The Intentional Athlete Podcast

How do you talk to yourself?  How do you talk about yourself?  Have you struggled with this before?  I know that it was a gigantic mess of thought in my head for far too many years.  In this episode, I share about what that does for how you show up in the world and give some practical guidance for how to create the shift in your self-talk today! 

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

We often struggle to find our place in the world.  A big part of that struggle can come from seeking external validation, approval from others.  That is a sure-fire way to have mental hardships in our journey of life.  In this episode, world champion powerlifter Ian Bell talks about his healing journey and the significant role of what finding internal validation has done for him in his life.  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your guest Ian Bell

Instagram: iandeadlifts

Facebook: Ian Bell Powerlifter

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Connor Ryan

Instagram: @sacredstoke, @breakthebicycle @NativesOutdoors

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

We all have moments of anxiety.  Depending on where we are at in our journey, sometimes we are even crippled by that feeling.  In this episode, I share with you some of my experiences and struggles with anxiety in my past.  How I was able to overcome and more importantly, how it's shaped the way I view anxiety in the present day!  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Connor Ryan

Instagram: @sacredstoke, @breakthebicycle @NativesOutdoors

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

Suicidal thoughts are not uncommon.  What is uncommon is our ability to have a conversation about it.  Part of Project Unchain{ED} is aimed at helping create safe spaces for people to talk about their struggles.  In this episode, IPF World Champion powerlifter, Bryce Lewis opens up with me about a dark time in his life where he thought about what it would be like to die.  We also hit on what action and work he did to help himself work through that dark time in his life that helped him get his headspace right again!     

The Belonging Blueprint

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, PLEASE do reach out for help!  

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

Let's have a different conversation.....about race!  Conversations about race are incredibly uncomfortable, which is exactly why we ought to have more meaningful conversations about it.  Why on a mental health podcast?  Because your discomfort is a sign you have work to do on yourself and this is a way to do just that.  So let's dig in and have a different conversation about race, especially us white people who avoid them the most as many studies have shown.  When we show up better when we show up where it's uncomfortable.....we grow, expand and elevate our life experience.  

Here is a link to the book that I am referencing in this episode -  Nurture Shock: https://www.amazon.com/NurtureShock-New-Thinking-About-Children/dp/0446504130

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

In this episode, I get to talk with mental health advocate and professional skier, Connor Ryan.  Connor talks about his personal and ancestral traumas and how reconnecting to his Hunkpapa Lakota roots has played a pivotal role in his mental health and healing journey.  I've really enjoyed connecting with Connor on a few occasions and have personal found some of his perspectives highly beneficial to my own self-care regimen.  

The Belonging Blueprint

Indian Horse Film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Horse_(film)

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Connect with Connor Ryan

Instagram: @sacredstoke, @breakthebicycle @NativesOutdoors

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

We often struggle to be authentic as we do things to gain social approval.  This often results in actions & behaviors that don't align with our most authentic selves.  We become trapped in pleasing others while sacrificing who we are, creating more distance from being free.  Your freedom resides in your ability to be the most authentic version of yourself.  I've come to a place in my life where I have found how freeing it is to just be yourself!  To just be authentically you, whoever that is, just be that.  

The Belonging Blueprint

Connect with your host Ross Leppala!

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

Perspective is powerful!  Perspective drives your reality.  In this episode, I'm going to go in on perspective and what that does for us.  How our perspectives shape our reality and what we CAN do to have an elevated experience with our reality by simply changing our perspective.  This is something you are capable of doing as you learn how to tap into that!  As we shift our perspectives, we're able to engage life with high levels of energy.  We come from a place of the higher self, a critical component in breaking free from those figurative chains that hold you back in life. 

The Belonging Blueprint! 

Connect with your host Ross Leppala:

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

In this episode, your host, Ross Leppala, chats with his friend Matt Vincent. Matt shares where some of his struggles hit him hard mentally, emotionally, and physically.  How his father's death impacted his vision for his own life and then dealing with his athletic career being cut short after several failed surgeries.  Through that journey, he's found the use of medicinal plants to help open his mind to more perspective that has elevated his life experience.  As Matt puts it, "I want to rad shit with rad people."       

The Belonging Blueprint!

Connect with our special guest, Matt Vincent

Instagram: ihviiimattvincent

Website: https://www.thehviii.com/

Podcast: UMSO

Connect with your host Ross Leppala:

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony

In this episode, I share a story with you all about a defining moment in my healing journey.  A moment when things got really hard and painful.  A moment that I had to make a choice; continue work on healing myself or fall back into my victim mentality.  It was one of the hardest and most defining moments of my life!  Moving forward from that time has been incredibly impactful in my journey and how I look at things today.  

The Belonging Blueprint!

Connect with your host Ross Leppala:

Instagram: ross.leppala

Facebook: Ross Leppala

Email: [email protected]

Intro and Outro music credits:

"Lost in the Woods" by Gaelynn Lea

from the album "Learning How to Stay"

Gaelynn Lea: Violin, Vocals

Dave Mehling: Guitars, Keyboards, Organ & Auxiliary Percussion

Al Church: Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Piano & Auxiliary Percussion

Martin Dosh: Drums

Andrew Foreman: Electric Bass

Haley McCallum: Vocal Harmony