Episode 75. Chari Hawkins - Mental Training & Creating Your Story

On Global Running Day, professional heptathlete Chari Hawkins, the 2022 USA Indoor Champion in the heptathlon shares her journey with sports and mental health. In the heptathlon, athletes compete in 7 events: hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m run, long jump, javelin, and the 800m. Chari is one of the best heptathletes in the world, and is currently ranked 6th globally.  In this episode, Chari shares her journey with sports psychology and how she turned mental health into her biggest strength as an athlete. She also shares how she learned detach her identity from performance, and write down her dreams, goals and obstacles in order to create her own story. Chari’s journey shows the importance of mental health in sports and performance. Despite performing really well in college and winning conference as a freshman, Chari struggled with severe performance anxiety. Today, she is an inspiring advocate for overcoming anxiety and panic attacks as a professional athlete at the highest level.