Alexi Pappas: Staying Awake to Our Pain

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Kate Bowler

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When she was a child, Alexi Pappas lost her mother to suicide. So when Alexi faced a season of deep depression she knew had to find a different way forward. That’s when her training as an Olympic runner became invaluable. In this conversation, Kate and Alexi discuss, The difference between stress and trauma The discipline—and joy—of sheer effort Good pain vs. bad pain and how to stay inside the uncomfortable for a bit longer The highs and lows of realizing your dreams How viewing mental illness as an injury not only destigmatizes depression, but offers tangible next steps toward healing Too often professional athletes fall into the pure motivational speaker category. But this conversation with Alexi gently threads the needle about what is possible if you stay a little longer in uncomfortable situations when even getting out of bed feels like a win. There is so much wisdom we can glean from Alexi’s discipline and willpower. CW: suicide, depression, mental illness *** Find me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more. No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy today. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Do you know the feeling of setting a big goal? I mean a great big goal. A
0:07.0	promotion, a creative project that you have clarity for, a new degree, a debt
0:12.7	you're trying to pay off, maybe a fitness school or a vacation you've been
0:16.6	dreaming about forever, or maybe legacy work, writing that book, making it to
0:21.8	that birthday, celebrating that milestone. There is something about that kind of
0:28.0	horizon setting that can propel us forward, the rush, the problem solving, the
0:34.9	orienting ourselves towards something in the future because it feels so good
0:41.1	to try. But what about when something knocks us off that path? Our bodies break
0:48.3	down or our dependence meet us, or grief, or depression, or illness overshadows
0:54.2	everything else. I'm Kate Bowler and this is Everything Happens. Today I'm
1:02.8	talking to someone who is a great big goal setter. No really, she decided she
1:08.6	wanted to be an Olympian and she did. Alexi Papas is also a writer and filmmaker.
1:17.8	She is the author of Bravee, chasing dreams, befriending pain, and other big
1:25.0	ideas. She lost her mom to suicide when she was only four years old, a tragedy
1:30.8	that colored her own experience of her mental health and her ambitions. Alexi
1:36.2	took up running, not casually like a Zen, I went on a run which was mostly a
1:41.1	brisk walker on the block, but professionally. Her determination allowed her to
1:46.0	run the 10k in the 2016 Olympics, a goal she had finally realized and it made
1:52.8	her wonder what happens now and what she discovered about how to lean into
2:00.2	pain is going to crack us wide open. Alexi, I am so grateful you're here with me
2:07.9	today. I'm so happy to be here with you. I'm at the end of one of those days
2:14.3	where like all I want is a friend, so this feels perfect for me. Yeah. I wondered if
	...

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