Kicking a$$ between the ears with Andy Riise
January 11, 2021
Have you ever had a good workout that just left you sore the next day?
Not the kind where you can't move for 5 days after, but just the right kind that released the cheerleader of the brain, dopamine, that is cheering you on for round 2?
So have you ever had that kind of workout for your brain? Just like your physical fitness needs to be trained so does your mental fitness and on today's episode we are talking with Andy Riise, mental fitness expert, that is not sorry for kicking a$$ between the ears.
Trust us, this is an episode you do not want to miss.
About the guest: Retiring US Army Lieutenant Colonel Ingebrigt A.L. “Andy” Riise is a Veteran, Mental Performance Coach, Consultant, Speaker, and Author who is passionate about helping individuals, leaders, and teams get better at what they do.
Originally from Oakdale, CA, Andy is an Eagle Scout, West Point graduate, and former Army Football player. Over his decorate 20-year career, Andy has led Soldiers in a variety of austere missions highlighted by three combat deployments, strategic missions on four continents, and five years in two elite Special Forces units.
His research and coaching expertise is in the evidence-based best practices of Sport and Performance Psychology and various applied Behavioral Science Disciplines with an emphasis on mental toughness and stress inoculation.
As a consultant, his clients include professional sports teams, corporate leaders, first responders, and practitioners in the health industry. In athletics, he’s worked with the Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Colorado Rockies. He is currently a Mental Skills Coach for the Cincinnati Reds. He has also worked with NFL football teams to include the NY Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings. As an author, he has published several articles, research papers, and co-authored the best-selling book Deliberate Discomfort: How US Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Andy contributes to several that assist veterans during the transition to the private sector. He volunteers with youth athletics, the Boy Scouts of America, his church, and serving his local community in the greater Montgomery, TX area. He and his wife, the former Katie Ori, of Orange, TX, have been married for over 17 years and are raising four active children.
Have you ever had a good workout that just left you sore the next day?
Not the kind where you can't move for 5 days after, but just the right kind that released the cheerleader of the brain, dopamine, that is cheering you on for round 2?
So have you ever had that kind of workout for your brain? Just like your physical fitness needs to be trained so does your mental fitness and on today's episode we are talking with Andy Riise, mental fitness expert, that is not sorry for kicking a$$ between the ears.
Trust us, this is an episode you do not want to miss.
About the Guest:
Retiring US Army Lieutenant Colonel Ingebrigt A.L. “Andy” Riise is a Mental Performance Coach, Consultant, Speaker, and Author who passionate is about helping individuals, leaders, and teams get better at what they do.
Originally from Oakdale, CA, Andy is an Eagle Scout, West Point graduate, and former Army Football player. Over his decorate 20-year career, Andy has led Soldiers in a variety of austere missions highlighted by three combat deployments, strategic missions on four continents, and five years in two elite Special Forces units.
His research and coaching expertise is in the evidence-based best practices of Sport and Performance Psychology and various applied Behavioral Science Disciplines with an emphasis on mental toughness and stress inoculation.
As a consultant, his clients include professional sports teams, corporate leaders, first responders, and practitioners in the health industry. In athletics, he’s worked with the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates. He is currently a Mental Skills Coach for the Colorado Rockies. He has also worked with NFL football teams to include the NY Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings. As an author, he has published several articles, research papers, and co-authored the best-selling book Deliberate Discomfort: How US Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Andy contributes to several that assist veterans during the transition to the private sector. He volunteers with youth athletics, the Boy Scouts of America, his church, and serving his local community in the greater Montgomery, TX area. He and his wife, the former Katie Ori, of Orange, TX, have been married for over 17 years and are raising four active children.
[00:00:02] spk_1: This show is brought to you by Safety FM. Welcome to Unapologetically bold. I'm not sorry for... If you are a person that is tired of apologizing for being you, you know, the human part of you that sometimes feels like it has to be different at home versus work versus play. The human side that just wants to be hot, humble, open and transparent about your wants, desires and uniqueness. If you answered yes, this is for you. Join me, Emily Elrod as I dive into conversations with Amazing Guest. About what? That you're not sorry for and creative and loving ways. Let's get started, eh? So I am offered Andy this amazing human to talk today about what He's not sorry. Or but before we get into that and he just give a little background about you and who you are.
[00:01:03] spk_0: Yeah, So I'll try to keep this short right. And being short is not something I'm really good at. But virtually from Oakdale, Calif. With the West Point, I played football for army. That's where, you know, really struggle with the 47 months crucible experience. That's West Point every aspect of it. And when I was at, I switched positions my sophomore year. I was a fullback, switched to defense and and just really struggle. I was getting my butt kicked. Um, you know, it was really drowning academically struggling on the field. Couldn't get out of my own way. Um, you know, it's really struggle with things like confidence and composure and concentration. And that's
[00:01:41] spk_1: when
[00:01:41] spk_0: I really found the mental game and three unique center called the West Point Center for enhanced Performance. And it really just set me on this path, Um, that did to become who I am now, which is a mental performance coach.
[00:01:53] spk_1: I love it, and I think it perfectly ties in Thio What? This show is called unapologetically bold. And so, Andy, what are you not sorry for?
[00:02:05] spk_0: I am not sorry for helping people kick ass between the ears.
[00:02:10] spk_1: I love it and tell me more. Yeah,
[00:02:16] spk_0: you know, so kind of continue the story. You know, eso I got commissioning from and graduate from West Point simultaneously became an army officer like all cadets do. 9. 11 happened a couple months after I graduated. Right? And so this I realized how important the mental game was. But early on in the
[00:02:33] spk_1: two
[00:02:33] spk_0: thousands, you know, we didn't really talk about psychology open and, you know, it was something behind. The shadow is something where if you have you have a problem, is very personal is behind cloud those doors. But I really quickly realized in my first combat experience and then multiple combat experiences there. After that, you
[00:02:50] spk_1: have
[00:02:51] spk_0: to train your brain. Your mind and your emotions, you know, is equally as important, if not more important, especially to be successful in calm. I let him to be a leader and coach in combat. Then you do your physical part of your game and your technical and tactical part of your game. Yet at that time, we weren't. There wasn't a process a Martin Science to doing that, right, because it was in the shadows. It was behind locked doors and it and it needed to be brought out in the open. And so, you know, I went back to West Point after my second combat tour was gonna get out of the army, just pulled off on the roadside of life, you know, because I missed the birth of my son and you know, it's on a lot of combat. Done a lot of hard things. You know, My wife was just done with the Army on because of our sacrifices in. I went back and I found sporting performance psychology, and I found positive psychology or a psychology of resilience. And this idea about kicking ass between your ears through a good friend of mine, Dr Nate Zinser, who is probably the best practitioner of sports psychology you never heard of. I call him my Yoda, the Jedi Council of Sports psychologist. I just found that, Hey, you know, this is not only not only important, but this needs to be brought out to the masses. This needs to be brought into the military and through the military and also through sports and business. You know, we can provide this vehicle and this process to really help people get better from the inside out.
