Aaron Rodgers inarguably comes across as extremely confident and self-assured. But it wasn’t always like that. Despite being an accomplished athlete, the Super Bowl champion questioned himself and it was ultimately a long journey towards self-love and acceptance, something he says he is still working on today.
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In his latest appearance on the “icanflypod”, the Jets QB was brave enough to divulge self-love issues he had early in his career, even when he was seemingly on top of the world.
Rodgers put himself on the NFL map when he led the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl in 2011. The QB’s stellar performance throughout the season also helped him get multiple brand endorsements propelling him to a celebrity in quick time. The rise was meteoric and this overwhelmed A-Rod. He was finding it difficult to stay grounded, but what surprised him the most was the emptiness he had after all this.
“We won the Super Bowl in 2011 February and my life changed for sure. I was, you know, a good football player up until that point and then I became Super Bowl champion. Top 11 State Farm commercials came out and now I was like a famous football player and life was a lot different and that was very tough to navigate, and to stay grounded and stay humble… but it was the beginning of a lot of contemplation around unconditional self-love. It took a long time and a lot of years [to figure out].”
“I just said, ‘Now what?’ and then now what was a fascinating question to contemplate because there was like immediately a little bit of insecurity and doubt about ‘Who Am I?’ you know. Like now I’ve accomplished this thing that I always wanted to accomplish and I’m not as happy as I thought I was going to be, so what is missing? I couldn’t put the words to it nor was I aware enough to know that it was self-love. It was the redefinition of success.”
Rodgers immediately realized that “success is not binary, it is not a win and loss matrix”. Thus he started working on himself and sorting out his self-love issues. However, in true Rodgers fashion, the QB chose an alternate mind-bending approach to deal with the issue.
When Aaron Rodgers Isolated Himself For Four Days
True success is not a destination, it’s a journey of constant self-discovery and growth. Aaron Rodgers in his pursuit to discover himself better and find answers to his future steps in 2023 took a shocking route. The QB spent four days at the Sky Cave Retreats in Southern Oregon which offers darkness retreats. As the name suggests, a darkness retreat is a pitch-black room with no lights, TVs, phones, or distractions. It leaves an individual all by themselves to give them ample time to meditate and think clearly.
“It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts,” Rodgers said. “We rarely even turn our phone off or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness.”
As per the owner of the Sky Cave Retreats, Scott Berman, the main reason why people use the dark retreat room is to know themselves, meditate, or simply relax from the digital heavy world. Scott further revealed that being in the darkness renders money, fame, and other tangible metrics worthless. What remains with the individual in the darkness is just the present moment and this helps the individual assess what’s really going on inside them.
