Rock climbing is a sport that requires risk and fear management and mental strength. I love rock climbing because there’s an amazing intersection of mental and physical skills, and it pushes me every time I go out. I had the incredible blessing to interview one of my favorite climbers—Hazel Findlay!
Hazel Findlay is a British professional rock climber known for her bold ascents and as the first British woman to free-climb El Capitan. In this blog post interview, she describes climbing a risky sea cliff route called Muy Caliente and how she managed fear through breathwork and self-awareness. For her, fear isn’t something to ignore but to work with, since high stress can affect safety and performance. Climbing gives her presence and purpose, and she focuses on the process, not just the outcome.
I’ve been watching Hazel in climbing films for at least a decade. She makes careful, intentional choices about how she goes about climbing. We had a great conversation about anxiety, calming the body, self-talk, the ego, and why climbing is amazing!
Check out Hazel’s Program here: https://www.strongmindclimbing.com/
Here’s the transcript of the interview, which you can find on my podcast.
Decision-making under stress
Emma – Studio Mic: So today we’re going to be talking about, because you are one of the bravest climbers I’ve seen, you do these amazing ascents that also involve risk. And so today we’re going to be talking about that relationship between, performance, and fear and also [00:01:00] decision making, like how we make decisions when we’re having emotions.
So that’s what I, that’s what I’m curious to talk with you about. My audience is not a climbing audience, would you be able to describe to your, to my audience a little bit, like give an example of a climb you were on where there was some significant risk involved and the decision making that you made.
Hazel Findlay: Okay, here’s an obvious one because there’s actually, a video about it as well. So if people are interested, they can check it out. And the video is called Boiled. It’s about a route I did called Muy Caliente. And so this is, if people can imagine, kind of, it’s like a 50 meter, so that’s 150 feet cliff above the ocean, and You have to climb it from the bottom to the top and there’s only so many places where I can put in The things that we use to protect ourselves should we fall So if you put something in right next to you and you climb above it, [00:02:00] you’re effectively gonna [inaudible] twice the distance, right, because you’re gonna because you attach the rope ropes beneath you’ll float through to that last bit and then double again below and the full potential of this climb was going to be that when I got to about 40 feet my last piece of gear was like 20 feet below me or something, right? So was going to be coming either I was either going to be hitting the ground or coming very close to the ground should I have fallen from that spot.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: So I had to really weigh up, [inaudible], what’s the likelihood of me hitting the ground? What’s the likelihood of me falling from that spot? What’s the likelihood of me hurting myself? Because when you fall that far, even if you don’t hit the ground, you can swing into the wall so hard that you could even hurt yourself really badly. Just doing that. So
Emma – Studio Mic: Even if the rope catches you, you can still break your legs.
Hazel Findlay: Exactly. Yeah. Especially if the belayer, like the person has to like really pull in the rope to keep you off the [00:03:00] ground, then it can create what we call a hard catch. So like really slam you into the wall. And then also like with it being a sea cliff, sometimes the rock can feel super greasy. Like, cause it gets the salt from the air. So I had to weigh up, you know, when I get there, like, is it going to be slippy? Because I trust myself, but what happens if just like the holes suddenly become very slippy? So that’s the sort of things I was thinking about at that time. Not to mention, is the stress I’m feeling around this obviously scary thing going to affect my performance? And how can I prevent that stress from affecting my performance negatively.
Emma – Studio Mic: Interesting. So how did you decide to move forward with that?
Hazel Findlay: I’ll just add, there was also camera people there.
Emma – Studio Mic: Oh gosh.
Hazel Findlay: Who could only be there on that day. And they were all getting paid. And if I didn’t do it that day, they’d have to come back. And basically they’d be all paid less. Just [00:04:00] to add in a little bit of external motivation there.
Using Risk to Grow Stronger
Emma – Studio Mic: And what was the route? Was the route graded?
Hazel Findlay: It’s graded E9. It just means it’s hard and scary, basically.
Emma – Studio Mic: Really hard, like 10 grades harder than anything I’ve ever climbed.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah,
Emma – Studio Mic: Really hard climbing. There are very few women in the world climbing this hard. And you’re doing it on routes with the potential for some significant risk. Yeah. Okay, let’s take a step back because this is the thing. I think a lot of people who aren’t climbers don’t realize that climbers think very intentionally about risk. They make choices. We’re not just out there climbing just because we like, have no brains and like to be stupid. Like climbing serves an important function in how we relate to ourselves and the world. And we make these choices. So I guess here’s the question, why climb hard things and why take risk? How do you think about that question?
