personal development

This week has been Canadian Mental Health Association’s Mental Health Week. I’ve seen a lot of excitement about it online – there has never been a time in history where so much emphasis has been put on our health.  That said, a Google search of “health” provides an overwhelming amount of information on nutrition, disease, fitness, weight loss, and anti- aging.  What doesn’t come up is mental health. Mental health is so critical to living a good, healthy life – and it needs to take its important place in conversations around health. 

I exercise almost every day. It kind of comes with the territory of being an Olympian who’s married into the world of fitness, but I pretty sure that’s not why I do it. I exercise every day because it makes me happy. Like, I actually mostly enjoy exercise in the moment.  People will tell me, “ah, exercise is so hard, it takes so much willpower.” But once you make it a solid habit of it in your life, once you create some positive structure around exercise, you don’t even have to think about it.

I want to be kind, I really do. Kindness matters, I know this, I coach this, I speak about the power of kindness, and yet – yes there is a yet. In my primary relationship with my husband, being kind seems to be in a wrestling match with being right. Being right just feels so good. It is a lustful emotion, an instinctual one, a need that can be an addictive one. It goes a little bit like this. My husband is opening every kitchen drawer in search of the cheese slicer and as he opens the bottom drawer and finds the slicer, he jumps up and bangs his head on the top drawer.

Last night I was putting my stepdaughter to bed, when she ran downstairs and frantically opened every cupboard in the front entrance looking for two flashlights.

Once she found the two flashlights, she moved them to another drawer, aligning them meticulously. When she was satisfied they were aligned perfectly, she closed the drawer and went happily to bed.

Guest Titan: Silken Laumann, Four-time Olympic rower.