Mental Health in sports and in athletes. It’s just as big as physical health.
Happy World Mental Health Day! The goal of this day is to raise awareness of mental health issues, to mobilize efforts in support of mental health, and to remind people of the priority mental health should take. The day-to-day aspects of our lives such as work, sports, school and relationships can drain our mental health, or rejuvenate it. By understanding what boosts and drains your mental health personally, you can recognize when you can dig in or when you need to take a moment for yourself to maintain healthy balance.
For athletes, mental health is just as big of a factor in performance as physical health. During the Summer Olympics, Simone Biles demonstrated exactly how important it is to recognize your limits mentally. When an athlete is facing bad mental health, it can affect their relationships, their personal confidence, their body, their love for the sport and so much more. With physical performance inextricably tied to mental state, sports can become a great platform for exercising of self-awareness and the building of positive mental practices.
At the youth development level, sport becomes many people’s first encounter with the practice of “leaving your problems at the door.” By this, we do not mean “totally ignore your issues by distracting yourself on the field.” When taught intentionally by trained coach mentors, the sports field becomes the place to assess your current mental state to come to a decision on what and how you can contribute outside of yourself today - that goes for coaching too! When we are able to hone this skill, sports can become a healthy way to take a break ourselves from the things that suck our emotional energy, and can provide us with space away from a problem that may help us find perspective and solution. While LtN uses lacrosse as our tool for healthy mental processing, we all have hobbies and passions that can provide this space for us.
When your mental health is low, it is important to take the time to nurture it and build it back up. Some ways to improve mental health are to seek help through a mentor or trained professional, do something fun, get physically active, think about the things you’re thankful for, or spend time helping others. Take the time to think about where your mental health is today, and the ways that you can improve it. Happy World Mental Health Day to all the beautiful minds!