[00:04:13] spk_1: Oh, I love that. I think it's so true and so important because my story is it's very similar in the aspect that got frustrated with something. And it was like, physically I was right. Like, um, I exercise. I worked hard like, but I was still stressed out, and I was dealing with shame and some past regrets, you know, and how much it owned me. And for me growing up in a religious, um, community. And there's always this this thing that this verse, they always said, and it was like, Don't care about what you look like just care about, like, work on your mind. And I was like, No, like, I have an exercise physiologist. Physiology says that you need to eat, right. You need to sleep. Those are the things that matter. But then what I found from researching more because I was just pissed off because I wasn't right. Uh, was that like a lot of things happened Our brain, like we could nerd about it all day about how serotonin, dopamine, Nazi toast and cortisol. But those things, like whenever you can understand these things in a deeper level of how they affect our body, but then also going into a deeper level about how much this game up here and control everything. And that's why I love that you call it mental fitness. That's right.
[00:05:30] spk_0: That is exactly right. And to kind of break that down a little bit, more. I mean, you know, psychology, you know, has been around for, you know, probably a couple 100 years now. Start off his pathology. You know about sickness and illness and treating injury. Look, just like you do on the physical side in the last 100 years just moved towards, like, you know, preventing people from slipping into illness and injury. And then now we've moved in last 50 years to the art and science of mental performance. Right? Eso just like you're talking about, you know, on the physical side how to get bigger, faster and stronger. Well, you know how Doe I make better decisions? How doe I beam or confident, composed concentrate the gold ring and motivated. And so And if I had a way to do that, just like you know, I train my body if I could train my brain, then that will make it more likely that I could help influence others, right? And I think every coach in America, I work with a lot of coaches right now talks about mental toughness, but they don't really know how to develop that within themselves, let alone within their players. And I think that's really where it's at for me. I was helping leaders and coaches really understand how to build that within themselves and then train their their their athletes and their supporters going to do that as well.
[00:06:38] spk_1: Yes, and so I love to, like dive into that more. What are some of her tools or techniques that you would invite people to possibly look at whenever it comes to your mental game? Either if it's on homework or play because we're human everywhere? So what would you say? That
[00:06:56] spk_0: yeah, I would say, like, you know, I mean, first of all, just to kind of go toe to break it down. I mean, there's really four court confidence is that I look at when it comes to your mental game. One is self awareness. Two is self management or self regulation. The third one is environmental or social awareness. Let's beyond now we're gonna be on self, and the fourth one is influence, right? And so really, it starts from the inside out. So really, everything begins with self awareness. And, uh, you know, for the I won't get into it in detail for more learning. Go check out Dr Steven Hayes from the University of Nevada. He talks about act. I'm not. You're sure if you're familiar with it, Emily, But this is acceptance and commitment. Training. Have you heard of
[00:07:37] spk_1: it?
[00:07:39] spk_0: Yeah. I mean, so it's It's fantastic, right? You know. So this is really important because I think when you look at self awareness, you know, in terms of your mind, it's really you know, first of all, is being open to how you think and understanding the fact that, hey, the way that I can't, you know, just like physiologically I can't stop my heart from beating right? So I really people think that you control from your physiology. But really, you influence the process or something you can't even control, like you know, you know, and so I could influence my heart rate, right? But some people think you could turn off your thinking. It's not the way it works. It's kind of like a river, right. It's always flowing, and then there's currents that are kind on the surface. And then there's there's not currents that are on below that right, so your your mind is always thinking 24 7, right? And so how is that working for you or against you. So I think one of us being open to this idea that, you know, your thoughts happened. They're not necessarily good or bad. And then becoming aware of how your thinking patterns or what we talk about, a mindset, you know, which is a deliberate thinking pattern, is that helping You're hurting you. And then the skill part is then built into looking at your thoughts from an observer standpoint and then also understand. I think that, you know, so self talk is one of the things that comes from sports psychology. And I think that, you know, you really look at what the way that you talk to yourself a super important and directing your thoughts. And I called the dictator, and Stephen Haines says this to the dictator and then the other counter that as a Liberator, right? And so who really has the day? Right? And the dictator isn't always bad, because negative self talk actually serves a purpose to help keep you safe, you know, And then that's built into our DNA. As far as how we are in some studies suggest that even a little bit of negative self talk, you know, right before during performance can actually help you in some cases. But that dictator dominates your life in terms of you know, how you think that how you feel in control your emotions, end of controlling you versus you, controlling them, then that that leads to more pathology or pathological signs and symptoms, you know, whereas the Liberator understands that, Hey, I recognize what my thoughts are And then kind of like I call Mental Akihito, which is a martial art where you absorb the, you know, absorb the attack, you know, from the opponent, and then you redirect it towards back towards that opponent or something else. And the way I like to look at thoughts in the same way using that act model is to, you know, if I have a negative thought is dominating me and causing me anxiety, fear and these negative emotions that are starting to control my physiology and affecting my behavior and unproductive ways. How could Then I then observe that understand it and then redirect those thoughts those emotions and those behaviors in ways that are productive, right? And if you could do that and delivering effective ways knowing that that, you know, understand what optimal performance is, which is really getting the most out of what you got, because we're never gonna be on the peaks all the time, right? The zone is totally overrated. We lead most of our lives in the valleys. And so when we embrace the deliberate discomfort of sometimes you know the fear of the anxiety, the negative thoughts and the emotions that we have and make us human beings make us hot. Then we confer work then began with the indirect them in ways that are productive, to help us and help others.
[00:10:44] spk_1: But that makes more. That makes total sense. What it makes me think of two things is one it makes me think of. I say, killing the ants. I talked to somebody overseas and they call it killing the nap. But either way, it's automatic negative thoughts or negative automatic thoughts, whatever it is that it pops up in your brain and being able to control them and own them. What mine is is all about owning and accepting it, accepting it and and making it where you own it, because the things you never accept it it's very hard to control it. It's very hard. Thio do anything with it, and then the other thing that makes me think is one thing that just I know more science is coming on with it, but it is the fear, and I love that. You said to bring some negativity because this actually happened to me and I was having a conversation with one of the D one baseball coach is a few weeks ago and we were talking about anxiety, depression, negativity and like and positivity like What do you do? And what I said? It's whatever is best for the person you know, each humans different. But for me, it's awareness of knowing So for me before I was a collegiate cheerlead before I did, Ah, one of my tumbling passes. I would say something negative about a certain person that I felt like owned me and like, that was my thing. What? Hype me up, you know? But I am, um tiny. I'm 14. If I was stunting, you know, my thing would be to be calm and just understanding what and when to do where?
