WARNING - we do talk about eating disorders in this podcast. In this episode, Hazel speaks with Emily Harrington about her life as a professional climber from when she was a kid competing to now as a mother herself. We talk about how she started climbing and how she fell into competition climbing. We talk about her struggles with having an eating disorder at a young age but how she recovered from it and how she thinks about it now. We talk about how she's stayed motivated throughout her...

In this episode, I speak with Africa Brooke. Africa is a consultant, coach, strategist, and speaker with a unique focus: tackling self-sabotage and self-censorship. We talk about Africa’s path to working in this field, from her childhood in Zimbabwe and her journey with recovering from alcoholism. We talk about how to rebuild confidence, self-worth and self-trust even when you feel ashamed of things you’ve done in your past. We talk about taking personal responsibility and the difference...

In this episode, Hazel speaks with Allison Vest about her struggles and progress with mental training in climbing. They talk about how she found competitions hard psychologically and how some of those struggles have carried over to outdoor bouldering which is her main focus. They talk about the gains she's made with her mindset recently and the work she still has left to do. They talk about her recent sends and the psychological tools she used for those sends. They talk about how to balance...

In this bonus episode, Angus Kille interviews Hazel about how to leverage mental training for performance and their upcoming course Performance Hacks. The best way to learn more about the course and get first access when doors open on the 26th of June is to join the waitlist: https://go.strongmindclimbing.com/early-bird

In this episode, we talk a lot about breath! We look at the physical and mental benefits from 2 different perspectives with 2 experts in the field. Join the waitlist for our new course Performance Hacks here https://go.strongmindclimbing.com/early-bird Dr. Michael Melnychuk is a neuroscientist and climber who has conducted seminal research on brain plasticity and how the breath and brain activity are interrelated. He has engaged in meditation and breathing techniques since he was a...

Lor Sabourin is a professional climber, mental training coach, and Training Leader for the Warrior’s Way, an organization that uses climbing-based mental training to optimize performance and improve mental health. Lor’s work is trauma-informed and they have just finished a Masters's degree in mental health counselling with an emphasis on somatic therapy and adventure-based counselling. Hazel and Lor cover many areas with the main focus being mental training and Lor's work. They cover...

This is the second part of a conversation Hazel had with Aiden Roberts about mastery, flow and motivation in high-level bouldering. Check out part 1 first if you haven't listened to it yet.

In this conversation between Hazel and Jeff Charno. Jeff is the founder and host of Being & Doing online conferences where he has interviewed more than 100 spiritual teachers, scientists, creativity gurus and thought leaders. They talk about awakening from our narrative egoic selves, spontaneity and connecting with an uncensored version of ourselves, flow, intuition, how we connect with our deeper freer selves and bringing awareness to how crazy our internal world looks sometimes.

In this episode, Hazel speaks with Cameron Norsworthy (PhD in Flow and director of the Flow Centre) about flow. This conversation is a little bit of a deeper dive into flow. Hazel gets Cameron to challenge some of the misconceptions and common doubts about flow. They also talk about barriers to flow, how flow differs from other areas of sports psychology, how we can access flow by learning more about it and whether accessing flow is more about upskilling or removing barriers to flow. How...

In this podcast, Hazel speaks with musician, researcher and lecturer in philosophy of mind Lauri Jarvilehto. This is a more academic conversation but there are also practical takeaways. They talk about what intuition is, creativity and intuition, and the difference between system 1 (non-conscious mind) and system 2 (conscious mind). What processes in climbing require systems 1 and 2 and how expertise allows us to commit to system 1, the difference between skill and conceptualising that...

In this episode, Hazel talks to windsurfer Sarah Hauser. Sarah is one of the world's best windsurfers and has the record for the biggest wave ever windsurfed by a woman. In this conversation, Sarah talks about maximising intrinsic motivation, managing fear, mental management tools, hypnotherapy, and flow state among other interesting areas of psychology. If you already know a lot about windsurfing you could skip the first 20 minutes.

