009: Khan Porter on Mental Health, Self-Worth & Uncomfortable Conversations

Today on the Limitless Athlete Podcast, you’ll be listening to a conversation between multiple time CrossFit Games athlete, Khan Porter and myself.

Khan has always been on my radar since I found CrossFit. Of course, he was a great athlete, but I sensed there was a depth to him you don’t often find. And sure enough,  it’s his conversations around mental health which made him a must feature guest on this podcast.

His piece on Morning Chalk Up ‘An Uncomfortable Conversation’ details his experience with a variety of mental health challenges and an eating disorder. It is, as the name implies, an Uncomfortable read. But it’s possibly one of the most important articles on CrossFit and mental health I’ve read.

We all have mental health. It’s not a binary thing. Just as our physical health exists on a continuum from sickness to wellness to fitness, so does our mental health. So whilst those who resonate with the idea that they have mental health problems, those who don’t will also benefit from listening to this.

We are always conditioning our mentality, whether we’re doing it consciously or not.

Khan speaks candidly throughout this conversation and we discuss many things including:

• The value of writing down your thoughts as a kind of mental purge

• How basing self-worth on performance, or anything else external, can be devastating to our mental health

• How we cannot dismiss our subjective experience

• Exploring the darkness of our shadow self
• And even Khan’s use of psychedelics and the influence they’ve had on his mental health

Unfortunately, we didn’t get around to discussing two topics of much interest to me: craft beer and Khan’s skin care routine. Apparently, there were more pressing topics.