There are three areas that I focus on whenever I feel a little bit overwhelmed. Jonathan Fields actually calls them the three buckets. It's really handy to imagine that you're carrying three buckets in your life. One is for your mind, one is for your body, and one is for connection. A really simple tool that you can use to check in with all areas of your life.

As an athlete, one of the most important things that you can train is your brain. Often, at that top-level, what sets one team or one individual apart from the rest is being able to perform under pressure, and it's not just the fitness, it's not just the skill. 

Do you often find yourself stuck in a spiral of bad habits like checking your phone, watching Netflix, reaching for the block of chocolate, or whatever it is that you do? Glennon Doyle has a really good way of looking at this, and she calls it pressing easy buttons and reset buttons. We all have 'easy buttons' that we push when we don't want to feel our feelings. They are the actions we take when we don't want to feel our pain or stress. Whether those feelings are boredom, anxiety, agitation, anger, fear, frustration, sadness or something else.

When I learned about the importance of the first hour of my day, my whole life changed. Your day is basically determined by how you spend your first hour.Creating a morning routine and sticking to it can be one of the most powerful things to get out of a rut. Here are 3 habits to consider adding to your routine.

Earlier this year, I went around my team and asked the following question: “If you were to travel back in time to high school, what would you tell yourself knowing what you know now?” What better way to hear from New Zealand’s best hockey players, some of them the best in the world, about their time at high school.

Let’s get real. It’s winter. It’s cold. It’s dark. If you’re human, I’m sure you’ve caught yourself with some pretty negative thoughts lately. I know I’ve been having a fair few, especially last week. I’ve found myself complaining a whole lot more than normal, and I’ve noticed what an impact it’s had on my well being. I often get told that a strength of mine is that I try and find the positive out of a lot of bad situations. I think this comes down to my upbringing, watching my family have the ‘glass half full’ attitude with life.

I sat down with my friend and team mate Sam Charlton, who has been to two Olympic Games, played almost 200 games for New Zealand and is also a qualified nutritionist! This girl is a go getter and I loved our conversation. 

After the Olympics last year, I found myself in a bit of a rut. I knew I had to dedicate the next six months to rehabbing my knee, but while I was doing that, I needed to figure out what to do with my career. I graduated in 2013, worked at a marketing company for two years, and then committed a year to the Olympics where my main focus was hockey. Once I got back from Rio, that daunting question was floating around in my head… “Now what?” I didn’t want to go back to an office job, so I made the leap into self employment. When I made that leap, I felt really self conscious about what to tell people that I do for a job. It hit me the most when I went to fill out a form, and staring back at me was a big space next to the word “OCCUPATION: ________________"

“When I’m worried and cannot sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep” Gratefulness is something that we are so often too busy for. How often do we actually stop and think, “wow, I’m so grateful for this opportunity” “I’m so grateful to have this delicious cup of coffee” It sounds super cheesy, but it can change your attitude in a few minutes if you remember to practise it.