Alan and MK talk self-compassion and listening
Alan and MK talk self-compassion and listening
Using last week’s interview with Olympian Emmet Brennan as a jumping off point, Alan and Mary Kate chat through their reflections from the week.
In this week’s episode of the Real Talks podcast, Alan O’Mara and producer Mary Kate Boylan sat down for a coffee at NYC’s Stella & Fly, and talked about their journeys with self-compassion.
Mary Kate and Alan reflected on last week’s episode with Olympian Emmet Brennan and so much more.
Last week, Emmet shared his struggles with alcohol, after hitting a rock bottom post-Olympics, from his vantage point now with two years of sobriety.
Alan teamed up with the HSE back in 2019 to create this cartoon based on a time in his life when his depression and alcohol were a harmful combination.
Talking to Emmet Brennan reminded Mary Kate of Alexi Pappas - an Olympic runner who wrote a book about her life, including her experience with depression after the Olympics.
In the video above, Alexi details her story, and also makes the case for more mental health supports for athletes. She points out that though it may seem counterintuitive, her lowest moments were after the Olympics.
MK read and highly recommends Alexi’s book, “Bravey.”
MK had originally found Alexi because of her movie “Olympic Dreams” with Nick Kroll. The romcom was filmed in the Olympic Village during the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. It’s a fun watch and cool to see something filmed in such a unique setting.
Alan walked us through the idea of ‘pillars’ in the episode - comparing the pillars that hold up Roman architecture to the pillars that hold up our own lives - the things that are most important to us, that we want to nurture.
Think family, friends, work, passion projects, alone time. To help Alan be mindful of his pillars in his day-to-day life, he tracks his habits, inspired by posts like these from MK and Alan’s friend Alana.
Alana has a podcast as well, called Tea Time Crimes, along with her co-host Meagan.
Alana sips on some tea while Meagan walks her through that week’s true crime story, which always focuses on the women involved.
Mary Kate has been lucky enough to be a guest on a couple holiday episodes!
MK talked a lot this week about how journaling changed her life, inspired by her journey with “The Artist’s Way.”
Author Amie McNee is one of MK’s favs and a real inspiration who also talks about how journaling changed everything for her.
Amie’s journaling videos were so helpful when MK was first getting started. It’s so fun to see the community that’s formed around the ideas in The Artist’s Way.
This video always makes MK laugh.
Real Recommendations:
From now on, we’ll be sharing what we’re reading, watching and listening to each week.
What we’re listening to:
Alan: Limerick band Kingfishr have a new EP that we’re loving.
Mary Kate: Chappell Roan is on repeat and is making walks/commutes/doing the dishes more fun.
What we’re watching:
Alan and Mary Kate: The Traitors. We’re simply obsessed. The recent UK season was so good and we’ll talk about it with any traitors or faithfuls who will listen (iykyk.)
What we’re reading:
Alan: “There Will Be Fire” by Rory Carroll
Mary Kate: David Farrier’s Webworm newsletter
What we’re scrolling:
Alan and Mary Kate: We revisit this Reel whenever we need a laugh.
For all the other Harry Potter nerds out there.
Other things mentioned in the episode:
Alan mentioned the Philly McMahon episode he recorded back in 2018. It’s been so cool to see people revisiting some of those old episodes.
We talked again about the “The Man in the Glass” poem, an adaptation of “The Guy in the Glass” from the 1930s
Mary Kate has talked about “The Artist’s Way” a few times, this article about the book vs. other self-help books is a good read.
That’s us for this week! Thanks for listening, thanks for reading, subscribe and share if you’re liking it!
-MK and Alan