It was a true pleasure to discover the work and passion of Sonya Looney, a professional athlete, mountain bike champion, podcast host, health and mental performance coach. Her enthusiasm, laughter, and insights are contagious!

There are many golden nuggets in this conversation: how to skillfully manage comparison thoughts, rumination, self-doubt, shame, values-based strategies, and much more.

Key Takeaways

  • The mindset of an athlete
  • The upsides and downsides of over-preparing and over-working
  • How to skillfully manage unpredictability
  • Acceptance of emotions
  • How to deal with a strong attachment to goals or winning
  • Defusion: thought – labeling
  • Goodhart’s law
  • How to manage physical fatigue using acceptance & defusion skills
  • How to go back to your values when your mind gets noisy
  • How to manage comparison thoughts
  • ABC of resilience

About Sonya Looney

Sonya Looney is a professional athlete, podcast host, health and mental performance coach. As a professional mountain biker, she’s raced in over 25 countries, been World Champion, 4x USA National Champion, and amassed 20+ career wins in endurance mountain biking.

Her work encompasses the intersection of performance, health, and well-being. Her dynamic experience racing around the world, paired with a graduate education in Electrical/Biomedical Engineering, her Health Coaching Certification, and extended personal studies in Neuroscience, Positive Psychology, and Plant-Based Nutrition, have been a powerful way to connect and understand herself and others.

Sonya is passionate about the integration of high performance and well-being through psychology, contemplative practices, and sport.

In her work, she explores topics like grit, mindset, self-worth, purpose, success, happiness, and healthy striving.

mindset

Resources

Resources from Dr. Z’s desk

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ACT online courses 

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About Dr. Z.

I’m originally from Bolivia, South America, and am a psychologist by training. I’m formally trained in empirically supported treatments, and when I say “formally,” I mean that since 2004 I have received intensive training in them, particularly in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). 

Over the past 18 years, I have created resources for and worked with overthinkers and overachievers dealing with all types of anxiety-related struggles: perfectionism, procrastination, productivity anxiety, uncertainty intolerance, indecision, impostor phenomenon, overthinking, phobias, rumination, panic, worry and obsessive-compulsive disorder. I absolutely love my job!

In 2019, I was nominated as a fellow by the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science because of my contributions related to the applications of ACT for anxiety-based struggles. I’m the author of seven books and the co-author of three (see the section on previously written books).

I’m the founder and director of the East Bay Behavior Therapy Center, a boutique private center in the San Francisco Bay Area that offers therapy and coaching for anyone experiencing anxiety-based struggles.

In 2023, I gave a TEDx talk, “Stop playing-it-safe and start living” that has more than 264K downloads.

While I’m a psychologist by training and science-based by passion, my style is jargon-free, accessible, caring, and lighthearted; teaching ACT skills doesn’t have to be boring or inaccessible, so I do my best to make every skill I teach—in any format—as engaging as possible. 

I believe that learning to navigate anxiety-based reactions is one of the key skills of the 21st century, and I’m passionate about it.

I'm passionate about disseminating ACT skills for anxiety-based struggles.

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