Mental Health Benefits of Being a Sports Fan and Playing Sports

Are you a sports fan? Do you feel connected to the players when watching sports on television or live? Do you feel happier after watching a game? How do you feel while getting ready to pick up a ball and grab a few friends and head to play some ball? How do you feel after throwing a ball around or hitting some balls? With the NBA Finals just ending, FIFA in progress, baseball in progress, football about to start, and other sports in progress, sports does help boost our energy and overall mental health. The weather is also very helpful in encouraging us to get out and get some fresh air.

Sports help individuals with emotional stability and also with mental stability. With sports surrounding us, we often feel a sort of connection with the players that are professional players as if we are playing the sport too. The ability to connect with athletes boosts our energy and has more to do with the neurons in our brain. Studies have connected watching sports allows individuals to be less lonely, have higher self-esteem compared to those who do not watch sports. When discussing sports, it allows us to feel more confident in ourselves because we know what we are talking about it and it allows us to feel good about ourselves. Being a sports fan, allows us to feel a sense of identity and belonging to a bigger community that we might not know about. There, of course, is more about how the brain handles stress, happiness, and losing, but overall, sports fans have an overall great energy! While watching a game, we are expressing our emotions and able to scream at good plays or even bad plays. While screaming at the tv or live and growing self-esteem, we are also bonding with family and friends. Sports is known to bring people together, and being with others helps us feel happier and joyful. Athletes are also humans, which means they also have their own story, which means that we can learn from them and identify with their struggles in life and happiness.

Not only does watching sports boost mental health, participating in sports also positively helps our mood. Playing sports improved your mood by the physical activity that you are engaging it, while also allowing you to challenge yourself and connect with others around you. It also improves your concentration. In most sports, you need to be engaged, which allows you to keep your mental skills intact and helps us with thinking, learning, and helps us use good judgment. Stress and depression is also linked to sports which allows us to distract our mind from daily stressors and does not allow us to think about the negatives in our lives. Sleep is necessary and while playing sports it benefits us from falling asleep quicker and staying asleep. Since it boosts our mood too, it allows us to wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the next day. Exercise helps us stay in shape or lose weight and that can be a confidence booster too. Being able to maintain weight changes is beneficial to the mind. Not only playing actual sports can make your mind sharper, even just regular exercising-including walking is good for your mental health. Being any sort of activity is helpful and can lead to a healthy brain.

For more questions about how watching or playing sports can affect the mind, feel free to reach out to any of our qualified psychotherapists.