7 tips for coaches to manage wellbeing and mental health

01 - GIVING BACK

As volunteers, coaches already give up their time to support the development of others. This is proven to be a great to way to protect your own mental health because of the release of endorphins you get when you help others achieve their goals. Contributing to your community is one of the best ways to ensure you engage in point two...

02 - CONNECTING WITH OTHERS

People who invest time building strong and supportive relationships with friends report that they are much happier because these connections enrich their lives. Demonstrating the importance of connection to your players also helps them to learn this is an important part of leading rich and healthier lives.

03 - KEEP LEARNING AND DEVELOPING

Reading articles like this, and the others in this magazine, can actually contribute to the maintenance of your mental health and wellbeing. The desire to be curious and learn breeds confidence and empowers you to try new things, which can help to create positive thoughts about your future.

04 - DIRECTION

Establishing small achievable goals related to your coaching knowledge and experience can also play a key role in helping you to maintain a healthier mind. People who are hopeful about their future ambitions, and then go out and achieve these, feel more content with their lives. These small projects can help you to maintain a positive focus, and get the most from your sporting and personal life.

05 - RESILIENCE

This connects nicely to number four because if you don’t go out and try things you will never receive any of life’s knockbacks. These temporary failures are our fuel to dust ourselves off and try again. If we don’t manage these moments positively and view them as ’bumps in the road’, then we can struggle to develop the resilience to keep pushing forward. If at first we don’t succeed, we must try again to strengthen our resilience and this should be seen by our players to show them that we can overcome our developmental ‘hurdles’.

06 - ACCEPTANCE

Accepting who you are and understanding both your strengths and the areas you would like to develop helps you to understand what a great person you are. By volunteering and contributing to the development of others you are doing something wonderful and you should celebrate this. Once we understand ourselves better and shift our attention to what we have instead of focusing on what others have we can be more grateful every day.

07 - AWARENESS

Finally, it is important that we heighten our senses to increase awareness of what surrounds us and be grateful for all the wonderful things life provides us. Waking up each morning is the first gift we receive every day and we should try to ‘notice’ all the small wonderful things that occur daily such as children’s laughter, birdsong or helping a child achieve. The more we enjoy life to the fullest, the more content we are with the life we are living.