Jodie Williams spends her athlete life figuring out how to get from A to B as quickly as possible.
She runs one lap of a track in 49.97 seconds, making her the sixth-fastest British woman of all time over 400m.
But when it comes to mental health, Jodie passionately believes that there is no finish line.
There are just a series of positive habits, routines, processes and communities that have helped her manage her mental health over the years.
Here, she shares a few of them.
Exercise and fresh air
I have experienced periods of anxiety and depression. I would say I’m definitely on the depressive side.
I’ve gone through spells when I’ve struggled to get out of bed, let alone get to training on time.
Every time I did, I always felt 20 times better. It’s a huge thing that I will preach to anyone struggling with mental health.
It can be anything, it doesn’t have to be elite level training. I love going on long walks on my own in nature near my training base in Arizona. Even just going outside can make you feel immensely better.
Celebrate the small wins
Often I can be quite obsessive about what is not going right, rather than looking at the small wins you have every day.
Look at those small wins. I sometimes lapse into getting very big picture and existential crisis, rather than celebrating the little positives.
Today, I got out of bed and made it to training on time. That’s a win. You can count that. That was my biggest mentality shift, to use anything I could to get out of a negative cycle.
Some people like being alone
I’m a loner by heart. It’s very normal for me to want to be on my own.
I’m very good with my own company. I would often choose it over time with other people and I’ve had to work on that over the years.
For people like me, people don’t pick up on the warning signs. If I’m isolating, that’s normal behaviour and people don’t see it as a red flag moment.
Lean into new communities
Up until the age of 23, I wasn’t good with other people. Moving to the USA really helped that, because people there are much more outgoing.
My training partners were a huge help and I found an incredible group of people.
We would have games nights together and it was the first time in my life when I had that kind of community.
That didn’t come naturally and I’ve had to work on building my communities, but I’m okay with that. I branched out from there and now I have great friends.
I’m launching an online journal soon. I know what it’s like to not have like-minded people, so it’s designed to help others those connections.
Make social media work for you
I love Instagram. I came off Twitter a long time ago, I always found it to be a very nasty place.
When I was younger, in those formative teenage years, I struggled with it. I would search my name and find out what people were saying about me, and it was never nice. I took that very personally.
I learned a long time ago that Twitter wasn’t the place for me. I learned a long time ago to not care.
I’m naturally very creative. I use Instagram as a mood board to gain inspiration. I follow people who make me feel good and I follow accounts that are personal interests of mine.
That was a turning point for me in terms of comparison. It’s a platform that helps me push the boundaries of what people think I am.
I want people to ask the question, ‘why can’t I do that?’ A lot of people say to me online, ‘I could never wear that, I could never shave my head’ and I’m like ‘why?’
And when people confront that, they realise that there are rules that aren’t real.
Sportsbeat 2023