Tori Wood Wellness

Do you find yourself struggling with mental blocks in mountain biking? Do you notice yourself doubting your riding abilities, being hyper self-critical and spiralling into a narrative of “not being good enough”?

I’m here to help educate and raise awareness about how to have a sustainable and enjoyable relationship with mountain biking while also being able to progress and push yourself!

If this sounds like something you might benefit from, come join me on June 28th in Squamish for my workshop: Overcoming Mental Blocks.

❓What is it? An interaction information and education session aimed at providing participants with tools to help overcome mental blocks and barriers on the bike. The session will cover topics like working with fear, building confidence, managing emotions and goal setting. The workshop will also include a lengthy Q&A to ask any questions related to mindset and mental health in sport.

📋Details: June 28th in Squamish. 5-6pm, $20 per participant or $30 to sign up 2 people (must register together)

Who am I? I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor and performance/mindset Coach

Who’s invited? Literally anyone!

✍️ How to register: E-transfer to [email protected] with your name(s) in the message option and refer “June 19th Session”

Hope to see you there!!

.mtb

📸 .warrington

🚨 Calling all shredders! If you’re a young competitive mountain biker in the Sea to Sky… this one’s for you!

I am super excited to announce that I am presenting a workshop series focusing on mindset, performance psychology and mental health. I want to extend an invitation to join me for the first workshop at the end of May!

Workshop Details:

Age: 14-19
Date: May 31st
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
Location: The Yurt at
Cost: $30 per participant

This 90-minute session will explore the topics of mental toughness, resilience, overcoming setbacks, and reframing our perspectives on “failure.” There will also be a discussion on common mental health issues among competitive athletes (ie. performance anxiety, fear of failure, stress, balance…)

Attendees will be encouraged to actively engage in discussions and share their experiences, although participation is not mandatory.

These workshops are part of a greater initiative to enhance wellbeing and sustainability within competitive sports (and sports in general). We live in a very unique part of the world where the bar is set incredibly high for young mountain-bike athletes. I am hoping to help individuals understand the importance of balance and how important our mental functioning and mindset are for performance.

Spaces are limited. If you would like to reserve your spot for the May 31st session, please email me at [email protected]. Once confirmed, please follow up with a $30 e-transfer to the same email address to secure your registration.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out. Additionally, you can find more about me and my practice at www.toriwoodwellness.com

Hopefully see you all soon!

.mtb

⭐️ Excited to announce that I am now providing online services for international clients! My focus is to help coach athletes and active individuals work through mental health issues related to their sport.

Some examples of these issues are psychological factors related to injury, performance, pressure, fear, motivation, comparison, body image, self-esteem, social media, FOMO, imposter syndrome, self compassion and so many more.

Through coaching clients and helping them establish meaningful goals, shifting perspectives, letting go of maladaptive beliefs and learning healthy coping mechanisms, we can work together to improve the quality of your life and relationship with adventure, exercise and sport!

Please have a look at my website for more details through the link in my bio, email me and [email protected] or DM here

Comparison: the thief of joy… but it doesn’t have to be. I wanted to take a minute to share some of the things I’ve learned about comparison lately.

- Firstly, we tend to compare ourselves to others on a vertical trajectory. Eg. we perceive ourselves as being below or above others (but mostly below.. less than, worse than etc). Trying to shift our perspective to think of ourselves and others on a horizontal line can help us realize everyone is equal. We all have different strengths and weaknesses but these don’t define our worth.
- That being said, part of working on comparison is enhancing our self-confidence. We do this though practicing acceptance and working on our self-belief. Acceptance means acknowledging where we’re at and being ok with that because we BELIEVE that we are worthy and enough as we are.
- More to that point, focus on where you’re at now, what you’ve accomplished and notice distorted thought patterns that make you feel like you’re not good enough. As coach would say: “Stay in your bubble”
- Comparisons are rarely fair. We tend to compare ourselves to an inaccurate and highlighted version of others without understanding their story, their struggles and how they got to where they’re at. We have a distorted and bias view of other people’s lives and it’s not fair to compare ourselves to these inaccurate representations
- We also compare ourselves to past versions of ourselves. This is especially true for retired competitive athletes, or those who feel like their past their prime. It’s ok to feel bummed about that, but also try to celebrate your past success, and acknowledge the diversity in your identity you’ve been able to have since you stopped competing
- Celebrate the accomplishments of those around you. Instead of feeling like the success of others means you are not enough, look to these people for encouragement and inspiration

Ultimately, every time you compare yourself you are minimizing your uniqueness, authenticity and essence of what makes you who you are.

Thoughts?

📸 .tongue

Let’s talk about Rest Days.. and why they are so frigging hard!

For most active people, it’s a lot harder to take a rest day and relax than go out and crush a 3 hour ride. The idea of being idle for a whole day personally fills me with anxiety and dread and sometimes I feel like I have to absolutely destroy myself in the days leading up to a rest day to feel like I’ve actually “earned” it. This isn’t healthy!

Rest is something we need to normalize and prioritize more and not something we should reserve for when we’re burnt out or injured. Being preemptive and strategic with rest increases our performance, motivation, mental health and decreases risk of injury. It’s just difficult when we live in a culture that celebrates the “grind” and going hard… collecting Strava kudos like pre-schoolers collect gold stars.

Let’s start leaning into rest days and treating ourselves with a bit more self compassion. Going hard every single day won’t make you a better athlete… it’s going to burn you out and perpetuate an unsustainable relationship with your sport and your body.

How can we embrace Rest Days? Here’s a couple things I’ve learned from research, personal experience and from others…
- Create structure within these days so you have things to look forward to (ie. stretching, catching up with friends, starting that book you’ve been looking forward to)
- Dedicate space in your life to things that bring you meaning and fulfillment outside of sport and physical activity
- Find connection with people over things other than sport and physical activity
- Practice self compassion on these days and instead of focusing on what you might be missing out on, think about what you’re giving your body
- If you struggle with body-image issues and these are tied to exercise, be curious about that relationship and dispel myths you might have about missing a day or two of exercise and if that will effect your body weight (it doesn’t). Your body needs calories, especially when recovering.
- Stay off or limit yourself to social media and Strava
- Coordinate with friends to have the same rest day and check in with each-other on these days

What’d I miss?!

And for my first little nug… vulnerability! Aka the stepping stone to everything and if we can’t allow ourselves to be emotionally vulnerable then growth is going to be so so difficult.

It do be tricky though. We tend to hold the belief that there are good and bad emotions. This dichotomy makes us try to avoid the uncomfortable ones or try to numb, ignore or shake them off.

The thing is… being vulnerable (exposing yourself to the risk of harm as per the definition), takes courage and bravery. It takes balls to open up about your struggles and that fear is valid! It’s hard not to worry about being judged or to feel ashamed about how you feel sometimes but the more we open up and share our experiences with others, the more we can normalize this vulnerability and start to see it as a sign of immense strength and not weakness!

If you’re feeling something uncomfortable, maybe it’s sadness, anxiety, fear, anger, frustration? Instead of trying to shut it down, be curious about it. Give those emotions space and ask yourself what are these feelings trying to tell me? What is the purpose of this?

Inquire *compassionately* and give yourself permission to feel all the feels. Better yet, find a healthy way to express these emotions. Talk to someone, have a good cry, draw, listen to Nickelback radio on repeat, go for a sad solo pedal or trail run. Try to understand the emotions and you might find it takes the weight out of some of it.

Anyone have any thoughts about it?🧐