[00:12:20] spk_0: Yeah, you're absolutely right, you know, totally extreme examples. I think about, You know, I've got a chance to write a book called Deliver Discomfort. You know, it worked with these really high performing tactical athletes. I mean, I call him real life superheroes that have done these amazing performances in combat and extremist situations to Medal of Honor winners. Navy Seals, Rangers, Green Berets, right? You know, getting a chance to talk to these guys about what were you thinking in the moment and have a conversation with them is really amazing, right? You know? So when somebody's lives on the line, they get shot and they're they're dying, you know? It's It's like, you know? Okay, well, yeah, it's kind of like the whole Ricky Bobby thing. We like to
[00:13:00] spk_1: control your heart
[00:13:00] spk_0: rate. You know? It doesn't work like that, right? You know, your body designed to perform, and so is your brain and right, you know, And so the sense of urgency to get things done to prevent an even worse thing from happening is an optimal performance, right? And then it's also kind of debunking this idea that I think about from leaders standpoint. Is this idea about commanders calm like you're gonna be like flat liner and I got ice water in my veins all the time. That's a bunch of bull crap, you know. And there's some great historical examples, like Dwight D. Eisenhower, who struggle with anger his entire life. Abraham Lincoln was you know, some people have said he was one of the most depressive people he's ever been around his entire life, right? And so this idea that we've got to be on and at our best all the time is something that I'm I'm hoping to debunk. And that kicking ass between years sometimes mean means just surviving and coping and getting by because that could be an awful performance, especially right now, right?
[00:13:54] spk_1: That is so true. So I would love for you to just go a little bit more in on the acceptance. Yeah, And how? Because I didn't hear this until, actually, who's coming on Thursday? The other Andy. So Andy back is gonna be coming on, and he or for the pirates, But that's something to that. He's been talking about accepting it, and so for people to get to this level of optimal performance acceptances in it. But go more into that. If you don't mind because I think that's really important, because I feel like it's a new stuff that people are hearing about. But they're not understanding.
[00:14:34] spk_0: Yeah, no for sure, you know? Well, I think that, you know, it's it's becoming a popular psychology now. And I think the idea about accepting is really comes to understanding. You know what you're up against, right? And then getting into stoic philosophy, which I know other guests probably talked about, which is understanding what you can control versus what you can't control. And I call what you can't control forces and what you can control gravity forces, right? So I really I tend to focus in on the things that I control attend, and I and I adhere to more of a strength space makes model right? And so to me, you know, and accepting is really then then in committing, moving that bridge from acceptance to commitment is then relying on my values or my core beliefs, which for like, I'll give you an example, like for me. You know, one of my core beliefs is about competition, right? Competition is the process of continual proven, making yourself better what you dio another one in minus service. And that's, you know, looking out for others and putting the benefit others before myself, right? And then the other island is this practice passion? Right? And I love to learn. I love people and I'm in the people business. So for me, passion, service and competition are really of the foundation who I am a human being. And if I am aware of that, you know, and then I can and I accept that that there's there's benefits to that. There's also shadow sides to those values for me individually, but also organizationally then and I could accept both that the positive side of those those values but also the shadow side because I'm a fiery dude, right? So the shadow side of passion is you're really passionate, right? Everybody tries to be passionate. But hey, I could I could go 0 to 60 really, really quick, right? So me being tempered and controlled, you know, and is super important and to be able to regulate myself. But I accept this idea that this is who I am, and this is how I tend to react. And then I commit towards behaviors that allow me to be able thio, be it my best in either mundane situations or even a masterful situations, right? No matter what the outcome is. So it's really about also accepting the process more than in the product. And I think that's super important because we all we get so focused on solving problems and and achievement and the social media era that we're dealing with on this platform and and others that you're watching. This really makes us prone to that into comparison, right? But But I think those were some of the key components that I hope we can. You can distill into something useful for you.
[00:16:59] spk_1: Yeah, and it's so important to help people understand that that these things were game changers. Yeah, they're not just fluff. And so that's what I feel a lot of times that people are like, Oh, it's just something else. But there's science behind it, and that's why I know that you're doing a lot of and you love to. So what are you hearing this? And I was still like, I'm not 100% on this. What is maybe some maybe real life story that has impacted you or that also made you bring in. You could bring in some of the science to even Father bring it home.
[00:17:40] spk_0: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I liked on my own guinea pig, I think, really, the ah ha moment for me came, You know, when I I really hit rock bottom. And I think a lot of people could relate that we've all been there and, uh, you know, it's just kind of kidding. One of those classic at the best of times. And it was the worst of times, right? And for me, I was, you know, you know, not too long ago about, you know, four years ago I was really at the top of my game. I was in a special Forces unit. I was doing really, really well had an awesome team. I got picked up to teach the Air Force Academy was gonna get promoted. And I made this huge mistake professionally that, you know, brought into people questioning my character, and I let my team down, and I just It was an honest mistake that I handled poorly, and I pay the consequences for it. And and so I went through this incredible depression, right into where I didn't, you know, almost checked myself in the hospital. I never imagine myself that I would be suicidal, but I But I went there, right? And I think that, you know, in my field, it was kind of separated right again. Remember, I talked about this three piece pathology prevention and performance. And then there was a clear division between people who were licensed and clinical people who dealt with health and and, uh, the pathology side of things. And this other division between counselors and performance coach is right. And it was like as a performance coach was like, Okay, we don't deal pathology. We don't deal with pathology and sickness and illness, right? Because it was kind of this negative negative thing. But as I was going through my own depression and my cycle of experiencing pathology, I still had toe be a good father. I still had to be a husband to my wife. I still had toe be an army officer that had all the responsibilities going with. I still had to move forward and still perform at optimal level. Right? And And it wasn't, you know, So this idea that I could perform at a relatively high level, you know, it wasn't 100%. It was my 50% version of me, personally and professionally. But I still had to get 45% of that 50% every single day. And it occurred to me that you know that I've really experienced this whole full spectrum of psychology in my 40 years of life. And why can't you know someone go through difficulty and still performing a high level and still be able to cope? You know, on DSO because over the course of our lifetime, we we do experience all those peaks and valleys right mentally and emotionally, and I think in me as a practitioner. That's when I really had the ah ha moment that I wanted to be kind of a Swiss army if I wanted to be able to be a guy that could help people in teams in all three areas of that right? And I think that that is kind of exciting me in terms of applied behavioral science and psychology. That's where the field is going. And then you look at baseball. I just spent the last season with Rockies you know, and again, we're working this idea about the paraprofessional, somebody who could do it all right. Now, can you do it all? And should you be able to do it all? Absolutely not. But for me, Toby the practitioner that I wanna be the people that I respect, that I realized that I wanna be able to work in all three of those fears. I have always have a bias towards the performance and, you know, and kicking ass between the ears. But I also want people help people cope and then and be able to treat people who are ill and especially veterans, because, you know, it's it's no secret that hey, you know, all these veterans kill themselves every single day, and I have experienced that, and I'm tired of it, you know, And I wanna be help being part of the solution. And so for me to ignore that side would be not true to myself or what my mission is in, like, you know, as I take the uniform off, but I continue to serve coaches in the community that I live in here in Texas.
