Gender Inequality in Sports
When it comes to gender inequity in sports, one blog post cannot do the conversation justice. There are many conversations and threads that must be discussed. Moreover, conversations need to be turned into action. However, we must begin somewhere. This blog post hopes to serve as primer to introduce the topic in hopes of inspiring more conversations and action to bring about lasting change.
What Do Rugby and Artistic Swimming Have in Common? Part 2
Welcome to part 2 in this series about artistic swimming and rugby. Hopefully, last week encouraged everyone to learn more about both of these sports and any associated biases. Now it is time to look at these two sports through the lens of stigma. While these two sports may seem vastly different, how they are impacted by stigma brings them closer together as they are often misunderstood by the general public. These misconceptions include the nature of their athleticism, the intense physical impacts, and the gender-based stereotypes. Let’s begin our exploration on the impacts of stigma on these two sports.
What Do Rugby and Artistic Swimming Have in Common? Part 1
How often do we even think about comparing rugby and artistic swimming? Probably not too often, however, there is an important reason to explore these two sports and next week we will dive more deeply into this topic.
Building Creativity for Athletes
How often do people hear creativity, sports, and athletes in the same sentence? Chances are rare, if at all Yet, creativity can be one of the most essential topics in sports (Fardilha & Allen, 2020; Rasmussen et al., 2019). When we think about athletic creativity from a sport psychology perspective, many minds go to encouraging exploration, varied training, and open-ended problem solving, thus encouraging athletes to expand their flexibility and ability to identify novel solutions. The result is increased confidence and performance from the exposure to the above ideas, in addition to other topics such as the introduction of novel ideas, the use of visualization, and adapting creative mental exercises, like role-playing and including creative non-sport activities. Mouth full! Yep! So let’s break this down a little bit and make it fun.
Sport Psychology and Training Indoors
Chances are that many people dread the thought of training indoors because the experience is not the same. There are not the same cues that people experience when they are outdoors training such as the wind, sights, and a chance to practice cornering. That can make the experience not as enjoyable. We all lack the opportunity to practice certain skills, like cornering, but at the same time gain the opportunity to practice others, like cadence.
The Beauty of Winter
Winter mental health themes often focus around Seasonal Affective Disorder, winter blues, Depressive symptoms, isolation, anxiety, etc. All of these themes are important to discuss, as they are very real. And there is also room to spend some time inviting the beauty of nature and the winter season into the discussion remembering that winter is one of the seasons of the Earth and has its lessons for us.
Putting the Body Back into Sport and Performance Psychology
What is something that we all have in common? If you guessed the body, you would be correct! We all have a body that we live in on a daily basis. And the several past blog posts have highlighted a few themes: mental health, sport and performance psychology, and the mind-body connection. These themes absolutely stand on their own and are essential. What they can also do together is bridge the gap between athletes and performers, sport and performance psychology, and the body. That may sound funny to say because athletes and performers use their body constantly. And yet, when we look at sport and performance psychology we see a strong focus on the mind
Interoception
Interoception is the sense of your body's internal state, providing awareness of things like your heartbeat, bodily sensations, or thirst. Simply put, interoception is our ability to sense and be aware of what is happening within our own bodies. Why is it so important to us? Let’s dive in and find out why.
Embodiment
Is embodiment a noun or a verb? Embodiment may be considered a verb because it is a process that is both deliberate and engaging, rather than a static concept. Humans have a choice as to whether we fully engage in our experiences, partial engage, or complete check out.
Mind-Body Connection
The mind-body connection is the intricate, bi-directional relationship that exists between our thoughts, emotions, and physical health and the body. What is important to note here is that we are talking about a connection. The mind and the body are not two separate entities, rather they are interconnected and influence each other. There is growing research that is now demonstrating how both the mind and the body have the potential to impact cardiovascular health negatively and positively (Levine, 2019).
An Introduction to the Stigma Surrounding Sport and Performance Psychology and Athlete Mental Health
Mental health issues affect athletes at prevalence rates that are similar to the general population even with the belief that athletes are protected because of their highly active lifestyles (Petersen et al., 2023). And yet, stigma continues to be an issue for athletes when it comes to seeking support from a mental health professional or sport and performance consultant (SPC). Let’s begin our discussion because when we start to talk about mental health and sport psychology consulting we begin to break the stigma.
What is Sport Psychology? What Sport Psychology is Not?
In a previous blog post, we discussed mental health and mental health stigma. Now it seems appropriate that we bring up sport psychology to understand more about what sport psychology is and what it is not. And, yes there still is stigma and misunderstanding surrounding this branch of psychology.
Remember the Importance of the Nonverbal in Athletes: Language of Postures and Gestures
The body is the instrument of the athlete and as such there are many ways the body communicates. We often think of verbal communication first, but what the body conveys in terms of the nonverbal is also an essential element for athletes to consider. So let’s bring the nonverbal back into the conversation.
Mental Imagery or Sport Imagery Practices for Athletes to Enhance Performance
But what about a technique that does not require physical practice that helps improve motor learning? Enter mental imagery, sport imagery or visualization.
The Masks We Wear: Through the Lens of Persona, Masking, and Code-Switching
This is the time of year when people who celebrate Halloween begin to think about their costumes or maybe they already have their costume picked out by this point. Some of these costumes may include a mask to create the desired effect. Masks, however, serve other purposes besides dressing up for Halloween, and some of these purposes and variants will be discussed in this post.
Changing the Stigma Surrounding Mental Health
Mental health and stigma are words that are often used together, though there is hope for a future where that is not the case. The stigma surrounding mental health is insidious, embedded on many levels and can have harmful consequences. This post hopes to explore the topic of mental health stigma in hopes of inspiring everyone to do their part to help break this stigma, which can only be done if we all work together.
Why Mental Health?: Through the Lens of Emotional Regulation, Social Connection, and Systemic Environmental Systems
Yes, mental health. I said it, and it is a topic that must keep coming up because of how essential it is to our overall well-being and quality of life. Mental health, like physical health, exists on a continuum (Menefee et al., 2022). Think about this as shades of gray between white and black. Mental health is not all or nothing nor is it an isolated aspect of being human. Mental health is linked to our physical health, emotional well being, and social relationships.
The Power of Narrative and Reframing
We often craft narratives or stories in our head about events, experiences, people, places, etc., which, given what the brain is programmed to do, makes sense. In the process, we may adjust, add, or omit facts or aspects to make the story fit. When we craft narratives or stories our brain accesses the parts that are involved in emotional, processing, memory, and social cognition (Martinez-Conde et al., 2019). While there is plenty of neuroscience research that talks about the specifics, we will not dive into that here and now. If you would like to, the research is interesting and Google Scholar is a great tool for investigating this topic. Our focus takes us down a different path.
The Shades of Advocacy in Mental Health
Advocacy is a choice. We do not have to be advocates. We need to decide for ourselves whether that is something that we want in our lives.
Welcome Autumn!
The green of summer fades into fiery reds, dazzling yellows, and soft oranges. The flowers of summer bear fruit and we begin to enjoy winter squash, apples, cranberries, and sweet potatoes. Along with the unique astronomical phenomena and the beautiful change in color palette, this time of year often elicits different themes that invite reflection.