Hazel Findlay: The really simple answer is because it’s interesting. I’d add in more because it helps me be present, [00:05:00] which then helps my mental well being, which adds meaning and purpose to my life, which helps me connect with others, which helps me connect with the outdoors, which helps me be more in my body than just stuck in my thinking brain the whole time. But you can probably get that from just climbing hard things that are safe. So why climb scary things? I guess maybe just because it’s a different type of challenge instead of it being, I don’t think of purely physical climb just being a physical challenge, I think there’s always a mental challenge to some extent, whether the climb is scary or not or whether the climb is risky or not, I should say. It’s an interesting experience, you know, to have an experience to challenge yourself.
Emma – Studio Mic: For me climbing makes me a better human being. Like, it causes me to think carefully and to challenge myself. I consider climbing in here like inherently arbitrary, like the hardest route a human can do like an insect could probably climb better. So [00:06:00] it’s simply us challenging ourselves against a physical obstacle that forces us to have a little bit of courage, whether that’s courage to keep trying something that’s completely safe, but hard, that takes courage to keep trying and to keep building ourselves and to keep exercising and learning new skills and getting feedback and working as a team.
And I mean, for me, that’s like one of the reasons I climb. And then the other reason is just physically it does. It helps me clear my brain. It makes me better at life. It’s the only thing that got me through grad school was climbing because grad school was so like mentally laborious.I mean, I think climbing is a way to practice emotional tolerance. I don’t know. I don’t know how to describe it or strengthen ourselves emotionally and mentally. There’s a big mental aspect to it.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. And I think that a lot of people who don’t climb think that it’s all dangerous and that’s just not true at all. Most climbing is really safe. Like safer than most sports, I would say, like certainly safer than something like cycling.
Emma – Studio Mic: I would agree. I think cycling is way more dangerous than climbing. [00:07:00]
Hazel Findlay: Yeah.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: But it kind of triggers some like innate fears that we have around like falling and edges and exposure and heights. So it’s this really nice way of, like, feeling uncomfortable psychologically without actually having to take too big a risk from, like, a body perspective. You know, it’s, if you do it right and you do certain types of climbing, there’s very little chance that you’ll break your ankle, for example. Whereas if you skateboard, at some point, I don’t, I mean, surely everyone who’s committed themselves to skateboarding has broken their ankle at some point, right?
Emma – Studio Mic: Oh yeah, and their wrists and their shins and probably like at some point their face, right?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah, so, you know, you don’t have to go through that as a climber, but it’s a way to really challenge yourself and step outside your comfort zone without having to go, okay, I’m probably going to break my ankle in the next five years.
Decision Making Under Pressure
Emma – Studio Mic: [00:08:00] It’s true, I’ve climbed literally thousands of times and I’ve never had a serious injury. So, okay. I could talk climbing all day, but we’re talking about fear. So, when something’s risky, like that route Muy Caliente when you’re looking at doing a route like that, how do you decide what risks are acceptable? How do you decide what risk you’re willing to take? Or I could give another example. I watched and I was like, man, you guys were doing some serious decision making in Greenland.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there’s a lot of things that go into, like, how much risk you want to tolerate, but it’s funny because I think from an outside perspective, someone might think, oh, well, that person just values their life less, or they value their legs less. But for me, it really doesn’t work like that. It’s like, I think I value my life and my legs just as much as the next person, but I just value the experience of these things enough to warrant the risk. And I think that people think that they’re really removed [00:09:00] from that decision, but the reality is that we make those decisions all the time. We just don’t think about it in the context of a sport like climbing. Like, it would be so much safer if you just never drove a vehicle ever again. But, you’re like, well, to live the life that I want to live, it’s much more convenient for me to drive. So I’m willing to take that risk. Whether you have done that intentionally or not depends on the kind of person you are. But we all are making those decisions.
