How to Overcome Fear, Trust Your Instincts & Live a Life of Purpose with World Champion Hedvig Wessel #493
This episode features Hedvig Wessel, a Norwegian professional skier and Freeride World Tour champion, discussing her mental strategies for overcoming fear and anxiety in high-stakes environments. She shares insights on trusting intuition, purposeful living, and the power of self-reflection and daily routines.
Deep Dive Analysis
22 Topic Outline
Introduction to Hedvig Wessel and Freeride Skiing
Understanding Freeride World Tour Competition
Managing Fear and Pressure in High-Stakes Situations
Strategies for Dealing with Nervousness and Stress
The Role of Breathing and Music in Performance
Developing Self-Awareness and Downregulating the Nervous System
The Mental Work Behind Becoming a World Champion
Decision to Take a Break from Competition and Its Impact
Returning to Competition and Overcoming Fear of Failure
Visualization Exercise for Difficult Decisions
The Importance of Trusting Instincts and Self-Awareness
Motivation for Competitiveness and Defining Success
Cultivating a Positive Mindset and Daily Affirmations
The Value of Presence and Morning Routines
Yoga's Transformative Impact on Mind and Body
Nature's Influence on Perspective and Spirituality
Coping with Loss and Respect for Mountain Environments
Experience of Being Caught in an Avalanche
Source of Strength: Freedom and Creative Expression
Ayurvedic Principles for Balance and Well-being
Decision to Retire from Competitive Skiing
Future Aspirations and Inspiring Others
5 Key Concepts
Freeride Skiing
A type of skiing that involves navigating the most challenging mountain terrain, including jumps, tricks, and high-speed skiing on unprepared, natural slopes. It is a dangerous sport where one wrong move can be fatal.
No Fall Zone
A term used in freeride skiing to describe an area on a mountain face where if a skier falls, it could result in death or severe injury. Skiers must maintain extreme focus when near or above these zones.
Slough
Snow that is released and falls down a steep slope due to the movement of a skier. It can be a precursor to a larger avalanche or can itself be dangerous if it catches up to the skier.
Flow Zone
A state of complete immersion and focus in an activity, where one's body and mind are fully engaged and time seems to disappear. Hedvig experiences this in skiing, painting, and other creative pursuits.
Ayurveda (Applied Principles)
An ancient Indian system of medicine that emphasizes balance in all aspects of life. Hedvig uses its principles to balance her energy output with self-care, planning routines, and aligning her diet with seasons and her body's needs to feel grounded and at home even while traveling.
13 Questions Answered
It's an event where skiers navigate challenging mountain faces, including cliffs and steep lines, aiming to ski beautifully, strongly, and fast, incorporating jumps and tricks. Competitors have one run per event on unskied terrain, judged on line choice, air and style, fluidity, and control.
Athletes like Hedvig Wessel practice feeling fear and nervousness regularly, learning to associate it with excitement and using it to enhance performance. They employ strategies like breaking down the run into manageable parts, focusing on confident sections, and using breathing techniques to calm the nervous system.
Hedvig uses slow, conscious breathing, often incorporating specific breath work techniques, and listens to music (a 'party, go to beast mode' playlist) to block out external noise, uplift her mood, and connect with positive memories, helping her to be present and calm.
She felt drained, the fun was gone, and she was mentally exhausted from consistently placing second and enduring difficult snow conditions that made skiing feel like a struggle rather than an enjoyable challenge. She needed to reconnect with the joy and adventure of skiing.
After a year of focusing on filming and fun skiing, her manager suggested she return. Despite her fear of failing again, she used a visualization exercise with her psychologist, where physically stepping on papers representing 'quitting' versus 'competing' helped her realize her deep-seated desire to try again and avoid future regret.
Hedvig uses a visualization exercise involving two pieces of paper, each representing a different choice. By physically stepping on each paper and fully embracing the feelings and imagining the outcomes, she can discern which path aligns with her desired emotions and self-trust.
