Self-esteem is defined as how much you love, value and accept yourself and feel loved and valued by others. Self-esteem is categorized as low or high. If you have low self-esteem, you may feel down on yourself, thinking people don’t like or appreciate you. Fortunately, sports such as football can help boost low self-esteem in various ways.
Weight Control
Whether you realize it or not, your body weight and overall appearance play a major role in your self-esteem. When you feel good about your body, your self-esteem rises. When you feel bad about how you look, your self-esteem decreases. One of the most obvious ways that football can boost self-esteem is by helping you lose excess weight or maintain a healthy weight. When you run and do exercise drills during football practices and games, you burn calories, which can lead to weight loss and help you achieve a healthy weight.
Improved Mental State
That’s not the only benefit of exercise, however. Exercise also produces endorphins and norepinephrine, two chemicals that help improve your mood, relieve stress and depression and raise your general view of yourself. If you are depressed or stressed, your mental health may be suffering. When you are in this mental state, your self-image tends to skew. People may see you as amazing and wonderful, but that’s not the way you view yourself. Exercise helps improve the state of your mental health, allowing you to view yourself more clearly and helping to boost your self-esteem. In fact, the Harvard Medical School reports that exercise may be an acceptable substitute for antidepressants, and the effects of exercise last longer than the effects of medications.
Camaraderie
Because football is a team sport, you rely on others to show up to games and put forth their best effort in these games. This dependency on others helps to creates association, affiliation and a sense of camaraderie between team members. Wearing team colors, attending every game and receiving support and encouragement from other members of your team help create a positive image of yourself and the way others feel about you.
Physical Skills
Football requires a certain set of skills. While you may have been born with a natural talent for football, many people need to fine-tune these skills through regular practice. When you build a skill set and you are good at something such as football, it makes you feel good about yourself, improving your self-esteem.
Member Comments