Since becoming a parent, I’ve realized that there’s so many just endless risk decisions. You know, like where to put your baby to sleep? You know, whether to take your baby to a big party like a kid’s party when they’ve not had their flu vaccine yet or like, you know, we’re constantly making these decisions. You’re like, we put our baby to sleep on her front because she sleeps better that way, but it’s not really the guidelines they say to sleep on your back. Like, you know, obviously we don’t want our baby to die, but you’ve got to weigh up the risks of like, also [00:10:00] not ever getting any sleep or like just having your baby more upset like we can’t constantly living in this way where we’re like, always minimizing risk because at the end of it, you just won’t leave your house. You know or just will have a such a terrible quality of life. So we’re always drawing the line somewhere. And it’s really up to you personally. So I guess, you know, the takeaway here is like risk is personal. It’s not black and white. It’s not this is safe or this is dangerous. It’s what do I actually want to do here? How do I want to spend my time? And what am I willing to risk or sacrifice? And what’s the risk of not doing that thing?
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah, what else do you miss out on?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah.
Does fear get a say?
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah and I think that’s really interesting. So when you decide to do a potentially risky route, do you let fear have a say? Like how do you know when your fear is informing you? It’s like your instinct is telling you something’s wrong [00:11:00] or whether it’s just noise. Like fear is just an emotion and you let it go. Because it sounds like what you’re talking about, I was like, I make a choice based on what I want in my life not based on my emotions.
Hazel Findlay: It’s tricky this, because people like to take fear, which is an emotional response and make it something that’s rational or irrational. And for me, that’s like an oxymoron. It’s like, it doesn’t make sense to make this thing, which is emotional and fit it into this box of like, so called being rational [inaudible] because it’s more about, you know, is this emotion serving me and can I manage it enough to do the thing that I want to do?
So, for example, and you can’t separate the two out. So, if I really wanted to do a climb, but my stress response was too high, and I couldn’t manage that, and I couldn’t bring that down, then this climb that could have actually been safe all of a sudden becomes dangerous [00:12:00] because I start making bad decisions, if you’re in a real panic walking down the stairs is dangerous because you’ll be shaking, you might not look properly, you miss a step, you fall, you break your neck. Do you know what I mean?
So, we have to be in the right emotional state to climb in a way that is safe, regardless of how so called dangerous it is or whatever. So, I don’t really ever see it as just noise because if that noise is too loud, it affects how I’m performing anyway. So the question is how do I manage that fear if I still want to do it with the fear being present? And with climbing, a lot of it is you lower the challenge level so that the fear response becomes acceptable. How do you do that? Maybe you practice the climb over and over again before you do it. Maybe you get stronger, you get fitter. Maybe you practice emotional resilience, you know, maybe you practice mindfulness, [00:13:00] maybe you practice breath work, you know, you learn to manage it in different ways with different tools. Or you pick a climb that feels easier to you so that your stress response is not going to be so high.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah. What did you end up choosing with Muy Caliente?
Hazel Findlay: So I did do it. I did do it. It was quite on edge at times. But yeah, it was really right on the edge of what I was like physically and mentally capable, I would say.
And I really felt so much stress before the climb, but the thing is that I know my body and my mind well enough to know that as soon as I left the ground, it would quiet them down and I’d be able to focus on the climbing. And what’s kind of nice about climbing is that it’s you know, if I’d been in a mess at the start, I would have gone no. Some climbs you can back out at different points, you know? So it’s not crazy committing. Whereas a sport like skiing, maybe when you drop in, you can’t, you’re committed. You’re [00:14:00] committed.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: Some moments like that in climbing, but a lot of the time you can kind of at least kid yourself into saying, I can get out of this. So, yeah, I went for it and then as soon as I left the ground I was like, right, I’m actually present now. The worst part is before.
Emma – Studio Mic: Huh. I feel that.
Hazel Findlay: Anxiety and apprehension before. That’s the worst part.
How to regulate stress and emotions
Emma – Studio Mic: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you successfully completed that climb without breaking your legs.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I did [inaudible]
Emma – Studio Mic: That’s awesome. I’ll go find that film. I’ll go watch it. That sounds awesome. When you’re climbing, what, do you have any favorite skills you use to tell your body to calm down?
Hazel Findlay: I mean, breathing’s a big one for sure. Deep belly breaths, like sighing sometimes, like, like with your mouth open can be really helpful. I was doing that before that climb cause I was kind of just doing everything like I needed.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: Just being, trying to be as present as possible because fear is really about something that [00:15:00] is not happening it’s something that you think is going to happen in the future. So, being present helps you not get lost in that, because you can get stuck in that cycle of, I’m thinking about this thing in the future, that emotional response builds and it fuels more of the negative thinking about the future and you can get wrapped in that before you realize, hang on, I’m okay as I am right now.
