There’s a lot unfolding in our world right now.

We are facing a hard we’ve never faced before. At least not in our lifetime.

We’re all navigating loss and uncertainty right now - on top of other real life hard things like small-business bottom lines, pivots in plans, social distancing, shutdowns, financial worry, seasons cut short + medical challenges. It’s a hard that ignites big emotions - not because we aren’t trying hard enough, but because we are human.

All of this can be such a disorienting space. The loss of control can send us (humans) swirling + spinning into all the what ifs and worst-case scenarios because our brains are hardwired for patterns, order and complete stories. Not easy to do when we don’t know how the story will unfold.

What’s happening outside of our bodies is having an impact on what’s happening inside.

And what’s happening on the inside of our bodies is impacting how we show up in our lives.

We’ve been conditioned not to feel. Suck it up. Get over it. You’re fine. Stop being a baby. Why are you crying? To feel is to show weakness. Especially in the athletic arena, workplace and boardrooms.

The thing is… Living and leading with integrity and alignment requires an awareness of self.

When we are brave enough to explore what’s underneath the surface, we can shift off autopilot and step back into the driver’s seat of our lives.

When we have the supports and skills in place to navigate our inner world, we can cultivate greatness and experience fulfillment.

I want to help you get there.

“You speak in familiar terms that resonate and I can relate to. Your approach ‘feels like home’ - it is familiar and it is comfortable.”

- forever athlete, mother of two, guidance counselor, trauma survivor

To strengthen our emotional resilience

And I’ve got you.

For the past six years, I’ve been studying perfectionism, achievement, failure, shame, resilience and their connection to mental health and high-performance. All of it has led me here.

I’ve woven together my experience as an Olympic gold medalist, classroom teacher, high-performance consultant and instructor of both Mindful Sports Performance Enhancement and Mental Health First Aid - and as someone who’s learned how to positively cope with many shades of mental illness to create the transformative experience that is Ride the Wave (RTW).

Ride the Wave: A Virtual Workshop to Strengthen Emotional Resilience is an online course designed for leaders, parents, coaches, teachers and athletes.

Ride the Wave is a three week, six-module, virtual workshop infused with LIVE coaching AND lifetime access to video modules, customized deep dives, mindfulness challenges and a private community space to connect, share, lift and support other leaders.

In other words, I’ve pulled together evidence-based tools and supports to help us stop running + reacting + numbing + putting up all the defenses so we can

• expand our awareness

• gain clarity + confidence

• choose self-kindness over self-judgement

• choose connection over isolation

• choose courage over comfort

• expand + align toolbox

• positively cope with stress, uncertainty + other hard things

• And step into our power by leaning into the present moment - even in the midst of uncertainty.

  And, I’ll be there to coach you all along the way.

If we want those we lead to become more resilient, we must show them the way. It’s starts with us.

let’s do this.

“Seeing how many disparate emotional experiences can be tied together with agility and mindfulness training. Feeling like some of the fundamentals, such as self-compassion and aligned action can be learned. Recognizing that these are necessary parts of mental health that even children should be versed in.”

- mother of two, heart warrior

As humans we are going to face struggle.

We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to be thrown curveballs.

We will fall. And we will feel big emotions.

Our power is in our ability to navigate our internal world, our thoughts + emotions;

Our power is in our response.

Instead of reacting our way through life, we can shift to a place of conscious responding.

My name is Samantha Arsenault Livingstone.

I’m an Olympic gold medalist, high-performance consultant, speaker, mental health educator + advocate, mindfulness instructor, forever educator - and mother of four.

I know what it’s like to achieve. And. I know what it’s like to rail against the parts of me that felt broken.

Healing through the pain of mental illness has allowed me to come home to myself.

I feel WHOLE.

Moving through struggle, especially the struggle that is our own story, is HARD.

And, it's the very hard that sets us free.

“I learned that I was full of compassion and empathy for others and rarely share that with myself. I knew it already, but it was brought to the forefront more in doing the work in this course.”

-mother of two, educator, recovering perfectionist

learning how to navigate our internal world

Is a skill set that serves ALL of us, especially our most at-risk to mental illness.

Expanding our emotional literacy leads to greater emotional awareness, which allows for greater emotional regulation.

