Self-Experimentation: Embrace Your Inner Nerd
This is where the term ‘being an N of 1’ comes in. When scientists start an experiment, they require two things; a well-considered hypothesis (what they think will happen on the basis of past evidence) and people to test it on (known as the ‘n’, for number of participants). Being an N of 1 essentially means coming up with a hypothesis that’s personally unique and meaningful for your goals, and testing it properly on yourself. When building a hypothesis, make sure it’s trying to answer something you really want to know and that you genuinely think could benefit you — that way it’s easier to stay motivated and have fun with it.
Nurture your body, invest in your mind.
Whether you have any degree of disordered eating, mental illness, or not, we all have an inner critic that can both drive and destroy us. Athletes can use it to our favour; our inner critic can spur us to attack and persevere through hard training. But currently, many of us have more time alone with our inner critic, don’t have our usual outlet of competition to keep self-criticism constructive, and have less ability to properly debrief with our social supports. Not to mention increased social media use and opportunity for downward self-comparison! This perfect storm can lead to focusing on insignificant and unhelpful outlets, such as food, body image, excessive training or worse.
Relinquishing Control: A Guide For Athletes In The Wake Of COVID-19
Athletes love the cliché “control the controllables”. It offers solid ground in uncertain times like the present pandemic with a clear sentiment: shrink your focus to the things within your sphere of influence. But in our experience, trying to control small things in an attempt to manage the anxiety stemming from a lack of control in the rest of your life can be disastrous. Just because you can control something, doesn’t mean you always should.
COVID-19 and Anxiety Disorders; Unearthing an Unexpected Blessing.
Those of us that have battled and suffered and fought our way through treatment, have more ways to deal with unexpected situations and overwhelming emotions than the average person would ever arm themselves with unnecessarily. So when the world changes in the space of a week, we have a foundation of learning to call upon; from breathing, to meditation, to distress tolerance skills, distraction techniques, and so many reframing strategies that make the rapid pace of change easier to bear. My past and the subsequent treatment has forced me to learn to live in the moment and be okay with not having control over most things in life. I have learnt it's okay to lose my freedom and sense of purpose, have no idea what the future holds, and that there is so much value in pushing forward anyway.