Michelle Garvin is the Sports Psychologist for the Detroit Lions. She grew up playing a variety of sports including soccer, basketball, swimming, track, softball and volleyball. She calls herself a generalist instead of a specialist.
Michelle talks about getting her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and how she discovered that she could then combine that with her love for sports and work with athletes.
One of the stereotypes that she sees across the board is that mental health is a negative. Too often people jump from mental health to mental illness and Michelle talks about how we need to normalize the importance to put emphasis on our mental health.
One of the ways that we can be more mentally healthy is being nice to ourselves. It is too easy to fall into the trap of negative self talk, whether that is being too critical of ourselves or putting ourselves down or mom guilt. It is important to be kind to ourself and think about how we would talk to a friend and talk to ourself that way.
Another common theme Michelle runs into are people who think they have to do it all by themself because asking for help feels like weakness. We want to be tough and do it all. She talks about how we need to see asking for help as a skill and then practice it.
It is also really important to figure out what refuels us. If we are prone to give, give, give, it is important to figure out what those refueling strategies are. Michelle uses the oxygen mask analogy in talking about making sure that we take time for ourselves so that we can be there for all of the other people and things in our life.
Michelle talks about the importance of practicing what she preaches as far as self care goes. The biggest thing in that for her is to be mindful and stay present, especially when she is with her family. Going outside and putting down her phone really help her to accomplish that. Her current aspiration is to put her phone down for 2 hours every day. It is also important to check yourself when you start to worry about something and ask if worrying about something is actually helping. Often it is not.
Another thing Michelle is doing right now for self care is to read. She recommends the book Mini Habits by Stephen Guise as well as Atomic Habits by James Clear as well as some of the Brene Brown resources.
There is also an app called the Calm app that she really likes. There are many different things you can do on it, such as meditation, mind body connection, breathing exercises and sleep stories. Another great app is Headspace.
In her highlight reel, Michelle tells us about how much she loves her new Peloton and about the variety of options there are with it including picking rides in different countries as well as options to workout without the bike.
For her blooper reel, Michelle tells a story about her daughter.
Michelle passes the ball to her mom who is now Yaya to her daughters. She said now as a mom she looks back and has a much bigger appreciation for what her mom did for her growing up.
Life is a Team Sport 