic…. We can fall into this rut for days, or months or even years and question, “why is this happening to me???”
And then, out of nowhere, something unexpected happens that jolts you back into the present. It makes you realize that what we were worrying about was minuscule and meaningless in the grand scheme of life.
The above picture perfectly encapsulates everything my grandma means to me. I just finished playing a game at Providence Park, and ran over to my family’s seats to give them some love. I was greeted by my grandma, who’s grin I can still feel beaming down on me today. She’s wearing the purest smile. No verbal exchange is necessary. I can see her genuine excitement to be in that moment. She carried this demeanor with her every day. Fully invested in the the now. Her smile reminds me of the power of presence. We do not have to wait for some life-changing loss, injury, or tragedy to gain perspective. Every single day, we can choose how we want to show up for life. I choose to be grateful and live fully. What do you choose?
Full written article with images here: http://www.arrowliving.com/dear-nonie-one-last-letter-on-love-and-traveling-every-day/
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Resources
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Accountability partners for goals are what butter is to coffee, or what collagen is to bone broth or, what cacao nibs are to goat yogurt…you know what I’m saying?? Okay maybe not, if you aren’t as fond of these concoctions as I am. But for real, accountability partners are the bees knees.
An accountability partner is someone you join forces with to hold one another responsible for your respective intentions.
(Side note: In the past, the term “goals” have signified too much rigidity, as I tended to put too much focus on the end result. I like to use the word “intentions”, because it reminds me that the end results are something to aspire to, but they do not define me. It allows me to fully enjoy the process. That’s just my preference, but you can use whatever word you want: goal, intention, result, outcome etc.)
This past offseason, Arrow Liver, professional goalkeeper, and diving-header goal legend Michelle Betos and I were accountability buddies. Each week, we emailed each other what went well in our training, and what we wanted to improve the following week. We chose tasks that we typically struggled to complete on our own, and just needed a little extra push.
One week, my focus was to get back in to the habit of documenting and reflecting upon all of my workouts. Another week, Michelle wanted to improve her ball striking technique. That week, she sent me a text of her foot taped up. Most humans, tape their ankle if it’s injured, but Michelle’s ligaments were fully intact. She taped her foot in order to recondition her brain to strike the ball with her foot in that specific position. That’s Michelle Betos for you. If you haven’t listened to her full podcast , that’s not the craziest thing she’s done to improve her game.
A few weeks after we started this accountability thread, I saw an incredible stat:
A study conducted at Dominican University of California showed that people who wrote down their intentions, shared with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated intentions than if they were to keep them to themselves.
Woahhhh. That’s a ⅓ greater likelihood of crushing your dreams!!
Accountability partners are effective because when you tell someone else your intentions, they become more than just about you. This person serves as a greater reason to follow through on the action. Also, this gives you someone who is supportive of you and equally invested in pursuing their own visions. Plus, even if your desired outcomes are different, it’s way more fun to salsa dance together to your dreams.
Do you have an accountability partner? Have they helped you make moves in life? Let me know!
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Resources
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Click HERE for a list of the 10 books I believe ever female athlete MUST read.
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English national team footballer Lianne Sanderson grew up knowing she was destined to be a footballer. At age 14, she signed her first contract with Arsenal. By age 16, Lianne she was playing in front of 28,000 fans in the FA Cup Finals. From there, Lianne’s career has taken off.
She has played for 10 different teams. On those teams, Lianne has participated in 3 FA Cup finals and two world cups, including the team who won the bronze medal in 2015. She’s also won the Champions League, and most recently the 2016 NWSL Championship.
Since day one, Lianne has kept it real. Even during difficult times, she has always followed her intuition and never compromised who she is in the process.
In our conversation, Lianne opens up honestly about all areas of her life. She talks about what it’s currently like coming back form her first ever injury, attending an all girls school as a child, signing her first contract with Arsenal at the age 14, the most nerve wracking day of her life-which wasn’t playing in front of 28,000 fans as a young teenager, but rather when the day she was invited by the prime minister to attend his palace, what it’s like to be one of few openly gay professional athlete, her secret to goal-setting, and the importance of staying true to who you are.
Enjoy my candid conversation with the fierce, compassionate, soccer-obsessed, human-loving, Lianne Sanderson.
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Resources
Click HERE to become a part of Friday Feelz
Click HERE for a list of the 10 books I believe ever female athlete MUST read.
Click HERE to be the first to know when a new podcast or article drops, and receive other exclusive content
Not to brag, but growing up, I played on some pretty baller teams. With stellar teams, came our fair share of tournament championships. And with tournament championships, came a lot of free tournament championship t-shirts.
Winning free garments is infinitely more exciting as a kid than if you bought it yourself. For about a week, I would be high as a kite repping my new swag. My friends and I would ecstatically plan a certain day to wear our shirts to school. “Ok guys, on Wednesday’s let’s all wear our Chinook Cup Champions shirts!”
After that day, without fail, the shirt would be chucked into the back of my closet with all of the other virtually identical uncomfortable stiff-materialed, generic-fonted, cheesy soccer ball-adorned tournament t-shirts.