Strengthening Our Emotional Resilience

• increases access to flow state, aka the ability to get in the zone

• helps us unhook from intense emotion + rise faster after we fall

• strengthens our ability to give and receive feedback

• opens space for deeper connection to others

And yet, many of us have never been taught how to tune in to the emotions we feel, accurately name them and move toward tools that empower us to ride the wave of energy flowing through our bodies.

Simply put - in the words of my nine year-old daughter, we’ve never learned how to surf.

We pour time + energy + resources into training our physical bodies. Why not our minds?

It’s time. Let’s go.

“I learned that I get into zones where I’d rather not be when I’ve not been voicing what I need or when I’ve been pushing down my emotions about a particular thing, and then a smallish thing pushes me over the limit.”

-forever athlete, mother, lawyer, entrepreneur, advocate for children with disabilities

What if…

We gave ourselves permission to feel the physical sensations underneath the emotion?

Instead of categorizing our feelings as good or bad, we allowed ourselves to name them without judgement?

Instead of running, burying, deflecting, blaming, plowing, etc. we allowed ourselves to feel the wave move through us?

What if we gave ourselves permission to cultivate the skills + identify the tools + bring in the supports that allow us to ride the wave in a way that’s authentically aligned?

If we those we lead to become more mindful, resilient courageous humans, we have to give them permission to fall and feel so they can learn HOW to rise.

And, it starts with us.

It's time to harness the energy of your emotions to make them work for you. 

And I'll tell you a little secret - it’s not about trying harder. You’ve got that part down.

This is about embracing help. Quieting the noise inside your mind. Expanding your skill set. Gaining clarity on what it is you really want. Stepping into the discomfort necessary to make the shifts.

And cultivating the courage and resilience to go and DO it.

ARe you readY?

It's time. 

To choose curiosity over judgement.

To shift off autopilot.

To respond with intention and less reactivity.

To improve your ability to provide + receive feedback.

To cultivate compassion. For yourself + others.

To improve communication and open space for deeper connection.

To become more empathetic and less of a fixer.

To improve performance and feel fulfilled.

  I've got you.

{this isn't work we do alone}

“I am grateful that I somehow stumbled across your website and signed up for emails. Even more grateful that you offered [this] course and shared your experiences with us. I don’t think it was chance and me being a swim coach/former swimmer because it couldn’t have worked out better for me to grow as a coach, parent and husband.”

-forever athlete, father, coach

Ride the wave: A virtual workshop to

to strengthen emotional resilience

Included in this three week workshop:

Customized Content

- 7 teaching modules with my top tools, tips & strategies 

- 6 customized, printable Deep Dives for reflection & skill building

- 6 mindfulness exercises & mini-challenges

Connection

- access to online course directly through app

Words from those who’ve taken the course:

“I learned that I’m being way too hard on myself because I didn’t understand how to process and deal with the emotions I was feeling. The exercise/tool that helped me the most was the ZOR chart. Something clicked when I went through it and see myself on the continuum of colors so clearly that I had to laugh.”

- forever athlete, father, coach

“I learned that I’ve come so far since we’ve been working together.”

- Team USA Athlete, recovering perfectionist

“I know I like order and I thought that was one of my core values, but I think it’s more of a coping mechanism than a value because without order ‘my world may fall apart’ (like if I don’t make my bed) so I need to shed that as a value and treat it for what it is and lovingly accept that it’s a coping mechanism but it’s also keeping me from experiencing joy.”

- forever athlete, mother of two, guidance counselor, trauma survivor

“I learned so much! The embedded questionnaire on self-compassion helped me do a check in on myself. My inner critic underlines so much emotional turmoil leading to stuckness, not agility.”

- mother of two, heart warrior

As leaders / parents / teachers / coaches / mentors we are impacting our children in the most profound ways.

We're not going to nail it perfectly; there are going to be times when we show up out of alignment with our values. Because, we're human.

When we give ourselves permission to be human, we open up space for kindness + curiosity + conscious choice. And that changes how we show up. For ourselves + our children. 

It’s time.

It's time to open up our toolboxes and toss what's no longer working.

It's time to ask for help in the places + spaces we feel struggle and resistance. 

It's time to pull in some new tools and supports that feel aligned with our true-selves. Tools that work for us long term. 

And THIS process - of honest reflection and ownership and realignment requires a willingness to sit with the discomfort of vulnerability. We can do that.

And by doing that, we show those we lead that our power isn't in what happens to us, it's in our response. 

You ready? Let’s go.