Trusting one's instinct is crucial for safety in extreme sports, allowing a skier to pull back if conditions don't feel right, even if committed to a plan. This skill extends to daily life, enabling individuals to change course on commitments if their intuition signals it's not the right decision at that moment.
She actively cultivates a mindset of learning from every situation, focusing on 'what was good and what can be better' rather than shame. Daily practices include journaling gratitude, writing down what she's excited for, and using affirmations like 'I'm creative, I'm happy, I'm powerful, I'm strong, I'm vibrant' to reinforce positive self-perception.
The vastness and danger of mountains foster a deep respect for nature and a heightened appreciation for being alive. Experiencing loss in the mountains, while tough, reinforces the idea of living life to the fullest and continuing to pursue passions, honoring those who have passed by embracing the very environment they loved.
She prioritizes a consistent morning routine of yoga, breath work, and journaling before engaging with her phone or external demands. This intentional 'inward turn' helps her feel grounded, present, and prevents external noise from dictating her emotional state for the day.
Initially, she saw yoga primarily for its physical benefits like flexibility, not considering herself 'spiritual.' Over a decade, it transformed into a crucial practice for mental relief and calmness, making her more present and better equipped to handle stress, leading her to pursue a yoga teacher training for deeper personal understanding.
The experience reinforced immense respect for the mountains and snow, highlighting that even seemingly safe conditions can be dangerous. It underscored the critical importance of skiing with trusted, experienced partners and being even more careful when choosing lines, especially in narrow 'cool wars'.
After achieving her lifelong dream of becoming world champion, she felt a huge relief and sense of completion. She realized she had reached her full potential in competition and no longer wanted to be restricted by its demands, desiring to explore other aspects of skiing, create films, and experience different cultures without competitive pressure.
40 Actionable Insights
1. Follow Heart and Intuition
Prioritize listening to your inner self, breathing deeply, and focusing on what you truly want to do and how you want to feel, rather than solely relying on external advice.
2. Create Solitude, Identify Values
Regularly create solitude in your life, such as through a morning routine, to reflect on your life, understand what you want, and identify your core values.
3. Guide Decisions by Desired Feelings
Instead of focusing solely on external goals, identify how you want to feel (e.g., confident, vibrant, happy) and let these desired feelings guide your choices of activities, jobs, and relationships.
4. Cultivate Identity Beyond Achievements
Develop a strong sense of self and identity outside of your professional achievements, nurturing relationships and practices like yoga, breathwork, and journaling to define who you are as a person.
5. Affirm Self-Trust Daily
Actively tell yourself ‘I can trust myself’ multiple times a day, placing a hand on your chest, to build inner confidence and rely on your instincts during challenging times.
6. Reframe Challenges as Lessons
Adopt a mindset that views difficult or negative situations as lessons or challenges from which to learn, actively seeking ways to turn them into something positive.
7. Visualize Decisions Physically
For difficult decisions, write each option on a separate piece of paper, place them on the floor, and physically step on each one, fully embracing and feeling the emotions associated with that choice to gain clarity.
8. Trust Instinct, Turn Around
Develop the skill to trust your instinct and allow yourself to turn around or pull out of commitments, even if made in advance, if a situation doesn’t feel right, and understand the reasons why.
9. Prioritize Grounding Morning Routines
Identify and commit to morning routines, such as yoga, that help you feel grounded and prepared to be fully present and effective when needed throughout the day.
10. Delay Morning Phone Use
Establish a morning routine where you delay turning on your phone until after completing personal practices like yoga, breathwork, journaling, and breakfast, to prioritize inward reflection and prevent external influences from dictating your day’s start.
11. Use In-Between Moments Wisely
During busy periods, intentionally use ‘in-between’ moments (e.g., in a car, elevator, or walking) to tap in and be present, rather than filling them with phone use or other distractions that can lead to burnout.
12. Regulate Nervous System Energy
Learn to strategically manage your nervous system by using tools to calm down during periods of waiting or delay, and then having specific techniques (like a different playlist or breathwork) to ’turn on’ when it’s time to perform.