And then 10 years later, at the age of 25, when I still have a room at my parents place because I’m a professional soccer player, who happens to be female #equalplayequalpay….that’s when I realized I’ve been hoarding these t-shirts for my whole life.
The only reason I discovered my hoarding problem is because I read this book called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
And, dare I say it, for a slob like myself, it was indeed life changing.
I swear, tidiness makes your head feel so much clearer and freer, especially when you get home after a long day of training. I believe any amount of stress, even it’s outside of the game, will affect your performance.
I posted before and after pictures of my room in the full written piece HERE . The insane amount of wardrobes I collected is equally shocking and impressive.If you are a fellow slob, I urge you to check this book out. At the time of reading the book, my messiness didn’t bother me, but once I went through this process and was living in a tidy place, I never wanted to go back.
If anyone tries out the “kon marie” method described in this piece within the next 30 days (By May 6, 2017) I’ll send you a free gift. All you have to do is send me a before and after picture of your room (you can see an example of pic from the written piece HERE attach full written article link ) . Send me the pictures of the before and after via social media @arrowliving or email me @arrowliving1@gmail.com and I’ll send you that gift.
Arrow Tip: How to Bounce Back after a Bad Game
Last week I played in my first game at Providence Park since my concussion. It was just a preseason game, but I had been waiting 18 months for that moment. Last year, I watched our games up in our team suite. I had to wear earplugs because the noise of the crowd gave me a throbbing headache. Also, tracking my teammates zig-zagging runs invoked neck tension and nausea. By the end of the games, I felt over-stimulated, as if I’d actually participated in the match myself.
My first game playing on Providence Park was a big milestone. I trotted onto the field, feeling a tidal wave of adrenaline and gratitude. Holy crap we out here doin this thanggg! That ecstasy lasted for about 10 seconds, then I was submersed into the game.
35 minutes later, the whistle blew and the game was over.
Our team won. I played my first minutes since my concussion. Yet, instead of being happy, I was swallowing back tears. A rational minded human would think that coming back from an 18 month injury is an incredible feat. But as a lifelong competitive athlete, my performance, in my mind, wasn’t good enough.
I know this is a common theme amongst athletes. We tend to be so hard on ourselves. Our mind instantly re-traces all the things we did wrong, and those feelings of frustration pile up until we think that our life is over as we know it.
But if we take a step back, and allow ourselves to really feel and process everything we realize that:
Arrow Tip: How to Bounce Back after a Bad Game
Here’s 6 questions to ask after a “bad” game to get yourself back into a happy place. The key throughout all of this is to play the role of an observant, non-judgmental scientist. Take your time with each question.
Allow yourself to feel your frustration/sadness/embarrassment and express what didn’t go well for you. I went home, screamed a few times. Kicked my legs like a needy child. And then I worded why I was frustrated…”I am pissed because I blew it. I sucked. My lungs felt like they were going to collapse, my body felt like jello , I slipped on the ball, I dove in on a tackle… Be as real as possible. Curse, punch pillows, scream…do what you gotta do, and take as long as you need, to flush out all the feelings.
In my case:
-That was my one chance to show that I deserve to be here
-My energy sucked, I am never going to be in good enough shape to play
-My coach is going to think I suck and now I’m never going to play
-I am not a good soccer player and don’t deserve to be on this team
-to be frustrated, I have to play a game and it doesn’t go well.
Go through each belief, and replace it with a new beneficial belief.
In my case, I reframed:
-Bad games are an opportunity to expose weaknesses and grow
-The only way for me to be frustrated is to play a game, and not learn from it
-The fact that I’m frustrated is a good thing. It shows how much I care about my sport…it’s a good thing
-I can use this frustration as motivation, to highlight areas of improvement, and further hone in on my craft and ball out even more
-the past does not equal the future, just because I had one bad game does not mean I have to feel frustrated
In my case:
-I played my first game back in 18 months
-I am still breathing
-my team won
-I made several clean passes
-I headed two balls without any symptoms
-I did not actually collapse a lung
This allows us to see that we were likely over-reacting, and might simply need to take a chill pill. In our roughest games, there is always something to be grateful for. Even if it’s as simple as making through the game alive!
Come up with a few intentions you can make to continue growing as a player. For instance, anytime I make an error on the field, I now quickly say to myself “I love myself, onto the next one.” Yes it’s cheesy. Yes, I actually repeat that to myself. Yes, it works wonders.
The plan can be more action oriented, as well. Examples: show up to training 20 minutes early to work on passing technique, visualize 10 minutes of defending before bed, meet with conditioning coach and put together a fitness program.
I ask myself these questions every time I have a “poor” performance, whether it’s in a game, a training, or any area in my life. It’s a great tool, to get yourself back and motivated to be your best self. The worst thing we can do is dwell on our mistakes. We all have bad games. We all have bad days. Some of us have bad breath. There’s badness all around. But when we embrace the badness, and use it as an opportunity for growths, that’s when we reach the greatness within. And ball out.
Do you have a certain way you cope with bad games? Let me know in the comments!