hello hello hello welcome back to yna mental health my name is cena and i'm here with ashton and he has the spotlight so ashton tell us a little bit about yourself and what you got to promote so again my name is ashton i am 26 years old and i've been bodybuilding for about nine years now and then i ended up you know how i got into bodybuilding was my junior year of high school our summer camp for our football team i ended up carrying my acl mcl meniscus so then i had to go through the off
season and all i could do was work out and since then it's been a snowball effect and nine years later here i am today my instagram is at ashton bracey super simple if you want to reach me i'm also a trainer let's go ahead and slide into the dms [Music] so ashton the first question that we got to ask you is what does mental health mean to you and how do you take care of yours so mental health to me is essentially an individual's emotional maturity and an individual's ability to
direct their emotions whatever it may whatever they may be feeling whether it's good or bad into the direction that it needs to go and obviously for most people that's going to be into peace and then clarity right this plays a really important part to really understanding how you can mature is there anything that you did when you were challenged in emotional maturity that helped you get over the hump so like that could help you take care of your mental health so
that's an easy one for me um and it really started about six years ago was my relationship with jesus christ first and foremost okay for me that was my biggest thing yeah um but again hopping into the gym was definitely a game changer for me it gave me somewhere to direct my energy something else to think about and focus on right yeah but then obviously like a lot of self-reflecting and then you know you go through like the youtube videos how to like gain or talk like
motivational [ __ ] you know all kinds of stuff how to gain more confidence and this and that i'm 26 now yeah so about six years ago is when i really started to progress and change the way i was thinking the way i was acting my confidence you know build myself up on an emotional level but during your journey with bodybuilding what have been some positive and negative things that mental health-wise have you know come to affect you or change you personally obviously everybody goes through their
ups and downs especially when it comes to the gym now again like i was touching based on earlier it comes down to an individual's mental maturity right an emotional maturity um and it also comes down to an individual's like self-confidence right now for me that's something i've had to evolve into it wasn't always there from the very beginning but the gym has definitely helped me out now i was never one of those people who would look at somebody and like who has
a great physique right and then look down to myself because i wasn't there yet but i would always use them as motivation right they were a huge major point of motivation for me now body dysmorphia like as a bodybuilder i've been doing it for nine years now right i definitely have my moments often where i'm like okay i'm not big enough i'm not lean enough i'm not this enough or this body part is like lacking you know so on and so forth but again it's never to a point where now i'm like
being impacted negatively from it if anything it pushes me it's one of my i guess you could say it's one of those thorns in your flesh because that's what's gonna that's what for me at least me personally keeps me going keeps me working out keeps me training hard right i guess if i were to or most people if you had a point where you're like well i made it i did it then you probably will get complacent and stuff so again for me more it's their major things that
keep me going right keeping me pushing forward it's never been um a negative for me right now granted when you look a certain type of way there's a point where like you think okay i don't look big enough or this or that where it's kind of like okay dude you know um but i guess as long as it's not impacting you negatively then yeah i definitely agree you know are you closer or further from a positive body image than before you started i am definitely closer to a
positive body image than when i first started for me i was really able to focus on the hunger and the growth aspect right i really just wanted to get better and better the comparison thing wasn't really there for me in a negative way so i was able to like realize and understand that i needed to be patient right yeah um and with that patience comes that mental fortitude of knowing that i have to do the same work day in and day out right yes talking and clock out i might not see
the results right away but i do understand that eventually i will get to where i want to go i gain that patience through my spirituality my spirituality plays a major role in keeping me at a point where i can keep going but then also that hunger right if you're hungry enough or something you're gonna keep going after and keep going after and keep going after it and uh i wanted the results bad you know i knew where i was i knew where i was headed i had a focal point on where i wanted to go um
so that hunger that just made me keep going and going and going so you're a coach yourself now um you know you also compete on stage and that really shows like how far you've had to come you know you've said you've been working out nine ten years and that's you know a long time to have to get to to get to a point to where you want to be and so for all the new people out there how do you coach people not just in the gym or what to eat but also just as much as importance as those
things their mental health especially in the gym because mentally that you know that sets you up for failure if you're not if you're not there mentally that question can go in a lot of different ways and again it's going to vary from person to person right everybody's going to go through their own process and their own journey which is going to bring different obstacles and ways that people are going to have to deal with certain things and help them that's going to have to help them grow