[00:21:17] spk_1: I think that's so powerful in the aspect that one. Thank you for sharing the story and you being, ah, hot, humble, open and transparent about it because that's so important for people to understand that I have not met somebody that has not had something happening a lot. It's like you're a human and that's the thing that I love. And then this reason why I have a show. It is all about reading humanity to the fore runner of it. Because all these things in practice and finding ways for people to understand that we are human, we are gonna mess up. We are gonna make mistakes. How are like you said, the earlier positive psychology or the psychology of resilience? It's getting back. It's not just getting back and getting back up, but it's getting back up banner like you don't want to go through hell and just be the same miserable person like you want something good to happen from it. But I told somebody the other day that they went through something that was not good. I'm like, but I hope there I hope there was some some glimpse of a lesson learned or some beauty that you can't that came from and They told me that it gave him a new that's right around down tohave more of an insight about what they value and what they can control, going back to what you were speaking about earlier. And so I think that's important to to just go in more about. And it's a cliche, and this is real reason why people think things air fluffy but control the controllable. That's right, What would you tell somebody and importance of like? For me, some of my key things for mental fitness is like gratitude. Controlling the controllable, Um, say three blessings like we've talked about a few before the show. I'm working on what I call it be at your home state. So homo Stasis like where your body is at its comments. It is happy place, you know, it's not things air owning it. You get to own it on state before home plate, or any time that you got to go up to bat for a big life event, whatever it may be, if it's actually on the field or if it's actually in work or it could be at home, you could be having a birth like it does not matter where it is, you're still human. These things happen. And so that to say What? What would be your advice on a practice? Like I know we talked about You're the acceptance, but, like, what's your go to, like your go to exercise? Yeah, You probably have, like, 20. If you're like me, I
[00:23:48] spk_0: dio dio you know, I'm a huge fan of of gold pursuit in that process. Also, imagery, um you know, And you know, I think it's It's the the easy one to go to is really the breath And And I think, you know, mindfulness has become the kind of moniker for really thousands of year old practice. Um, I don't think mindfulness is the end all be all or the panacea for everything I But I think the idea about First of all, you know, again Steven Hayes talks about you know, you know who, where and when and sometimes being present, being where your feet are. I am here. It's soon super important. You know, I'm reading this book and then this is you know this. You know, it's called Design your life here. If you read it here too. And there's a stop sign up that day when you go to the Stanford University Design School and it says you are hearing and sometimes we need to have those road signs to remember that where we are and being we're a feet are. But I also understand that. But like I said, I believe that humans are designed to perform, and we sometimes get out of, you know, we gotta learn how to get out of our own way. You know, we are designed thio reflect in the past and to be in the future. But I think you know, right now we tend to get ahead of our skis a little bit and so being present. And to me and my good friend Dr Jenelle Macaulay, shout out If she's listening to this, you should have her on if she hasn't been on yet. She talks about putting your accident mass on the late, great sports psychology coach Dr Kendra Visa used to say this, too. Is that the the importance of the breath right? Because it's your built in auction mass you always have, and there's so many things that you can use with the breath, um, in terms of to help regulate yourself right? First of all, to be aware of your thoughts into your physiology, how it's affecting your behavior. But then a way to control what's going on in the moment. Right? And there's some amazing science, you know, that's going into that right now to that helps you not only get you psyched up, you know, in other words, you know, helps you recover to be able to show out, you know, to be able to recover Andi, you could use it between sets of the gym. You could use it while you're running. You could use it before the presentation or a podcast. There's so many ways you could do box breathing. You know you could use the Wim Hof method. There's so many. There's so many applications that go into the breath. The breath is always might go to, you know, and also, you know, being when your feet are you are here. You know who, where and when those air to those air. Two quick things I could think people could use right now, and it's gonna make them better. What? They dio
[00:26:19] spk_1: Oh, I agree. I love the breath. I do a lot of the box breathing, especially if I am very stressed, because what I challenge myself is always to be like in the center. Math of excitement would throw up like you're excited that you want to do something, but it makes you nervous. And so with that, I know that the environment in the state I am can own me. So be making sure that my breathing and then there's something cold that I love is whenever you like. You relax your forehead like you relax your because whenever you stress your tongue usually goes to the roof your mouth. So like like
[00:26:53] spk_0: yeah, yeah, and that's kind of relate toe PMR progressive muscle relaxation, which is another way of, you know, triggered the relax ation response as opposed to this stress response. But there's a lot of different things that are out there. And, uh, you know, I'm just excited that it's becoming more mainstream on Dismore, that we can talk about it, you know, in front everywhere, and it has come out of the shadows. Its's timing has come out party and to be a part of, to be part of this feeling, help advance it in so many fields from the battlefield to the boardroom to the ball field, it just super exciting. And I just spoke to someone like you is willing Thio, kick it around. And you're not sorry for talking about kicking ass between the years?
[00:27:35] spk_1: No, it's it's something that we need and it's very important. And I'm so grateful for you for coming on today. So to park last question, somebody is apologizing for kicking ass between the years that this is something that they're still like. Oh, people are getting offended because trying to talk to you about some things that she's still not comfortable bit about I'm seeing. Well, the times I see mindfulness being one of those or they see us fluffy like you have your everybody has their haters. And so they're apologizing for doing this. What would you tell them?
[00:28:09] spk_0: The most badass performers in the world, you know, kick ass between the years and they do it deliberately and intelligently. And I've worked with many of them, you know, from CEOs toe the Olympians to NFL players toe navy seals, Army rangers. Um, you know, and if they, you know, they think the mental game is as important, uh, you know, to their performance when lives are on the line or livelihoods on the line, and then you should, too. And I think that the more we have these courageous discussions about, you know how we think and how it affects how we act and react the mawr. This is gonna become part of our
[00:28:48] spk_1: part
[00:28:48] spk_0: of our common narrative that, you know, there's gonna help us get better, especially in these times when we're so, so divided and there's so mental health is in and mental fitness, it's so important right now. And so I think that the more you're willing to have that take that first step to to talk to someone about it you're gonna find the other person is gonna wanna talk about it, too. But it's finding that right person to have that courageous conversation on to go there. And I think you'll find some success.
[00:29:14] spk_1: Amen. Amen to that. So last part of that question is, people want to reach out, they want to find you. They want to talk more. They want to nerd out. How can they get in contact with you?
