Lindsey Vonn Sends Strong Message About Importance of Finding Inner Peace

The former pro athlete shared a few words of encouragement regarding strength.

Lindsey Vonn / Gilbert Flores/Getty Images

On Oct. 10, we celebrated World Mental Health Day, an international day dedicated to mental health awareness and education. In recent years, the topic has gained traction as leaders of all kinds have taken a more open approach to discussing and responding to mental health crises. At the forefront of the movement toward more open dialogue are athletes like Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka and Lindsey Vonn, among others.

For years, that trio in particular have been driving conversations in their respective sports and beyond. In fact, just recently, a study found that Biles’s open approach to mental health discourse has encouraged women at large (not simply athletes) to prioritize their own emotional wellness. Likewise, these are the sort of positive outcomes that Vonn has been working toward for years.

When she first began sharing her own mental health journey with the world, there remained a stigma around the conversation. People didn’t necessarily view her honesty in a positive light, she shared in an interview on World Mental Health Day. But thankfully, in recent years, things have started to shift in the sporting world and beyond (hence Biles’s positive impact).

Though Vonn has always been willing to share honest reflections from her journey, the change in the discourse over the past couple years certainly makes sharing just that much easier. And the former pro skier is definitely taking advantage of the shift, too. On World Mental Health Day, in addition to opening up about her own journey, she sat down with Laureus to call for greater mental health resources in the sporting world and beyond. Likewise, she penned a strong message about the importance of finding inner peace—and revealed just how she does so in her day-to-day life.

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“What makes me happy?… skiing!” she wrote alongside a video of herself on the ski slopes. “Thankful to be back on the mountain again where I feel the most inner peace and joy. I am not defined by skiing, I am simply a woman that loves to ski. I know the difference now. I don’t need skiing to make me happy but my love for it will never go away.”

She closed out her message with a word of encouragement: “I hope today and every day you find your inner peace (even if only for a few minutes), and I hope it gives you strength,” she said.

Vonn’s point was clear—you shouldn’t be defined by your passions (and your successes or failures, either). But you should cultivate and lean into them for the sake of promoting happiness and “inner peace.”