Olympic Lessons About Mental Health
Given the year we have had, it is no surprise that the pressure and intensity of the 2020 Olympics caught up to many participants who have been thrust back into competing. Athletes have opened up about their emotional and mental states, most notably American gymnast Simone Biles. Withdrawing from the all-around competition and prioritizing her mental health was a difficult decision but showed that she knows what is best for her own wellbeing.
While you likely aren’t planning to be an Olympian, you too can experience intensely stressful situations. Anxiety can be especially difficult to manage as it often appears when you may be pushing yourself out of your comfort zone or dealing with uncertainty. While fear and worry are normal reactions in certain situations, excessive worry that is out of proportion to any real danger is often the result of an anxiety disorder. It can make focusing, falling asleep at night and enjoying yourself difficult. Anxiety can also be felt in physical symptoms such as an increase in heart rate, cold or sweaty hands, nausea, numbness, or shortness of breath.
Once you recognize that you are dealing with anxiety, there are effective strategies to help manage it including:
Practice Exposure. If certain ideas or scenarios bring you anxiety, it is natural to want to avoid them. However, this can actually make fears even stronger. By leaning into these experiences, you can show yourself that the situation was much more manageable than your thoughts led you to believe. Working with a mental health professional can be particularly helpful with reducing fears and decreasing avoidance.
Label Your Thoughts. This mindfulness-based technique pushes you to think through the nature of your thoughts and then urges you to move on from them. Remind yourself that many thoughts are simply not true or are nothing more than a worry. When you find yourself feeling anxious, mentally note the concern and then intentionally refocus on the present.
Seek Mindfulness. Strategies like the one above have been proven to reduce anxiety over time. Mindfulness teaches you to respond to what you are feeling as well as help you feel more relaxed and present in general. Visit the Mindfulness Toolkit to learn more.
Understanding what you are feeling and learning to manage these feelings is ending the cycle. Just like Simone Biles came back to win bronze on the vault, you too have the strength to overcome anxiety, without ever needing to land a triple-double.