13. Cultivate Mental Strength
Prioritize mental training to build self-trust and belief in your abilities, especially in critical moments, allowing your instincts to guide you when quick decisions are needed.
14. Practice Feeling Fear
Regularly expose yourself to situations that evoke fear or nervousness and practice dealing with these feelings, associating them with excitement and presence to improve performance.
15. Break Down Scary Challenges
When facing a daunting task, break it down into smaller parts, focusing on the sections where you feel confident and then strategizing how to make the scary 5% feel easier or less intimidating.
16. Recognize Fear’s Source
Develop strategies and tools to recognize when you feel out of balance, nervous, or scared, then identify what specifically is causing the fear and work to make it less intimidating.
17. Reframe Nerves as Excitement
Instead of focusing on the dangers or negative aspects of a challenging situation, try to reframe nervousness as excitement about performing well to improve your performance.
18. Calm with Slow Breathing
Practice slow, conscious breathing, feeling the breath down to your chest and stomach and exhaling through your nose, to calm yourself and connect with your body.
19. Manage Waiting Stress with Music
When waiting in high-pressure situations, use happy, story-filled music to block out distractions and evoke gratitude, combined with slow breathing, to stay calm and happy.
20. Embrace Yoga for Calmness
Engage in yoga practice, especially if you struggle to sit still, as it can provide mental relief, calmness, and equip you with breathing techniques to make better decisions in stressful situations.
21. Practice Single-Task Focus
Intentionally force yourself to do one thing at a time, such as putting away your phone while working, to cultivate presence and access a ‘flow zone’ in various aspects of life.
22. Create Space for Creativity
Actively decide to give yourself space in your daily schedule to allow your mind to wander and foster creativity, as a packed schedule can hinder this.
23. Evaluate with Growth Mindset
When evaluating your performance or experiences, focus on ‘what was good and what can be better’ and ‘what did I learn from this,’ rather than dwelling on what was bad or feeling shame.
24. Exercise to Practice Stress
Engage in regular physical exercise to raise your heart rate and practice the body’s stress response, developing self-awareness to differentiate between physical exertion and anxiety.
25. Create Balance Amidst Chaos
When facing many unknowns or stressful environments, actively create routines and bring familiar items (e.g., specific foods, yoga mat, journal) to establish a sense of home and balance, helping to manage stress.
26. Eat Seasonally for Balance
Adjust your diet according to the seasons, eating lighter foods like salads in summer and warming foods like soups and stews in winter, to stay in harmony with nature and maintain balance.
27. Define Personal Safety Limits
Understand and respect your personal safety limits, prioritizing safety and fun over extreme performance, especially in dangerous environments, even if others have different needs.
28. Re-engage After Scary Experience
After a scary or challenging experience, re-engage with the activity as soon as safely possible to prevent fear from setting in and becoming a larger mental barrier.
29. Surround with Trusted People
In high-risk or challenging situations, ensure you are surrounded by people you trust, who have experience and knowledge, and who can actively support and help you.
30. Actively Pursue Dreams & Network
Actively make decisions and take steps that align with your long-term vision, such as attending industry events to meet people and put your name out there, even if it means sacrificing immediate comfort.
31. Choose Different Path if Unhappy
If you find yourself in a situation where you are unhappy, have the courage to take a hard look and actively choose a different path, recognizing that it’s often possible to make different decisions.
32. Find Purpose in Everything
Actively choose to reframe every moment and action in your life to find meaning and purpose, rather than waiting to discover one grand overarching purpose.
33. Live to Fullest Potential
Embrace activities that allow you to live to your fullest potential and feel in balance, even if they involve risk, as this can deepen appreciation for life and honor those who have passed.
34. Inspire Others with Your Story
Leverage your personal story, accomplishments, and struggles to inspire others to pursue their own dreams and find their purpose.
35. Take Breaks When Drained
If you feel drained, unmotivated, or unhappy in your current pursuit, allow yourself to take a break, even if it means temporarily letting go of a long-held dream, to regain passion and energy.
36. Reconnect with Passion’s Joy
If your passion becomes a source of stress, take time to engage with it in ways that bring back the original joy and adventure, reminding you why you started in the first place.