[00:29:24] spk_0: Yeah, a couple different ways. I mean, first of all, I'm a I'm a digital immigrants, so I've got my I got my green card for social media when it comes toe. So I'm still learning in my school. Is that kills? Um but yeah, I'm on linked. I'm on linked in this kind of my go tube, you can reach out to me. Direct message. I love engagement there. As long as you're not selling me something, we're cool. It's And then, uh, Instagram I've become a big fan of I'm a little bit on Twitter. You know, you can also find me. I teach a Texas A and M university through their coaching academy. So you find me through that website, I'm just Google Texas A and M coaching academy and, yeah, reach out to me. I also be sure toe check out a book that I go out there with all kinds of amazing performers called deliberate discomfort on. That was through my company called Mission 60 that I consult with and check them out at www dot mission 60 dot com. You can get delivered discomfort wherever you get books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or your preferred seller and you have just reach out to me. I love toe to be able to stay in touch. I love feedback. And I want to find out what you're doing and how way could work together to kick ass between the ears and help others do the same.
[00:30:31] spk_1: Amen. Amen. Amen. I love it. Thank you so much for joining me today and even thank you for all that tune in. I hope you all have an amazing and blessed thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of unapologetically Bold. I'm not sorry for If this touch shoot anyway, please like and subscribe and share with your friends as we continue the message of being unapologetically bold, Bobby and hot humans who are humble, open and transparent. See you next time.
Not the kind where you can't move for 5 days after, but just the right kind that released the cheerleader of the brain, dopamine, that is cheering you on for round 2?
So have you ever had that kind of workout for your brain? Just like your physical fitness needs to be trained so does your mental fitness and on today's episode we are talking with Andy Riise, mental fitness expert, that is not sorry for kicking a$$ between the ears.
Trust us, this is an episode you do not want to miss.
About the Guest:
Retiring US Army Lieutenant Colonel Ingebrigt A.L. “Andy” Riise is a Mental Performance Coach, Consultant, Speaker, and Author who passionate is about helping individuals, leaders, and teams get better at what they do.
Originally from Oakdale, CA, Andy is an Eagle Scout, West Point graduate, and former Army Football player. Over his decorate 20-year career, Andy has led Soldiers in a variety of austere missions highlighted by three combat deployments, strategic missions on four continents, and five years in two elite Special Forces units.
His research and coaching expertise is in the evidence-based best practices of Sport and Performance Psychology and various applied Behavioral Science Disciplines with an emphasis on mental toughness and stress inoculation.
As a consultant, his clients include professional sports teams, corporate leaders, first responders, and practitioners in the health industry. In athletics, he’s worked with the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates. He is currently a Mental Skills Coach for the Colorado Rockies. He has also worked with NFL football teams to include the NY Jets, Las Vegas Raiders, and Minnesota Vikings. As an author, he has published several articles, research papers, and co-authored the best-selling book Deliberate Discomfort: How US Special Operations Forces Overcome Fear and Dare to Win by Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable.
Andy contributes to several that assist veterans during the transition to the private sector. He volunteers with youth athletics, the Boy Scouts of America, his church, and serving his local community in the greater Montgomery, TX area. He and his wife, the former Katie Ori, of Orange, TX, have been married for over 17 years and are raising four active children.
[00:00:02] spk_1: This show is brought to you by Safety FM. Welcome to Unapologetically bold. I'm not sorry for... If you are a person that is tired of apologizing for being you, you know, the human part of you that sometimes feels like it has to be different at home versus work versus play. The human side that just wants to be hot, humble, open and transparent about your wants, desires and uniqueness. If you answered yes, this is for you. Join me, Emily Elrod as I dive into conversations with Amazing Guest. About what? That you're not sorry for and creative and loving ways. Let's get started, eh? So I am offered Andy this amazing human to talk today about what He's not sorry. Or but before we get into that and he just give a little background about you and who you are.
[00:01:03] spk_0: Yeah, So I'll try to keep this short right. And being short is not something I'm really good at. But virtually from Oakdale, Calif. With the West Point, I played football for army. That's where, you know, really struggle with the 47 months crucible experience. That's West Point every aspect of it. And when I was at, I switched positions my sophomore year. I was a fullback, switched to defense and and just really struggle. I was getting my butt kicked. Um, you know, it was really drowning academically struggling on the field. Couldn't get out of my own way. Um, you know, it's really struggle with things like confidence and composure and concentration. And that's
[00:01:41] spk_1: when
[00:01:41] spk_0: I really found the mental game and three unique center called the West Point Center for enhanced Performance. And it really just set me on this path, Um, that did to become who I am now, which is a mental performance coach.
[00:01:53] spk_1: I love it, and I think it perfectly ties in Thio What? This show is called unapologetically bold. And so, Andy, what are you not sorry for?
[00:02:05] spk_0: I am not sorry for helping people kick ass between the ears.
[00:02:10] spk_1: I love it and tell me more. Yeah,
[00:02:16] spk_0: you know, so kind of continue the story. You know, eso I got commissioning from and graduate from West Point simultaneously became an army officer like all cadets do. 9. 11 happened a couple months after I graduated. Right? And so this I realized how important the mental game was. But early on in the
[00:02:33] spk_1: two
[00:02:33] spk_0: thousands, you know, we didn't really talk about psychology open and, you know, it was something behind. The shadow is something where if you have you have a problem, is very personal is behind cloud those doors. But I really quickly realized in my first combat experience and then multiple combat experiences there. After that, you
[00:02:50] spk_1: have
[00:02:51] spk_0: to train your brain. Your mind and your emotions, you know, is equally as important, if not more important, especially to be successful in calm. I let him to be a leader and coach in combat. Then you do your physical part of your game and your technical and tactical part of your game. Yet at that time, we weren't. There wasn't a process a Martin Science to doing that, right, because it was in the shadows. It was behind locked doors and it and it needed to be brought out in the open. And so, you know, I went back to West Point after my second combat tour was gonna get out of the army, just pulled off on the roadside of life, you know, because I missed the birth of my son and you know, it's on a lot of combat. Done a lot of hard things. You know, My wife was just done with the Army on because of our sacrifices in. I went back and I found sporting performance psychology, and I found positive psychology or a psychology of resilience. And this idea about kicking ass between your ears through a good friend of mine, Dr Nate Zinser, who is probably the best practitioner of sports psychology you never heard of. I call him my Yoda, the Jedi Council of Sports psychologist. I just found that, Hey, you know, this is not only not only important, but this needs to be brought out to the masses. This needs to be brought into the military and through the military and also through sports and business. You know, we can provide this vehicle and this process to really help people get better from the inside out.
[00:04:13] spk_1: Oh, I love that. I think it's so true and so important because my story is it's very similar in the aspect that got frustrated with something. And it was like, physically I was right. Like, um, I exercise. I worked hard like, but I was still stressed out, and I was dealing with shame and some past regrets, you know, and how much it owned me. And for me growing up in a religious, um, community. And there's always this this thing that this verse, they always said, and it was like, Don't care about what you look like just care about, like, work on your mind. And I was like, No, like, I have an exercise physiologist. Physiology says that you need to eat, right. You need to sleep. Those are the things that matter. But then what I found from researching more because I was just pissed off because I wasn't right. Uh, was that like a lot of things happened Our brain, like we could nerd about it all day about how serotonin, dopamine, Nazi toast and cortisol. But those things, like whenever you can understand these things in a deeper level of how they affect our body, but then also going into a deeper level about how much this game up here and control everything. And that's why I love that you call it mental fitness. That's right.
