Mental Health, For Athletes, Is As Crucial As Physical Health
Physical strength and fitness cannot alone win matches. Mental health is as important as physical health. This has been exemplified in the recent incident where US gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the Tokyo Olympics floor final on Sunday, 27th July. A 4 times gold medallist, a master gymnast that she is, she could not pull through the US team finals. After her feeling unwell mentally and undergoing a medical examination, she confirmed the withdrawal. Her social media posts reveal that she has been struggling with mental health issues for quite some time.
The seasoned gymnast left people quite shocked as it seems from her gold medals that she has mastered her mind. But Simone Biles documented her journey of struggle at the games stating the mental health issues and her internal vexation. So the purpose of her withdrawal was evidently to protect her mind, her internal energy. She chose to give her mental health is due. She took a stand for her mental health and she did the right thing; a courageous act.
How do we see it? A sad incident, a right incident, a wrong incident, a weak gesture, or a strong one, or a loss for the US?
Well, these could be some general takes on the situation. Let’s see this from a not –that-general perspective. With insight and with awareness.
Are we not seeing numerous cases of kids facing anxiety, of people unable to wade through situations? Indeed, many. So many counsellors and therapists today are functioning too, to help the kids. It is a thing now in all areas of life. There is a heaviness attached to most of the fun activities, even games and sports for that matter. This is a hint that there is a great need for positive education in kids’ lives today. Such education teaches kids to remain balanced, courageous, resilient at all times and most importantly aids them with practical techniques to remain unwearied in the game of life. Their character strengths are honed and with these strengths, they recognise lifelong resilience. Hence the importance of positive education.
Resilience, positive attitude, and character strengths hold a strategic place in modern, competitive lives, in all areas and fields. Nonetheless, it is as much a requirement in the sports field. Though it may seem so from their tough demeanours and forms, it is not that athletes are strong and robust so mental challenges don’t affect them. Athletes need too, to be cheerful. You cannot play a game till you are happy. Haven’t you experienced that ever? I am sure you have. For playing games and for sports activities, you must be cheerful and in high spirits and energy. Positive education training helps kids to learn to maintain their energy in difficult times as well.
Emotion is energy in motion. If one understands their emotions well, they can manage them, they can respond to emotional signals to take the right actions at the right time. But accepting and resolving their emotions lets them prevent low energy and sudden breakdowns. An important element in the case of sportspersons is energy. By handling emotions well, it is possible to avoid breakdowns and to maintain energy and this would help avoid such situations for athletes. So, if your children aspire to be athletes, you must remember the importance of training them mentally through positive education as much as training them physically.
Such withdrawal of such an experienced and able athlete is a hint that mental health and resilience skills are needed by all from less strong, to stronger to strongest. Character strengths are like muscles. Strengths like courage, zest, perseverance are crucial for athletes and although they already work on it in their training processes, the trick is lifelong training; training of the child’s mind. If such education is imparted to children from the young, impressionable ages, it would become a way of life, and exercised muscle for them. Meaning, it would be lifelong training that would strengthen these muscles and thus their mind would have an undercurrent of these strengths always, continuously. These will be embedded in their characters. So, do not get late. Wake up to the importance of positive education for your kids; athletes, doctors, engineers, businessmen, whatever they would become, this training will go along with them forever.
An important point that the athlete’s case throws light on is the lack of awareness on talking about sexual abuse that stigmatises young girls for lives to extent of extreme depression. The gymnastic superstar did not open up at her young age for a long time about the sexual abuse that she experienced at the hands of a former USA Gymnastics team doctor, Dr Larry Nassar. Such repression of feelings and pain can make a girl’s life paralysed. In spite of all the external confidence that she was exuding, inside, the spirit of Simone Biles was being crumbled till lately she broke down and took a stand. Positive education comes to the rescue today, striving to break this trend of suppression. It firstly, informs children about good touch, bad touch, and teaches them the ways to identify and express such incidents. Secondly, this education educates them so that they stop blaming and castigating themselves, and realise that it is not their fault. This way, needless to say, the element of guilt is removed, the self-esteem of little kids is protected, at the same time, exposing such criminals and thus reducing such cases. Thus this reduces the trauma of sexual abuse and even enhances the self-worth of kids.
The athletes like Simone Biles, when they face a crisis of the mind at the big moment when such recognition and success awaits them, would most probably need some support and assistance from their near and dear ones or from professionals, in order to bounce back. Thus, bouncing back/resilience should be integrated into the personalities of our growing kids so that they can source out this help and assistance from themselves, from within.