It’s not happened yet. So just trying to be present as possible. And then some positive self talk can help, you know, reminding yourself that you’re capable, that you have the skills to be able to do the challenge.
Growth mindset in extreme situations
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah. How do you use positive self talk? I just wrote a video on this and I used climbing as an example because I used to climb like four or five times a week and then I had kids and I still try to climb, but it’s been 10 years. Now I’m getting back into climbing. Went climbing with my old friends and I was flailing on this route that I used to be able to do. And I [00:16:00] started on this, oh, I’m so old. I’m not strong. I’m so weak. And for me, like, positive affirmations have not been the best for me, like, just be like, “No, Emma, you’re amazing. Let’s go!” Like, that just feels fake to me. So for me, I usually try to switch to like, a little bit of a growth mindset. Like, hey, it’s great to be here. You’re trying hard. Good job. Like, way to show up today, Emma! Stuff like that. But what what works for you?
Hazel Findlay: [inaudible] I can’t get rid, get down with the kind because for me, those types of positive affirmations aren’t actually positive because what they do is they put the value like on the outcome.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah. Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: It’s better to put the value on like the processes, right? Like, because that’s what you’re doing. The outcome may come, but it may not.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: So it’s more about being like, you know, it really doesn’t matter if I’ve done this climb before and now I can’t do it. Right? Because why am I here? Is it to like, always climb [00:17:00] harder than a previous version of myself? Is that why I go climbing? Or do I go climbing to like, feel present, to try hard, to push myself, to enjoy myself, you know? So I think a lot of my positive self talk comes back to the reason why I’m here and what climbing means to me?
Okay. Well those things are being fulfilled. So why shouldn’t I be positive about it? You know, that’s kind of like where my reasoning goes with positive self-talk.
Emma – Studio Mic: So, and I saw a Facebook post, you said, I mean, you were back in the gym, but you had a baby, right? Like your life has changed a little bit. So maybe you’re not climbing quite at the level you were before. Can you think of anything specific you said to yourself to like address some of maybe those fears or worries or whatever that you had?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah, I think honestly the same thing. It’s like, it’s kind of like, today, just right before this call, I had [00:18:00] such a fun session at the gym. I am by no means climbing my hardest at all. I’m so far away from being at my peak, but the reality is that my experience was the same, it was just on easier grades.
So it’s only my ego that cares, right? So then when actually when you just say it how it is, like, if I’m upset, that’s why. It’s because of my ego, right? And so then when you actually just point to it, and you are honest with yourself, then you’re like, yeah, and actually, that doesn’t matter to me.
What matters to me is that I can do this, and also, the most powerful thing, is gratitude and I know that gratitude people like roll their eyes a bit with it, you know, but it really is so powerful because you just like, like, two months ago, I would just like recovering from a C-section. I could barely leave the couch.
Performing without ego: a mindset shift
I was like, my mental health was not as good as it is because I wasn’t able to climb. Now I can climb. And [00:19:00] so I should be grateful for that because you never know when the next injury is around the corner, you never know, like, what’s gonna happen. So,, like, make the most of it while you can.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah, when I’m having a bad day, sometimes I just say, at least I’m not pregnant! Like, I’m not pregnant right now! Woo hoo! So, I know for some people that might be painful to think about because they want to be pregnant, but for me, it’s like I can just acknowledge like here in this moment, here’s what’s going well in my life. Here in this moment, here’s what my body can do. I’m gonna like pay attention to that and it sounds like I mean I love the wisdom you bring because I think this is why I love climbing. Like, climbing forces you if you want to climb and you want to climb well, you have to manage that mental, you have to manage that mental game, and you have to manage those fears and worries, you have to manage your ego.
So the ego says like, oh I have to climb better than someone else or I have to climb better than myself or I have to think about the future, I have to think about the past, I have to make sure no one thinks badly of me, so I have to complain about the route placement in the gym or something like that, right?
That’s the ego. And the alternative to [00:20:00] ego is what? Being present? Being curious? What’s the antidote to the ego?