[00:05:30] spk_0: That is exactly right. And to kind of break that down a little bit, more. I mean, you know, psychology, you know, has been around for, you know, probably a couple 100 years now. Start off his pathology. You know about sickness and illness and treating injury. Look, just like you do on the physical side in the last 100 years just moved towards, like, you know, preventing people from slipping into illness and injury. And then now we've moved in last 50 years to the art and science of mental performance. Right? Eso just like you're talking about, you know, on the physical side how to get bigger, faster and stronger. Well, you know how Doe I make better decisions? How doe I beam or confident, composed concentrate the gold ring and motivated. And so And if I had a way to do that, just like you know, I train my body if I could train my brain, then that will make it more likely that I could help influence others, right? And I think every coach in America, I work with a lot of coaches right now talks about mental toughness, but they don't really know how to develop that within themselves, let alone within their players. And I think that's really where it's at for me. I was helping leaders and coaches really understand how to build that within themselves and then train their their their athletes and their supporters going to do that as well.
[00:06:38] spk_1: Yes, and so I love to, like dive into that more. What are some of her tools or techniques that you would invite people to possibly look at whenever it comes to your mental game? Either if it's on homework or play because we're human everywhere? So what would you say? That
[00:06:56] spk_0: yeah, I would say, like, you know, I mean, first of all, just to kind of go toe to break it down. I mean, there's really four court confidence is that I look at when it comes to your mental game. One is self awareness. Two is self management or self regulation. The third one is environmental or social awareness. Let's beyond now we're gonna be on self, and the fourth one is influence, right? And so really, it starts from the inside out. So really, everything begins with self awareness. And, uh, you know, for the I won't get into it in detail for more learning. Go check out Dr Steven Hayes from the University of Nevada. He talks about act. I'm not. You're sure if you're familiar with it, Emily, But this is acceptance and commitment. Training. Have you heard of
[00:07:37] spk_1: it?
[00:07:39] spk_0: Yeah. I mean, so it's It's fantastic, right? You know. So this is really important because I think when you look at self awareness, you know, in terms of your mind, it's really you know, first of all, is being open to how you think and understanding the fact that, hey, the way that I can't, you know, just like physiologically I can't stop my heart from beating right? So I really people think that you control from your physiology. But really, you influence the process or something you can't even control, like you know, you know, and so I could influence my heart rate, right? But some people think you could turn off your thinking. It's not the way it works. It's kind of like a river, right. It's always flowing, and then there's currents that are kind on the surface. And then there's there's not currents that are on below that right, so your your mind is always thinking 24 7, right? And so how is that working for you or against you. So I think one of us being open to this idea that, you know, your thoughts happened. They're not necessarily good or bad. And then becoming aware of how your thinking patterns or what we talk about, a mindset, you know, which is a deliberate thinking pattern, is that helping You're hurting you. And then the skill part is then built into looking at your thoughts from an observer standpoint and then also understand. I think that, you know, so self talk is one of the things that comes from sports psychology. And I think that, you know, you really look at what the way that you talk to yourself a super important and directing your thoughts. And I called the dictator, and Stephen Haines says this to the dictator and then the other counter that as a Liberator, right? And so who really has the day? Right? And the dictator isn't always bad, because negative self talk actually serves a purpose to help keep you safe, you know, And then that's built into our DNA. As far as how we are in some studies suggest that even a little bit of negative self talk, you know, right before during performance can actually help you in some cases. But that dictator dominates your life in terms of you know, how you think that how you feel in control your emotions, end of controlling you versus you, controlling them, then that that leads to more pathology or pathological signs and symptoms, you know, whereas the Liberator understands that, Hey, I recognize what my thoughts are And then kind of like I call Mental Akihito, which is a martial art where you absorb the, you know, absorb the attack, you know, from the opponent, and then you redirect it towards back towards that opponent or something else. And the way I like to look at thoughts in the same way using that act model is to, you know, if I have a negative thought is dominating me and causing me anxiety, fear and these negative emotions that are starting to control my physiology and affecting my behavior and unproductive ways. How could Then I then observe that understand it and then redirect those thoughts those emotions and those behaviors in ways that are productive, right? And if you could do that and delivering effective ways knowing that that, you know, understand what optimal performance is, which is really getting the most out of what you got, because we're never gonna be on the peaks all the time, right? The zone is totally overrated. We lead most of our lives in the valleys. And so when we embrace the deliberate discomfort of sometimes you know the fear of the anxiety, the negative thoughts and the emotions that we have and make us human beings make us hot. Then we confer work then began with the indirect them in ways that are productive, to help us and help others.
[00:10:44] spk_1: But that makes more. That makes total sense. What it makes me think of two things is one it makes me think of. I say, killing the ants. I talked to somebody overseas and they call it killing the nap. But either way, it's automatic negative thoughts or negative automatic thoughts, whatever it is that it pops up in your brain and being able to control them and own them. What mine is is all about owning and accepting it, accepting it and and making it where you own it, because the things you never accept it it's very hard to control it. It's very hard. Thio do anything with it, and then the other thing that makes me think is one thing that just I know more science is coming on with it, but it is the fear, and I love that. You said to bring some negativity because this actually happened to me and I was having a conversation with one of the D one baseball coach is a few weeks ago and we were talking about anxiety, depression, negativity and like and positivity like What do you do? And what I said? It's whatever is best for the person you know, each humans different. But for me, it's awareness of knowing So for me before I was a collegiate cheerlead before I did, Ah, one of my tumbling passes. I would say something negative about a certain person that I felt like owned me and like, that was my thing. What? Hype me up, you know? But I am, um tiny. I'm 14. If I was stunting, you know, my thing would be to be calm and just understanding what and when to do where?
[00:12:20] spk_0: Yeah, you're absolutely right, you know, totally extreme examples. I think about, You know, I've got a chance to write a book called Deliver Discomfort. You know, it worked with these really high performing tactical athletes. I mean, I call him real life superheroes that have done these amazing performances in combat and extremist situations to Medal of Honor winners. Navy Seals, Rangers, Green Berets, right? You know, getting a chance to talk to these guys about what were you thinking in the moment and have a conversation with them is really amazing, right? You know? So when somebody's lives on the line, they get shot and they're they're dying, you know? It's It's like, you know? Okay, well, yeah, it's kind of like the whole Ricky Bobby thing. We like to
[00:13:00] spk_1: control your heart
[00:13:00] spk_0: rate. You know? It doesn't work like that, right? You know, your body designed to perform, and so is your brain and right, you know, And so the sense of urgency to get things done to prevent an even worse thing from happening is an optimal performance, right? And then it's also kind of debunking this idea that I think about from leaders standpoint. Is this idea about commanders calm like you're gonna be like flat liner and I got ice water in my veins all the time. That's a bunch of bull crap, you know. And there's some great historical examples, like Dwight D. Eisenhower, who struggle with anger his entire life. Abraham Lincoln was you know, some people have said he was one of the most depressive people he's ever been around his entire life, right? And so this idea that we've got to be on and at our best all the time is something that I'm I'm hoping to debunk. And that kicking ass between years sometimes mean means just surviving and coping and getting by because that could be an awful performance, especially right now, right?