37. Pause to Regain Confidence
If feeling too nervous, take a moment to stop, get back into your zone, and feel your confidence before proceeding with a task, as excessive nerves can negatively impact performance.
38. Daily Gratitude and Affirmations
Dedicate five minutes each morning to write down what you’re grateful for and excited about, and repeat affirmations that embody how you want to feel, to cultivate a positive mindset.
39. Identify Your Core ‘Why’
Understand your deepest motivations and the core feelings (e.g., presence, excitement, flow) that drive you, as this internal compass helps guide your decisions and actions.
40. Prioritize Freedom & Creativity
Actively make decisions to give yourself space and freedom in your schedule to allow for creative expression and to pursue activities that enable you to move freely and explore.
8 Key Quotes
My hardest work has been outside the gym, the mental work.
Hedvig Wessel
I don't want to look back in 10 years and regret that I didn't try when I had the skills.
Hedvig Wessel
I can trust myself.
Hedvig Wessel
It's not about the fame or like that I want to be different or it's just that the feeling of being really good at something is sick. You know, it's a good feeling.
Hedvig Wessel
I don't want to see the world. I want, and I don't want anyone to predict how my day starts. I want to feel how I'm feeling and turn inward and, and then I can let the world, you know, affect me.
Hedvig Wessel
If you don't, you're never going to do it again.
Hedvig Wessel (recalling her gymnastics coach)
If your schedule is packed and you're always doing something, then for me at least, I don't have any time to be creative, to stop up and let the mind just do its thing. And I think that's one of the biggest active decisions I'm making every day is to give myself space because that's when creativity comes.
Hedvig Wessel
Follow your heart, like breathe deep, listen to yourself. Like what does, what do you really want to do? What is your heart telling you to do? What are you feeling? What do you want to feel? What do you want to feel more of?
Hedvig Wessel
4 Protocols
Pre-Competition Mental Preparation
Hedvig Wessel- Put on music, specifically a 'party, go to beast mode playlist' with happy songs.
- Dance and think about positive memories or stories associated with the songs, such as past parties or trips.
- Cultivate a feeling of gratitude towards friends and family.
- Practice slow, deep breathing, connecting to the calm and safe feeling of morning yoga practice.
Decision-Making Visualization Exercise
Hedvig Wessel (with her psychologist)- Place two pieces of paper on the floor, each clearly stating one of the conflicting decisions (e.g., 'I'm pulling out of the Freeride World Tour' and 'I am competing on the Freeride World Tour').
- Step onto the first paper and fully embrace the feeling of that decision, imagining its implications and how it would feel.
- Observe and articulate the emotions and physical sensations experienced (e.g., shame, darkness, heaviness, doubt, or a sense of rest).
- If in a negative state, shake loose or actively change your state of mind before proceeding.
- Step onto the second paper and fully embrace the feeling of that decision, imagining its implications.
- Observe and articulate the emotions and physical sensations experienced (e.g., pride, excitement, nervousness, self-trust, power).
- Compare the feelings from both options and make a decision based on which path aligns better with desired emotions and a sense of self-trust and purpose.
Daily Morning Routine for Grounding
Hedvig Wessel- Wake up and do yoga.
- Practice breath work.
- Engage in journaling, writing down things to be grateful for, things to be excited for, answering daily questions, and using affirmations (e.g., 'I'm creative, I'm happy, I'm powerful, I'm strong, I'm vibrant').
- Eat breakfast.
- Only after completing these steps, turn on the phone and engage with the external world.
Post-Accident Recovery Strategy (Immediate Re-engagement)
Hedvig Wessel (learned from gymnastics coach)- Immediately go back and repeat the activity that caused the scary situation or fall, as long as it is safe to do so.
- If the original activity is too challenging immediately after the incident, choose a slightly less intense or different version of the activity.
- Focus on successfully completing the activity to prevent fear from setting in and becoming a long-term mental barrier.
- Allow for a short break for physical recovery (e.g., food, replacing lost equipment) before re-engaging.