08/20/2026
One of the biggest mindset skills we can build isn't about thinking positive or staying calm. It's simpler and harder than that: it's noticing what's actually happening in our body, even when our brain is telling us something else.
Our brain and body can be thinking and feeling completely different things at the same time — and most of the time, we don't catch the gap until we stop long enough to check in.
Here's what that looked like for me last week. Before the race, I felt fine. In my head, I was calm and ready. But when I actually paused to check in with my body, I found something else entirely — my stomach was in knots, and all the usual signs were there. My brain said "fine." My body was telling a different story.
Checking in didn't make the feeling go away. But it did two things. It let me settle a little, just from naming what was really going on. And it let me accept that I wasn't going to fully settle until I was actually doing the thing — for me, that meant being out on the course, somewhere that usually feels like home.
Then there was the swim.
I mentioned last week that it didn't go well, but I didn't say what that actually meant. I had to pull myself onto a paddleboard mid-swim just to catch my breath. I told the guy on the board that I was feeling really unregulated and needed a minute to regroup. That's a panic response — I'll just name it plainly, because that's what it was.
What stands out to me now is that I had the words for it. I don't know that I would have before. And without the words, I don't know that I would have given myself the grace to stop — I might have pushed through and told myself I was being dramatic instead of recognizing what was actually happening.
That's what body awareness gives us. Not a way to skip the anxious moments, but enough awareness to notice them, name them, and respond with some grace instead of judgment.
This week, try this: the next time your brain says one thing and your body seems to be saying another, pause and actually check in. Not to fix it — just to notice it. See what shifts when you do.