Hazel Findlay: I think self-worth. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think that it’s when you have like low self worth that your ego shows up more. You know, whereas if you can be like, hey, I actually value myself. And feel good about myself, regardless of what climbing grade I climb, then you kind of free yourself up to try and fail or just put yourself out there. Right? But if you’re like, oh my God, I need to like, feel like I’m progressing to feel good at myself, about myself, you know, when you have low self-worth. And I mean, the difference between ego, self-worth is definitely like, sometimes hard to draw a line between but I think that’s what you want to aim for instead of bolstering your ego, which is this kind of like, temporary, kind of shallow thing. It’s like, how can I build my self-worth and I think that climbing is so good for [00:21:00] that because even if you failed, but you put yourself out there and you gave it a go, you can be like, well, you know, that’s confidence building, that’s saying that you’re resilient.
That’s something to be proud of. You know, to say, okay, I tried this thing and I didn’t succeed, but you know what, I just really gave it my best effort. And I really like applied myself and then, you know, the results do just come. You know, you just have to apply yourself and they’ll come and then you can be even more proud and you can, that can further build your self-worth. So I think that’s the thing to focus on.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah. Huh. So if you were coaching someone who was climbing and they were kind of ego driven, they’re like, oh, I’m not performing good today. This is so terrible. I’m such a failure. How would you coach them to shift their attention to their worth? Like, what would you say? Or what would you recommend?
Hazel Findlay: Well, maybe I’d shift their attention to why they were there. You know, what is it that you want to get out of climbing? Why do you love climbing? Shift their attention to the passion that they have for the sport, rather [00:22:00] than what it says about them, I think, could be the nice thing.
What helps people move through fear?
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. Okay. So say, I mean, I even watched a video with you, which video was it? You were in Spain recently, Yeah Buddy. I think is what they titled it.
Hazel Findlay: Okay. Yeah.
Emma – Studio Mic: And you were with the younger climber who was really scared of the deep water. [inaudible] I saw you coaching her a little bit. How do you coach someone when maybe they’re really afraid of something like in deep water swimming is scary. I’m scared of the ocean a little bit. Or let’s say they’ve been hurt, like they fell or they got an injury or even maybe they were hurt emotionally in some other way, like, oh, they got hurt in a relationship never want to date again or something like that. Like, how would you coach someone through those fears?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah, so I guess the sort of go to approach is what you might call exposure therapy, where you help someone find the right level of the stimulus. [00:23:00] So the thing that kind of scares them, like finding the right level exposure to that.
Emma – Studio Mic: Oh, I noticed that in the, Yeah Buddy. Like she was climbing, she wanted to hop on these really hard high routes, but it was too much. And you’re like, no, you got to start, you got to start smaller. Right? You got to start with something little.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. And we have that intuition when it comes to physical training.
Like when you go to the gym for the first time, you don’t try to lift the heaviest weights. You know that you have to start with lighter weights and then you slowly, incrementally add those weights. And if you don’t lift any weights, you don’t get stronger. But equally, if you lift too heavy weights, you get injured.
And in really simplistic terms, the same is true of the mind. If you don’t challenge yourself at all, and you never step outside your comfort zone, you will not get any braver. You will not be more courageous in the context of that thing that you’re trying to get braver at. But, if you go, okay, well I just need to go and do, like, the scariest thing, and then, like, that will, like, [00:24:00] take away all my fear.
I mean, that’s gonna be equally bad, because that’s basically gonna cause a trauma.
Emma – Studio Mic: Right, it’ll reinforce that trauma to actually reinforce those fear pathways, right?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. And to think about it in just like general terms, like you create a really strong negative association with that thing.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Regulating emotions by tuning into fear
Hazel Findlay: Even if it’s not necessarily like super traumatic. So, how I would do it is I would help someone find that challenge level. So starting where it feels kind of comfortable and then slowly increasing the challenge level. So instead of guessing, okay, this is probably like kind of scary for me, but manageable.
You just start with something super simple and comfortable and then you build from there. And then the way to get that challenge level right, and this is where I think people go wrong, is that they don’t realize that we can be super stressed without being aware of it. So you might force yourself into kind of a stressy climbing situation and not be totally aware that actually you’re like close to panic the whole time.
And you just [00:25:00] come away with it and you’re like, that kind of sucked but I’m not really exactly sure why and I just think I don’t want to do it again. That is because you challenge yourself too much. So it’s about connecting to your body and like, say you’re walking into the climbing area and actually you’re already kind of stressed.
It’s tuning into that and going, okay, what, you know what, like, this is already quite a lot for me. So when I get there, I’m gonna, be really careful around how I challenge myself. But if you aren’t in tune with those stress responses, and I think that in our society, we’ve really normalized stress.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah.
