229 Line Thams and PTSD - Navigating Adversity and Meeting Stress
Purple Patch Podcast
Matt Dixon
4.8 • 647 Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2022
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Matt welcomes Purple Patch Pro Athlete, Line Thams, to the Podcast.
Thams is a professional triathlete from Denmark, focusing on short-course ITU racing.
She sits down with Matt to provide insight into dealing with stress and adversity. Thams shares her own story of coping with family tragedy and trauma and how to leverage adversity to emerge stronger in sport and life.
Over the last few years, Thams has had to navigate her mother’s stroke and subsequent coma, her partner's battle with cancer, and the physical and emotional trauma of a major bike crash that crippled her confidence and almost ended her athletic career.
Line frames her approach and the mindset she applies to move beyond the obstacles of the unexpected and provides valuable insight into formulating a plan of actionable steps towards recovery.
It is an inspiring story of resilience for anyone looking to manage, control, and emerge from the sometimes overwhelming weight of stress in their life.
Together, Matt and Line discuss the following themes:
- Learning to identify, accept and live with uncontrollables
(19:50) “I've heard it's so unfair..that's probably also a lesson we can take out from this is that life is not always fair. And if we grip - dwell too much on feeling that we are in this unfair situation, at least for too long, then we will be blind on what we can actually do.”
- Enacting actionable behavior - adapting to the challenges
- Developing an adversity mindset - applying positive and productive energy
(55:12)“There's a 99% likelihood it could be worse. And to quote Gary Vee, 1 billion people don't have access to clean water…I still wake up in a soft bed, I can make myself a triple Espresso from very good coffee machine, if that's what I want. My friends and family are here, I can go out and ride my bike with my teammates…But it could be worse and this too shall pass. c'est la vie and this too shall pass.”
- Avoiding stagnant thinking- refocusing perspective toward the positive.
(47:30)“It only feels stressful, if I'm caught up in the future, or the past, because, you know, like either be worried about what we haven't done or being overwhelmed by how on earth, we're going to make it into the future that we aim for. And I think, like happiness is also about letting go of what you thought your life was supposed to be, and just embracing where you are right now. And I think if we're stressed, we're not actually present. And if we're not present, we can also not be, like, truly happy."
- The power of community - reaching out and letting others in
- Defining success in the face of adversity
"(38:54)The road to success for me comes down to kind of the personal journey...on the journey, you will get tested and you will get challenges...when you meet the challenge...and look it in the eyes, then I also think that you will grow from it and you will better yourself. And to me that is success.
- Key lessons from Line’s personal experiences - coming back from catastrophe
More on Line Thams:
- 3x podium at ITU Continental Cups, 2013-2014 - Bronze Grand Prix Embrun, 2015 - Danish Champion 2014-2017, 2021 - Vice World Champion Duathlon 2022Episode Timestamps
0:02 - 03:45 Welcome and Episode Introduction
3:45 - The Meat and Potatoes - Line Thams: Navigating Adversity and Meeting Stress
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Matt Dixon and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere in a great sport into life. |
| 0:23.7 | So you've got your strength training, you've got stress levels and inflammation, you've got |
| 0:29.7 | the myriad of supplements that are available, foods that you need more of, maybe foods that |
| 0:36.0 | you need to limit. |
| 0:40.9 | Red flags to course correct in your health and performance. |
| 0:42.3 | There is a lot to consider. |
| 0:47.5 | It's almost impossible to keep up, but knowledge is power. |
| 0:53.7 | And with the assessment of your biomarkers combined with the insights and recommendations from the team at Inside Tracker, |
| 0:55.8 | what you get is focus. |
| 1:01.7 | You get precision as well as trackable metrics to ensure success and improvement for sports performance, health, and of course, longevity. |
| 1:04.6 | It's a great tool that I use, and you might consider it too. |
| 1:08.1 | You don't even need to be a Purple Patch athlete to do so. |
| 1:10.6 | All you need to do |
| 1:11.7 | is head toinsidracker.com slash Purple Patch and you can use this code, Purple Patch Pro 20, |
| 1:18.1 | and you get 20% of everything at the store. All right, let's buckle up and dive in. I hope that you |
| 1:24.5 | enjoy the show. |
| 1:37.9 | And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast, as ever, your host Matt Dixon. |
| 1:41.7 | And we have to start this week with an apology. |
| 1:47.0 | Apology for the microphone, because I am away from the recording studio in San Francisco and I'm also without my trusty microphone. You see, I'm on a family adventure |
| 1:53.8 | across Europe and we had some technical difficulties, but we didn't want to bypass this opportunity |
| 1:59.0 | to present to you today's guest. |
| 2:01.8 | It's Lena Thames. |
... |
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