This episode was recorded live as a SHAFF (Sheffield adventure film festival) event, so it's a little different in format compared to our other episodes. Hazel talks to Adam about what makes a good climber, flow state, his childhood, motivation, mastery, processes, competitions, outcomes, the problem of under-eating in climbing, big goals and much more. To check out more about what we do head to strongmindclimbing.com

In this episode, Hazel chats with Mike Weeks. Mike is a serial entrepreneur, coach and speaker, specializing in resilience and peak performance for emergency services, police, special forces and elite athletes. After a decade of climbing around the world in full dirtbag style he briefly flirted with celebrity, leading Jack Osbourne up El Capitan for the TV series, Jack Osbourne Adrenaline Junkie, in between climbing various E8’s and falling off of E9’s! Mike currently lives in Bali,...

In this episode, Hazel talks to former pro-climber Mason Earle about his journey with ME/CFS. Mason was living a life full of adventure before almost everything was taken away from him by a debilitating illness that he still doesn't fully understand. Mason is extremely smart and insightful and his story and perspective is a stark reminder that we shouldn't take what we have for granted. 02.26 | Reminiscing on climbing 03:36 | How his illness has made him a better person 04:15 | What is...

In this episode, Hazel and Angus Kille chat about fear of falling. They talk about - what fear of falling is and discuss some nuances and misconceptions around it - how fear of falling holds back so many climbers - how many climbers have fear of falling and don't pay much attention to this fear as a limiting factor in their climbing - how culturally we've neglected to address this in the right ways - how easy it is to get fall practice wrong and how this has given fall practice a bad...

In this episode, Hazel speaks with climber, ex-base jumper and all-round adventurer Tim Emmett. They talk about Tim's relationship with all the risky activities he gets up to and what attracts him to sports with consequences. They talk about the extra risks in base jumping and how he has justified those risks in the past. Tim talks about being ready to walk away and focusing on controlling every controllable. Then they talk about why he eventually gave up base jumping. They then spend the...

In this episode, Hazel speaks with race car driver coach Ross Bentley about how he uses psychological tools and strategies to help drivers perform at their best.

In this episode, Hazel and Angus speak with Emma Wood, one of the great minds working in the space of psychology in our community. We talk about sports psychology for competition, what we can all learn from how competitors manage their mindset and attention under pressure, problems with how we approach psychology in climbing, how our community could be better at educating, understanding and welcoming psychological concepts, why don't instructors and guides get any training around...

In this episode, Hazel speaks with free-ride world champion Lorraine Huber about her journey to win. At first, Lorraine had a lot of anxiety around competing and focused all her attention on the podium. Through mental training and mindset shifts she learnt how to find flow and joy during competition and which enabled her to ski at her best. Lorraine is a true testament to how important the mind is in sport and also that we are all capable of training and changing our minds.

This is the first part of a long conversation with Aidan. We mostly focus on mastery, goals, motivation and direction in climbing. To access the second half of the conversation where we further explore mastery, discuss flow in bouldering and talk about how Aidan focuses become a Podcast Community Member at strongmindclimbing.com/podcast

In this episode, Hazel speaks with professional free diver Miguel Lozano. Free diving has to be one of the more psychologically uncomfortable sports you can do and Miguel has learnt a lot from his time mastering depth and holding his breath!

Hazel talks to Sue Jackson about flow, mindfulness and performance and how they all relate. Sue is a psychologist, researcher and mindfulness practitioner. She has a phD in flow and carried out the first in-depth qualitative investigation of the experience of flow by elite athletes. She studied under Csíkszentmihályi, who first coined the term flow and carried out the first research into flow as experienced by everyday people. Sue and Csíkszentmihályi wrote a book together called 'Flow in...

Welcome to The Strong Mind Podcast. Join pro climber and coach Hazel Findlay as she delves into adventurous long-form conversations with interesting people. Conversation topics include anything related to psychology, sport psychology, well-being, resilience, fear management, flow state, mindfulness and performance in sport and in life.