Hazel Findlay: Most of us are just running around stressed constantly. And that’s why we have so many disorders with chronic stress. So a lot of the learning around fear management comes from that awareness, improving awareness of our stress responses.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah. So what would you say to someone who’s like, they’re not really aware of their fear [00:26:00] levels. They’re not really aware of how stressed they are and how that might be impacting maybe their safety or their performance. How would you encourage them to notice that more or adapt to that?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. So I have two tools that I really like. The first is what I call Check-ins, where you basically check in with yourself and you ask yourself, what am I thinking, what am I feeling, and so what am I thinking is the thoughts kind of in a monologue that’s going on in my head, and then what am I feeling, and that’s when you really encourage you to like, be in your body, so like, connecting to your breath, you know, is my breath shallow, rapid, that kind of thing.
And just like any emotional state. So it’s really just what you feel in the body. And the tool, extra tool that you can use to that is this acronym, B-E-S-T or BEST. These are like what I call like the four main indicators of stress. So it’s breath, eyes, what are you doing visually. So like, if you’re kind of looking around everywhere and you can’t, like, calmly focus on one thing, or if you see someone else [00:27:00] move their head around, and especially in climbing, such a key sign of being too stressed, so like, you could video yourself, and if you just keep, like, darting your eyes everywhere yeah, it’s definitely an indication that you’re too stressed.
And then S is for sensations, and that’s just like this term for like what you feel generally in your body. So we’ve got these different words for it, like butterflies in your stomach or pressure on my chest, you know. It’s hard to really describe those emotional states, but we often have like metaphors for it.
And then T is for tension, which is classic. You know, when we are stressed and scared, we become very tense. A lot of people hold tense in their jaws, in their shoulders, neck, even coughs when they’re climbing. So, connecting to just like, how relaxed you feel in your body. So they’re the four things and I think you, just doing those two things, if you’re a climber, but even if you’re just doing anything stressful, like, for example, like if you’re having to give a [00:28:00] talk at work, connect to those things before you, you go in, will give you a real indication of like, hey, well, actually, how stressed am I about this thing right now?
And then you could do something about it. But if you don’t know, you’re like, oh, that talk felt so, like, [inaudible] or negative, or I forgot my notes. You know, is that because you were underprepared or because it was stressed and that stress was distracting you? But if you don’t know that you’re stressed, you can’t do anything about it.
Emma – Studio Mic: That’s a good point. That’s a good point. I like that. It’s like a quick scan. And the interesting thing is like, as soon as you mentioned those things, like, as soon as you mentioned breath, I’m like, oh yeah, breathe, Emma. Right? And you, it’s not like I’m trying to force myself. It’s like when we bring our awareness to these parts of our body’s like, oh, thanks for noticing. I am actually. Okay. It’s okay.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. Yes. Nice. Yeah. I like that.
The upside of acute stress
Emma – Studio Mic: That’s great. Well, cool. Do you have anything else you like want to share anything else you’re really excited about when it comes to managing fear or anxiety?
Hazel Findlay: Maybe that, just for people [00:29:00] listening that I think from intentionally putting yourself in places that feel a bit uncomfortable, that’s so like just a little bit of acute stress is what I would call it. So like stress just from an event, like, how you might feel it in climbing, I think there’s just so beneficial, like, you learn so much about yourself.
You can take what you learn and apply it to the rest of your life, and I just think that it’s so good for building resilience and just general mental
well-being. So I think if you feel like you don’t really do anything in your life where you feel like you’re stepping outside your comfort zone like that, then climbing or a sport like climbing is a great way to do it.
Hazel Findlay’s resources
Emma – Studio Mic: It’s awesome. I love it. I love it. Okay. Tell my audience where they can find you because you’ve got a program on helping people develop mental strength and stuff, right?
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. It’s for climbers. Most of what we do is specifically for climbers, [00:30:00] but you can check out the website, strongmindclimbing.com and then my Instagram is @hazel_findlay.
Emma – Studio Mic: Awesome. Cool. So excited. We’ll definitely link that in the description and you guys should check it out.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Emma – Studio Mic: Yeah, thank you. Really appreciate your time. I know it’s precious when you have little ones.
Hazel Findlay: Yeah. Yeah, no worries. Nice chatting with you.
Emma – Studio Mic: Good talking with you, too.
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