The Mindfulness of Cycling with Olympian Haley Smith

The Sonya Looney Show

Cycling has been a lifeline for Haley Smith. Haley, a top professional cyclist, competed in the cross-country event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning the bronze medal, and was named to the 2020 Canadian Olympic team and competed in the delayed summer games in 2021. She recently signed with Maxxis Factory Racing after a decade with Norco.

But cycling has been more than competition to Haley; it’s been a tool to manage her mental health.

In this week’s podcast, Sonya sat down with Haley to talk about her path to cycling, battling anxiety, mindfulness, expanding views of success and more.

Key Takeaways

• Getting started in cycling
• Battling anxiety
• Mindfulness work to manage mental health
• Cycling as a meditative activity
• Not avoiding difficult things
• Finding mountain biking
• Staying in the moment and daily improvements with cycling
• Measuring improvement - expanding view of success
• Working on outlook and attitude
• Goal setting
• The Olympic experience