[00:13:54] spk_1: That is so true. So I would love for you to just go a little bit more in on the acceptance. Yeah, And how? Because I didn't hear this until, actually, who's coming on Thursday? The other Andy. So Andy back is gonna be coming on, and he or for the pirates, But that's something to that. He's been talking about accepting it, and so for people to get to this level of optimal performance acceptances in it. But go more into that. If you don't mind because I think that's really important, because I feel like it's a new stuff that people are hearing about. But they're not understanding.
[00:14:34] spk_0: Yeah, no for sure, you know? Well, I think that, you know, it's it's becoming a popular psychology now. And I think the idea about accepting is really comes to understanding. You know what you're up against, right? And then getting into stoic philosophy, which I know other guests probably talked about, which is understanding what you can control versus what you can't control. And I call what you can't control forces and what you can control gravity forces, right? So I really I tend to focus in on the things that I control attend, and I and I adhere to more of a strength space makes model right? And so to me, you know, and accepting is really then then in committing, moving that bridge from acceptance to commitment is then relying on my values or my core beliefs, which for like, I'll give you an example, like for me. You know, one of my core beliefs is about competition, right? Competition is the process of continual proven, making yourself better what you dio another one in minus service. And that's, you know, looking out for others and putting the benefit others before myself, right? And then the other island is this practice passion? Right? And I love to learn. I love people and I'm in the people business. So for me, passion, service and competition are really of the foundation who I am a human being. And if I am aware of that, you know, and then I can and I accept that that there's there's benefits to that. There's also shadow sides to those values for me individually, but also organizationally then and I could accept both that the positive side of those those values but also the shadow side because I'm a fiery dude, right? So the shadow side of passion is you're really passionate, right? Everybody tries to be passionate. But hey, I could I could go 0 to 60 really, really quick, right? So me being tempered and controlled, you know, and is super important and to be able to regulate myself. But I accept this idea that this is who I am, and this is how I tend to react. And then I commit towards behaviors that allow me to be able thio, be it my best in either mundane situations or even a masterful situations, right? No matter what the outcome is. So it's really about also accepting the process more than in the product. And I think that's super important because we all we get so focused on solving problems and and achievement and the social media era that we're dealing with on this platform and and others that you're watching. This really makes us prone to that into comparison, right? But But I think those were some of the key components that I hope we can. You can distill into something useful for you.
[00:16:59] spk_1: Yeah, and it's so important to help people understand that that these things were game changers. Yeah, they're not just fluff. And so that's what I feel a lot of times that people are like, Oh, it's just something else. But there's science behind it, and that's why I know that you're doing a lot of and you love to. So what are you hearing this? And I was still like, I'm not 100% on this. What is maybe some maybe real life story that has impacted you or that also made you bring in. You could bring in some of the science to even Father bring it home.
[00:17:40] spk_0: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I liked on my own guinea pig, I think, really, the ah ha moment for me came, You know, when I I really hit rock bottom. And I think a lot of people could relate that we've all been there and, uh, you know, it's just kind of kidding. One of those classic at the best of times. And it was the worst of times, right? And for me, I was, you know, you know, not too long ago about, you know, four years ago I was really at the top of my game. I was in a special Forces unit. I was doing really, really well had an awesome team. I got picked up to teach the Air Force Academy was gonna get promoted. And I made this huge mistake professionally that, you know, brought into people questioning my character, and I let my team down, and I just It was an honest mistake that I handled poorly, and I pay the consequences for it. And and so I went through this incredible depression, right into where I didn't, you know, almost checked myself in the hospital. I never imagine myself that I would be suicidal, but I But I went there, right? And I think that, you know, in my field, it was kind of separated right again. Remember, I talked about this three piece pathology prevention and performance. And then there was a clear division between people who were licensed and clinical people who dealt with health and and, uh, the pathology side of things. And this other division between counselors and performance coach is right. And it was like as a performance coach was like, Okay, we don't deal pathology. We don't deal with pathology and sickness and illness, right? Because it was kind of this negative negative thing. But as I was going through my own depression and my cycle of experiencing pathology, I still had toe be a good father. I still had to be a husband to my wife. I still had toe be an army officer that had all the responsibilities going with. I still had to move forward and still perform at optimal level. Right? And And it wasn't, you know, So this idea that I could perform at a relatively high level, you know, it wasn't 100%. It was my 50% version of me, personally and professionally. But I still had to get 45% of that 50% every single day. And it occurred to me that you know that I've really experienced this whole full spectrum of psychology in my 40 years of life. And why can't you know someone go through difficulty and still performing a high level and still be able to cope? You know, on DSO because over the course of our lifetime, we we do experience all those peaks and valleys right mentally and emotionally, and I think in me as a practitioner. That's when I really had the ah ha moment that I wanted to be kind of a Swiss army if I wanted to be able to be a guy that could help people in teams in all three areas of that right? And I think that that is kind of exciting me in terms of applied behavioral science and psychology. That's where the field is going. And then you look at baseball. I just spent the last season with Rockies you know, and again, we're working this idea about the paraprofessional, somebody who could do it all right. Now, can you do it all? And should you be able to do it all? Absolutely not. But for me, Toby the practitioner that I wanna be the people that I respect, that I realized that I wanna be able to work in all three of those fears. I have always have a bias towards the performance and, you know, and kicking ass between the ears. But I also want people help people cope and then and be able to treat people who are ill and especially veterans, because, you know, it's it's no secret that hey, you know, all these veterans kill themselves every single day, and I have experienced that, and I'm tired of it, you know, And I wanna be help being part of the solution. And so for me to ignore that side would be not true to myself or what my mission is in, like, you know, as I take the uniform off, but I continue to serve coaches in the community that I live in here in Texas.
