5 Benefits of Playing Sports

Building Resilience

By Brooklyn Glasgow

This blog is the last in the blog series “5 Benefits of Playing Sports”. Today we will be discussing how to build resilience. In the programs Beat The Streets offers, we focus a lot on building resilience in young children. We also have a blog by Negi Rajabzadeh called “Why does BTS value confidence and resilience”. You should give it a quick read to learn more about BTS and our values.

According to Oxford Languages, resilience means having the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, overall being tough. At Beat The Streets one of our main goals is to build resilience in youth. Resilience is something everyone should have because it's an important life skill to be able to bounce back from problems and obstacles that are standing in your way. Dr Ginsburg, a child pediatrician and human development expert proposes that there are 7 integral and interrelated components that make up being resilient- competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control. Developing these 7 components can greatly impact your life. Having resilience is very important for anyone because it gives people the strength needed to process and overcome hardship. Resilience also reduces stress because it teaches you to accept setbacks, recover quickly from disappointments, and adapt well to change. Psychology Today describes resilience this way, “Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back stronger than ever. Rather than letting failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes.” 

Building resilience isn’t easy. It can be extremely challenging and take some time and effort. The 3 ways to best build resilience would be to prioritize relationships, practice mindfulness, and move toward your goal. 

Prioritize Relationships: Connecting with empathetic and understanding people can remind you that you’re not alone in the midst of difficulties.

Practice Mindfulness: Mindful journaling, yoga, and other spiritual practices like prayer or meditation can also help people build connections and restore hope.

Move Toward your Goals: Develop a realistic but still challenging goal. Try to find small things you want to improve and work hard to attain them.

Once you have achieved these three goals you will be able to achieve much more and will be able to overcome anything.

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.” -Maya Angelou

Sports have always had a huge impact on my life. Throughout the years I’ve played many sports trying to figure out which one I loved the most. Even once I found the sport that brings me joy I still tried out for other sports at school and did recreation practices and games for different activities. The reason for this is because they all showed me different ways to battle challenges and push through the pain. I'm a rep soccer player and soccer has always come pretty easy to me. Trying out for the volleyball team in 8th grade and making the team was challenging. I wasn’t very strong and I put a lot more pressure on myself. However it taught me to stay strong in hard situations and to never give up. Now that I’m 16 I don't have as much time to play other sports, so last week I found 3 new ways to build my resilience at home. The first thing I did was try to connect more with myself. I listened to calming music and just laid down on the floor trying to forget all my other issues and problems in life. This helped me find new goals and figure out how to achieve them. The second thing I did was cultivate forgiveness. I find holding in anger and not forgiving others can have a poor effect on oneself. I decided to forgive someone who has wronged me in the past. When I say this I don't mean I personally spoke to them and told them I forgave them instead I told myself that I forgive them. This helped me move to be able to achieve more and forget about the past. The last thing I did was practice self-compassion. During tough situations throughout the week and when I was feeling negative emotions I tried to list out positive things about myself to help me stay happy and strong. By the end of the week I felt like a stronger person who is able to accomplish anything.

Building resilience at a young age is so crucial since it can truly make a difference in a person's life. For me I find sports is what makes a stronger person that is able to bounce back from anything. For others it may be something else. We are all different people that have unique minds. It's important to remember that in tough situations to be able to fight back. 

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” -1 Corinthians 16:13