Evan Heiter is one of my dearest friends, who also happens to be one of the best and most self-aware people I've ever met. He is a huge proponent of self-worth, self-acceptance, and reaching authenticity through a lot of inner work and therapy. He truly emulates what it means to be a bright light in this world and I am so grateful to know him. He is so articulate and speaks so much truth to so many of us who are afraid to be the fullest expression of ourselves. As someone who used to draw a lot of his identity from sports, Evan walks us through his process of self-acceptance beyond sports and beyond the external masks the societal structures place upon us. Through this open conversation, I think we can all see ourselves in Evan in terms of his process to unfolding all the layers to reaching his core essence that makes him the amazing person that he is. His energy is amazing and I love being around it. I think you will too!

In this episode we talk about:

COLLEGE SPORTS

- Evan’s unconventional path to Michigan gymnastics

- Mentally managing the talent gap and being told on the daily you’re not good enough

- Self-awareness

- Becoming okay with failure

- Navigating the comparison game, fears, self-doubt, negative self-talk (body image, self worth issues being gay and an athlete)

- Why sports are a powerful escape

- Stepping out as a gay athlete

- The Larry Nassar scandal from a gymnasts perspective

Stepping out of the closet and into his true self:

- Finding the courage to come out of the closet in college

- Stepping out of the external judgment and into our inner truths

- Breaking through programming and rediscovering our own belief systems

- Breaking free from societal structures of control

- Some challenges people in the gay community still face as a collective

- Toxic masculinity

- The stigma of homosexuality in sports

SELF-ACCEPTANCE

- How Evan finally come to terms with accepting himself given the fact that he has been different most of your life

- If you could go back and give the baby Ev about to head to college some advice what would you tell him

- What the most profound shift Evan was able to make internally that enhanced this aspect of yourself

- Breaking through limited beliefs that were placed upon this

RELATIONSHIPS:

- How to evaluate where your self-worth is at when navigating relationships

- Learning about self through relationships

HOW TO HEAL:

- Why is EQ so important

- therapy and its gifts