When it comes to healthy lifestyle, the goal is not only including the physical health but also mental health. It is something that is easily forgotten by many people. The fact is both physical and mental health are essential and important. Unfortunately, not many people realize or know how to maintain their mental health. Benefits of exercises for emotional health and mental health has important role in this matter.
Is Being Happy Good for Mental Health?
There are a lot of people think that by being happy is enough for mental health. The fact is there are a lot of factors that may affect the present condition of someone’s mental health and by being happy is not enough to ensure that someone is healthy mentally. According to WHO, mental health is a state of well-being when someone could cope to normal stress level in daily life that could affect of how people act, think, feel and react. However, the way people act or how they represent themselves are not the only guarantee that they are okay mentally because even depression, the most common mental disorder, is well known with term ‘depression has no face’.
Benefits of Sports for Mental Health
As mentioned above, being happy is not enough to ensure someone mental health is in stable condition. However, some studies have stated about the benefits of physical activities for mental. American football is one of the popular sports in United States though today the popularity is increasing outside United States due to recent studies about the benefits of playing American football for mental health. If you want to know more the list below will inform you in details.
- Excellent Stress Relief
Some studies said that all the adrenaline you produce during the game could help someone becoming calmer outside the field. The adrenaline you have during the game will help eliminating or relieving the stress and the result you could cope with whatever stressful situation after that.
- Improves Focus
Though American football looks so physical from outside point of view but each player should focus all the time. One of the symptoms of someone having problem with their mental health is they find it difficult to focus because their brain is too busy with something they cannot explain. American football is the best game to help you training yourself so you could have a better focus which is good for your mental health as well.
- Overall Workout Solution
There are a lot of studies have proven how effective regular exercise is for maintaining mental health. American football is type of sport that is more than just an exercise because this sport is considered as an overall workout because all parts of your body are required to play the game including your brain and concentration.
- Improves Mood
One of the health benefits of exercises for mental health is to improve mood and American football is no exception. During the game, aside from the competition, this game is super enjoyable and just like any other sports you could improve the production of endorphin. Endorphin is one of the essential hormones well known as ‘happy’ hormone. This type of hormone is also responsible to stabilize or elevate mood and eliminate the dark moods.
- Promotes Social Integration
Those who have problem with their mental health will find it as agony when they should make a social integration. However, American football is one of the type of game that needs close social integration because all team will work in a team and without social integration, this game is not going to work.
- Good for Teamwork
Do you know what factor that could affect someone’s mental health? Selflessness. However, it is something you will not find as part of American football team. Each person has their own role and their role is as important as the other. This condition forms a good teamwork.
- Help Improving Specific Skill
If you want to be part of an American football club there is one thing you should ensure yourself; it is commitment. Believe it or not, once you have committed to something, automatically you have set a goal or target you should reach. It is good example or exercise for your daily life because once you have set a goal, there is no way you could abandon that, instead you will reach it no matter what.
- Good for Cardiovascular Health
Healthy cardiovascular health has essential role in mental health. Brain is the source of everything including mental health. Heart has essential role in producing red blood cells that will bring oxygen to the whole part of the body. Healthy heart means healthy body metabolism that could lead to the healthy body and mind.
- Enjoyable Activities
It is not easy to deal with mental disorder or the symptoms of depression and as mentioned above, just by being happy is not enough. However, by having a regular enjoyable activity could help you maintaining your healthy lifestyle which is good for your mental health.
- Improves Sleep Habit
Having a healthy sleep habit is essential to maintain healthy mental stage. American football is a physical activity that will drain all of your energy during the game and it is good for you to improve your sleep habit.
From the list of health benefits of playing American football for mental health mentioned above you could know that sport may have prominent role in maintaining or improving someone’s mental health. Sport could help improving mood, focus and memory span. Those combinations are great to help reducing the level of stress and even the symptoms of depression. American football itself is a type of mental benefit exercises because as sport American football needs to focus not only on strength but also strategy. That is why this sport is one of the sports recommended for mental health though this type of sport is not recommended for those who have problems physically.