79: Caroline Burckle on Helping Young Athletes Rise Through Creating a Foundation of Mental Health and Mentorship

Today’s guest is Caroline Burckle, a professional athlete who swam in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. After being mentally and physically wrecked by the end of her experience with competitive sport, she co-founded RISE Athletes, a virtual mentoring program where professional and olympic athletes empower youth athletes with transferable skills to impact sport and life performance, helping to better prepare them for the mental and physical challenges of navigating athletic competition at the highest level.Caroline spent a decade in pursuit of her Olympic goal and spent a decade thereafter understanding her pain, and it is this work that helped her blend art, mindset, and sport to discover herself, her shadows, her light, her movement, and her purpose.In this episode, Caroline reflects on her role as a ‘feeler’ and the belief systems she created at a young age that equated self-worth with achievement. She also speaks candidly about her mental health journey and shares how the work she does today was informed by her own mental health struggles as an athlete, as well as her current mission to help others understand how we can utilize our emotions as information rather than suppressing them. We also touch on the mind-body connection, healing trauma through Somatic Experiencing, and Caroline’s past and present perceptions of success, plus so much more!This conversation provides a fascinating peek behind the curtain of what it's actually like to be an Olympic athlete. It also offers further evidence that your purpose is likely hiding in whatever you perceive to be your biggest obstacle in life. Make sure to join us as we dive into the backstory of Caroline Burckle and see exactly how a swimming pool in Kentucky became the gateway to finding her purpose!Send us a text message. We'd love to hear from you!