[00:21:17] spk_1: I think that's so powerful in the aspect that one. Thank you for sharing the story and you being, ah, hot, humble, open and transparent about it because that's so important for people to understand that I have not met somebody that has not had something happening a lot. It's like you're a human and that's the thing that I love. And then this reason why I have a show. It is all about reading humanity to the fore runner of it. Because all these things in practice and finding ways for people to understand that we are human, we are gonna mess up. We are gonna make mistakes. How are like you said, the earlier positive psychology or the psychology of resilience? It's getting back. It's not just getting back and getting back up, but it's getting back up banner like you don't want to go through hell and just be the same miserable person like you want something good to happen from it. But I told somebody the other day that they went through something that was not good. I'm like, but I hope there I hope there was some some glimpse of a lesson learned or some beauty that you can't that came from and They told me that it gave him a new that's right around down tohave more of an insight about what they value and what they can control, going back to what you were speaking about earlier. And so I think that's important to to just go in more about. And it's a cliche, and this is real reason why people think things air fluffy but control the controllable. That's right, What would you tell somebody and importance of like? For me, some of my key things for mental fitness is like gratitude. Controlling the controllable, Um, say three blessings like we've talked about a few before the show. I'm working on what I call it be at your home state. So homo Stasis like where your body is at its comments. It is happy place, you know, it's not things air owning it. You get to own it on state before home plate, or any time that you got to go up to bat for a big life event, whatever it may be, if it's actually on the field or if it's actually in work or it could be at home, you could be having a birth like it does not matter where it is, you're still human. These things happen. And so that to say What? What would be your advice on a practice? Like I know we talked about You're the acceptance, but, like, what's your go to, like your go to exercise? Yeah, You probably have, like, 20. If you're like me, I
[00:23:48] spk_0: dio dio you know, I'm a huge fan of of gold pursuit in that process. Also, imagery, um you know, And you know, I think it's It's the the easy one to go to is really the breath And And I think, you know, mindfulness has become the kind of moniker for really thousands of year old practice. Um, I don't think mindfulness is the end all be all or the panacea for everything I But I think the idea about First of all, you know, again Steven Hayes talks about you know, you know who, where and when and sometimes being present, being where your feet are. I am here. It's soon super important. You know, I'm reading this book and then this is you know this. You know, it's called Design your life here. If you read it here too. And there's a stop sign up that day when you go to the Stanford University Design School and it says you are hearing and sometimes we need to have those road signs to remember that where we are and being we're a feet are. But I also understand that. But like I said, I believe that humans are designed to perform, and we sometimes get out of, you know, we gotta learn how to get out of our own way. You know, we are designed thio reflect in the past and to be in the future. But I think you know, right now we tend to get ahead of our skis a little bit and so being present. And to me and my good friend Dr Jenelle Macaulay, shout out If she's listening to this, you should have her on if she hasn't been on yet. She talks about putting your accident mass on the late, great sports psychology coach Dr Kendra Visa used to say this, too. Is that the the importance of the breath right? Because it's your built in auction mass you always have, and there's so many things that you can use with the breath, um, in terms of to help regulate yourself right? First of all, to be aware of your thoughts into your physiology, how it's affecting your behavior. But then a way to control what's going on in the moment. Right? And there's some amazing science, you know, that's going into that right now to that helps you not only get you psyched up, you know, in other words, you know, helps you recover to be able to show out, you know, to be able to recover Andi, you could use it between sets of the gym. You could use it while you're running. You could use it before the presentation or a podcast. There's so many ways you could do box breathing. You know you could use the Wim Hof method. There's so many. There's so many applications that go into the breath. The breath is always might go to, you know, and also, you know, being when your feet are you are here. You know who, where and when those air to those air. Two quick things I could think people could use right now, and it's gonna make them better. What? They dio
[00:26:19] spk_1: Oh, I agree. I love the breath. I do a lot of the box breathing, especially if I am very stressed, because what I challenge myself is always to be like in the center. Math of excitement would throw up like you're excited that you want to do something, but it makes you nervous. And so with that, I know that the environment in the state I am can own me. So be making sure that my breathing and then there's something cold that I love is whenever you like. You relax your forehead like you relax your because whenever you stress your tongue usually goes to the roof your mouth. So like like
[00:26:53] spk_0: yeah, yeah, and that's kind of relate toe PMR progressive muscle relaxation, which is another way of, you know, triggered the relax ation response as opposed to this stress response. But there's a lot of different things that are out there. And, uh, you know, I'm just excited that it's becoming more mainstream on Dismore, that we can talk about it, you know, in front everywhere, and it has come out of the shadows. Its's timing has come out party and to be a part of, to be part of this feeling, help advance it in so many fields from the battlefield to the boardroom to the ball field, it just super exciting. And I just spoke to someone like you is willing Thio, kick it around. And you're not sorry for talking about kicking ass between the years?
[00:27:35] spk_1: No, it's it's something that we need and it's very important. And I'm so grateful for you for coming on today. So to park last question, somebody is apologizing for kicking ass between the years that this is something that they're still like. Oh, people are getting offended because trying to talk to you about some things that she's still not comfortable bit about I'm seeing. Well, the times I see mindfulness being one of those or they see us fluffy like you have your everybody has their haters. And so they're apologizing for doing this. What would you tell them?
[00:28:09] spk_0: The most badass performers in the world, you know, kick ass between the years and they do it deliberately and intelligently. And I've worked with many of them, you know, from CEOs toe the Olympians to NFL players toe navy seals, Army rangers. Um, you know, and if they, you know, they think the mental game is as important, uh, you know, to their performance when lives are on the line or livelihoods on the line, and then you should, too. And I think that the more we have these courageous discussions about, you know how we think and how it affects how we act and react the mawr. This is gonna become part of our
[00:28:48] spk_1: part
[00:28:48] spk_0: of our common narrative that, you know, there's gonna help us get better, especially in these times when we're so, so divided and there's so mental health is in and mental fitness, it's so important right now. And so I think that the more you're willing to have that take that first step to to talk to someone about it you're gonna find the other person is gonna wanna talk about it, too. But it's finding that right person to have that courageous conversation on to go there. And I think you'll find some success.
[00:29:14] spk_1: Amen. Amen to that. So last part of that question is, people want to reach out, they want to find you. They want to talk more. They want to nerd out. How can they get in contact with you?
[00:29:24] spk_0: Yeah, a couple different ways. I mean, first of all, I'm a I'm a digital immigrants, so I've got my I got my green card for social media when it comes toe. So I'm still learning in my school. Is that kills? Um but yeah, I'm on linked. I'm on linked in this kind of my go tube, you can reach out to me. Direct message. I love engagement there. As long as you're not selling me something, we're cool. It's And then, uh, Instagram I've become a big fan of I'm a little bit on Twitter. You know, you can also find me. I teach a Texas A and M university through their coaching academy. So you find me through that website, I'm just Google Texas A and M coaching academy and, yeah, reach out to me. I also be sure toe check out a book that I go out there with all kinds of amazing performers called deliberate discomfort on. That was through my company called Mission 60 that I consult with and check them out at www dot mission 60 dot com. You can get delivered discomfort wherever you get books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or your preferred seller and you have just reach out to me. I love toe to be able to stay in touch. I love feedback. And I want to find out what you're doing and how way could work together to kick ass between the ears and help others do the same.
[00:30:31] spk_1: Amen. Amen. Amen. I love it. Thank you so much for joining me today and even thank you for all that tune in. I hope you all have an amazing and blessed thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of unapologetically Bold. I'm not sorry for If this touch shoot anyway, please like and subscribe and share with your friends as we continue the message of being unapologetically bold, Bobby and hot humans who are humble, open and transparent. See you next time.