Staying active, becoming healthy

By Mervin C. Castillo

Teacher I – Juan F. Triviño Memorial High School

In these times, when the world gives great attention to health, especially on the off-set of the Covid-19 pandemic one becomes so complex about his health concerns. Good health does not only pertain to what our body feels and reacts to unfamiliar agents entering it. It is said that mental health is as important as our physical health in all various matters. A well-rounded healthy person has a strong body, happy heart, and peaceful mind. Being holistically healthy is taking care of ourselves as a whole person where we provide our physical, mental, spiritual, and social needs. It is entrenched in the understanding that all these aspects affect our overall health, and being unwell in one of the aspects may greatly affect our total well-being. So how can we mend ways to become holistically healthy?

At a young age, it is vital to establish the awareness and importance of health as the progress of various health concerns is already rampant among school-aged children. According to Chatterjee (2022), everyone agrees that physical activity and fitness are critical for developing children. Young students can benefit greatly from taking a study break to go out and play a sport and burn off some of their excess energy. Regularly taking part in sports in school and other physical activities has been shown to help children in many ways, including physically, mentally, and socially. All these things add to a more complete and satisfying childhood and adulthood. Parents who are on edge about allowing their children to enter the sports club out of concern that their time and energy will be better spent on other activities would be gravely mistaken.

In a study conducted by Walsh et al (2022), sports participation is an important lifestyle medicine tool. It offers advantages that can package and support much health aims concurrently, promotes intrinsic motivators that facilitate adherence, and can be an inclusive activity for all ages and demographics to participate. Research on sports participation shows evidence of sports’ capability of addressing at least three out of the six lifestyle medicine pillars in one prescription: physical activity, managing stress, and promoting positive social connections. Sport also provides value in the opportunity for interdisciplinary work and the potential to address the many sociocultural health disparities that have been exacerbated in recent years by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the possibility of bundling lifestyle medicine goals into one activity, sport, holds great promise for improving the efficiency of delivery and the efficacy of impacting health outcomes.

Balboa (2023) added that sports play a critical role in the holistic development of children. It became part of their lives to achieve physical fitness and promote quality living. Sports engagement in children helps build their self-esteem, and camaraderie, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve performance.

One of the benefits of sports to children emphasizes helping to control emotions. We all know that by doing sports activities, various emotions can come up; the urge to win the game, determination not to fail, elation when winning against the opponent, and loneliness when losing the game, being mad is also part of raging emotional dilemma. Through sports, one can validate emotions and likewise develop skills in dealing with those emotions that can be valuable in the long run.

In addition, doing sports activities can enable someone to be more confident and disciplined with oneself. Self-control is crucial in the development of a child. Through sports one can be able to give importance to rules and processes as well as be prompt in decision-making. Discipline is a characteristic of all successful people since it helps them maximize their potential and accomplish long-term goals.

Playing sports can also instill in young individuals the value of admitting defeat. Being accountable for every action and responsible for its consequences. This value is synonymous with owning one’s mistake due to the course of action he takes without blaming other people. Despite the setbacks and failures, one can learn how to thrive again without being discouraged and maintain positivity at all times.

Aside from this, doing sports activities can enhance our physiology by decreasing the risk of becoming overweight. It improves lung capacity, decreases blood sugar levels, controls hypertension, increases vitality, increases balance and coordination, benefits in warding against cancer, increases the quality of sleep, facilitates relaxation of overworked muscles, and induces a state of contentment.

In addition, when playing as part of a team, communication is a crucial skill no matter what sports one is playing. It also gives importance to enhancing social skills such as learning when to be quiet and listen, and when to speak up and challenge an opinion. However, since much of human communication also includes nonverbals such as body language, eye contact, and facial expressions also forms a significant part of participating in all team sports.

The sporting victories and losses one experiences, the friendships that are developed, and the lessons learned on the sporting field stay forever. Having the chance to be part of a sporting team and enjoying all the physical, mental, emotional, and social benefits that come with it is a gift that every individual deserves to experience.

Most importantly, playing sports can make anyone happy and this is important to everyone. It teaches us to enjoy the game, to be excited, to be more enthralled, and genuinely allow ourselves to loosen up for a while. It also challenges us to think more and make the right decisions.

Staying active can also increase performance, enhance academic skills, and become more focused. These are only parts of several benefits when we choose to be more active in doing sports activities and focus our hearts on it. It is never too late to start to become healthier, it is a way of doing ourselves a favor to prolong our life while enjoying our day-to-day living. Sometimes, you will feel discouraged because it might seem to be too hard when you are just starting however, it always starts a single step to achieving something great, and no one can do that to us but ourselves.