5 Benefits of Playing Sports

Building Self-Esteem

By Brooklyn Glasgow

Having good and healthy self-esteem can be challenging. Last blog we spoke about maintaining healthy weight which can be challenging when you don’t have good self-esteem and aren’t confident in yourself. Today we will be talking about how to build self-esteem and how to feel more comfortable with yourself. The next blog will be our last so make sure you give it a read when it comes out on October 25th.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, self-esteem is defined as your overall opinion of yourself. It is an individual's subjective evaluation of their own worth. A lot of the time people's self-esteem is shaped by their thoughts, relationships, and experiences. Some people struggle with low self-esteem which can have a negative effect on one's self and others have high self-esteem which can be good at times but may also be a flaw. Having healthy self-esteem means you have a balanced and accurate view of yourself. When you have a good self-esteem you value yourself and you feel secure in your life but you also know your limits and your flaws. Self-esteem is something many people struggle to find and have to search in different places to build it. Through sport, athletes may be able to enhance their self-esteem by having a positive image of their bodies and the physical skills that they develop. According to a study by The Sport Journal, 90% of girls reported that team sports had a positive impact on their self-esteem. Physical activity and exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal. I’ve been playing soccer competitively since I was 9, and through this sport I have built my confidence and have been able to figure out what my strengths and weaknesses are. This has helped me to stay more focused on myself and compare myself to me instead of others.  

“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” -Zen Shin

I love this quote because I find that nowadays multiple people struggle in life to accept themselves because they compare their looks, body, and personality to others and to the beauty standards society expects. In this day and age it's extremely challenging for young girls and boys to have healthy self-esteem because of the environment and society they are brought up in. Social media has influenced young children to think that there is a certain way to act, look, and feel. I believe that playing sports has helped me realize what is true and what is false. It has pushed me to build my self-esteem and has helped me become successful in the sport I love. 

Over the last week I have attempted to find new ways to build my self-esteem without having to be involved in physical activity. I decided to wake up every morning and make positive affirmations. These affirmations helped me overcome challenges and self-sabotage during the week and has also helped me battle my negative thoughts. By the end of the week I felt that I overcame a lot of bad situations by staying positive and open-minded. Along with positive affirmations I also tried to eliminate self criticism. As mentioned earlier, it’s hard to be positive about yourself when you are constantly comparing yourself to others. I find social media has a big impact on that. For a week I decided to delete instagram and tiktok and it had a large impact on me. By the end of the week I felt so much better about myself and I felt that I stopped comparing myself to others as much and cared more about what I thought of myself. The most important thing I did at the beginning of the week that I found had the biggest impact on me was writing down positive things about myself on sticky notes and putting them on my mirror. This helped me build my self-esteem everytime I looked in the mirror. By the end of the week my confidence was ten times better and I felt like I could accomplish a lot more. 

Self-esteem is something most people need to develop and doesn’t come naturally. Different people have different ways to build the feeling of confidence. For me personally I find sports has helped me stay positive about myself. Everyone is different and we all need to work together to lift each other up instead of tearing each other apart.

“You are not your mistakes; they are what you did, not who you are.” -Lisa Liberman-Wang