Parvati Magazine May 2014 - Feeling Alive | Page 29

COMMUNITY
If you happen to be in
a state of depression or
despair as you read this
month’s magazine, you
may have difficulty engaging with articles that
encourage you to feel
alive and energized. It
may seem like too much
to ask for someone feeling
so heavy and down on
themselves to make any
changes. Worse, you may
feel as though you need
to keep up a brave front
and not let anyone know
you are suffering. While
everyone
experiences
some degree of depression or despair at some
point in their life, mental
illness is unfortunately stigmatized at times in our society. This can make it all
the more difficult to reach
out and ask for help.
To look at Olympic cyclist
and speedskater Clara
Hughes, you wouldn’t
guess she had dealt with
depression. Her bright
smile and vivacious personality seem to show
someone who engages with life with joy. But
she faced depression in
the two years following

the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (where she won two
bronze medals in cycling)
and went from severe
overtraining to barely
getting out of bed, let
alone on her bike. It was
when her doctor and her
boyfriend told her things
would be ok if she could
talk about her problems
that she began to regain
her sense of joy in life. She
went back to her first love,
speedskating, and won
a bronze in the Salt Lake
City Winter Olympics in
2002 in that discipline.
Former Olympic cyclist
Curtis Harnett has remarked, “She has this odd
expression on her face
where she looks like she’s
having the time of her life
when she’s on the edge of
her seat, when she’s absolutely pushing the limit.
I was a teammate of hers
when she was young and,
watching her skate in Torino [2006 Winter Olympics,
where she won the gold
medal in women’s 5,000m
speedskating], I had tears
in my eyes, witnessing the
drive I know and seeing
that look I know so well.

By Parvati Magazine staff

When she has that look
on her face, you know
she’s exceeding even her
own expectations.”
Now that Clara has retired from elite sport, she
has made it her mission to
help others to talk about
the challenges they may
be experiencing so that
they don’t have to stay
in the heaviness of depression and despair. She
has parlayed the fame
she earned as a multiple medalist to become
the major face of the Bell
Let’s Talk campaign, and
is currently riding her bike
across Canada, with stops
at schools and other organizations every day to
give talks, to raise awareness of the need to talk
about mental illness without stigma. May the fierce
vitality she is pouring into
the tour help many people to lift the shroud of
isolation and get the help
they need to reconnect
with life.