mentally right the main thing i would say to try to focus on is just not to compare yourself um and then understand that even the person that you look up to the most when it comes to this fitness thing understand that they didn't just jump into the gym and then the next day they looked sick right they looked amazing it's a process you have to get to a point of understanding and realizing that it is a process and it's going to take some time but if it was easy everybody would be doing it right
but the consistency that's going to come along with transforming your body it's also going to start transforming your mind you're going to grow in a lot of different ways what i would say to kind of help essentially speed up your journey i know that wasn't really part of the question but it will but if your journey if you're seeing results quicker essentially you're going to be thinking a little bit better about the process right follow people that you look up to
and stay consistent on their videos do their workouts you know it's going to help you grow you'll learn much much quicker much faster and you're not just going to be wandering around doing a bunch of random [ __ ] that's getting you nowhere because at the end of the day when people do that that's when people don't see the results they want to see and that's definitely going to take a toll on the mental health right um so yeah just understand and realize that
it's a process you can't get caught in that comparison trap because that's exactly what it is it's a trap and it'll have you feeling like [ __ ] about yourself in a way where you say let's say you just started at the gym you know you work out a week you don't see much you work out three months you start seeing a little something you know you consistently you work out for a year that's when you really start to see something in a mindset sort of way where you're building that determination that
you know patience that consistency what comes quicker you know is the development of the physical body itself come quicker to where you can see results or does that mentality come quicker or the patience to build that mentality you know like which one takes longer yeah so that's actually a great question um the first thing that's going to come is going to be the physical results right you're going to see your strength gains first right but that aside it's definitely going to be the physical
attributes that are changing that are going to come much quicker than the mental um again it's going to be one of those things that's a process that everybody goes through at their own pace with through their own lives you know and all of that um but yeah it's definitely going to be the physical that you're going to see changing first understand that and as you continue to progress um you will you know yeah and go through life yeah but that mentality will come but take that with a grain of
salt it's all about how you are taking things in and processing certain things right you can be that person who stays stuck right um or you can be that person who who chooses evolving and growing is a choice otherwise you stay stuck right um so yeah the physical comes then the mental comes naturally you're going to get a little bit of the mental the confidence that comes like wow my body's changing i'm getting stronger this and that right but on a much much deeper level it's going to be you
noticing what what it is that makes you potentially feel a type of way whether it's positive or negative right and then understanding how it makes you feel and then going even deeper than that and understanding where does that emotion come from so ashton i know during this whole interview you've talked a lot about your spirituality and it means a lot to you which is really powerful so i gotta ask you where did it all start so when i was 20 years old i'm 26 now
i went through this rough patch and then that's where i can say that god really made himself known in my life since then i can honestly say that me as a individual my mental emotional state has completely made a major shift there's a lot of work to be done now i can definitely say just the consistency of staying in his presence if you will and him giving me direction whether it be through sermons and things of that nature and then sticking with what i knew to be
the right direction based off of what i felt that he was giving me could you describe this emotion inside of you was it more of like a explosion was it more of like a light was it more of like a path was it like a showing of direction well first and foremost it was almost like a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders right and then i also felt like i wasn't alone anymore so that of course um helps you're not alone right you're not alone you're never alone you're never alone and for me that was a
major major driving factor behind even choosing to make changes and go in the direction i guess you could say i felt that i was being led right and clearly i was being led the right direction because who i am mentally and emotionally is light years away and like there's a major major major difference black and white difference from who i was then again i'm 26 now um and that all happened at age of 20.
all right ashton we're at the end of your spotlight and we just got to ask you one last question would you like to give any advice or anything you would like to promote so i would like to end this off here saying one don't get caught up in that comparison battle it's a trap two if you're new to the gym go ahead and track all of your workouts and keep everything the same the first two to three months that way you can build a solid foundation and then three follow people
that you look up to that have solid physiques that actually look like they know what they're talking about and then copy their workouts and just keep everything nice and simple for you right off the bat and then i would say check out my instagram i got a fitness page rolling definitely more content to come it's at ashtonbracey which is just my name and that's pretty much all i got for you ashley thank you so much for coming on to y a mental health we really appreciate the advice you give and we
just want to remind everybody out there please please please remember you are not alone we'll catch you on the next episode [Music] you