2020 and 2021 have been hard for everyone due to the covid-19 pandemic with many concerns over physical health such as catching the virus, or other health issues deteriorating due to many factors, one being not being able to see a doctor when it's needed. However, many people dismiss the mental side of health and wellbeing, a lot of the time pushing away negative thoughts and feelings that they may feel/have felt.
Personally, I've always struggled to open up to people because of my nature, yet as the months and years go by I'm learning new ways to let people know all about me and although it might be difficult at times, talk about my struggles and how I've overcome those barriers. Which is why in today's blog I wanted to talk about my experience with the temporary loss of playing rugby and how it affected me over the last year.
Rugby has been a focal point in my life for the last five years now, and I base a lot of my life around getting better within the game itself, but also communication, social skills and so many more things within the sport that make me who I am. Rugby gives me space and it takes me away from all of my stress and worries that I might be carrying.
With the pandemic arriving in the UK in early 2020, all sport was put on hold until the government could manage and decide how to go around keeping the UK as safe as possible. This meant that I wasn't able to go out and train with my local club, and during the first lockdown, I felt lost and I really struggled to get out and exercise to keep myself fit. This brought a lot of mental strain to me, and I began to fall away from what I now know I want to do with my life, but this was all because I couldn't do what I loved - going out and playing rugby of some sort.
Once we returned to training, I began to fall back into the ease of things, with pre season training starting in the summer of 2020, when we could meet up with our teams and keep ourselves sociable whilst we had the summer holidays. I could see I was getting happier, and once I returned to school, I was back to the happy person everyone knows me to be.
However, lockdown two soon hit the UK, meaning training had been cancelled until we could see a way out. This time, it was different for me. I stayed at school and had a better mindset for when I could return to rugby. We knew that we probably wouldn't be able to train again until early 2021, and so I set myself a goal for the upcoming year. I would do some form of exercise every day for 365 days to keep my mind and body healthy.
So far, I've been successful, however some days I'm not as motivated as I would like so I do a more light workout, and other days when I'm really feeling up to the task, I'll do a HIIT session or something that requires maximum effort. A lot of the days have been spent kicking a ball around, passing a ball and catching a ball to improve those key skills for when I can play a game again.
I've recently returned to training, and therefore I can put everything I've practiced over the last couple of months into game situations, and a lot of the time I'll get frustrated when something doesn't go the way I want, but that's all part of the learning process.
Rugby got me through this pandemic, and will continue to for months and years to come I should imagine. I remember watching countless games and highlights and everything just to have that rugby boost because I didn't feel I could get it from training by myself. But now I'm perfectly happy to go out and train by myself because I know that I'm going to benefit from this experience in the future.
What I really want to put out there is that if you're struggling, just know you're not alone because even the brightest of people can fall down sometimes. It's completely normal to suffer, and just know that everything will be okay in the end.
Remember to talk to someone if you need help. It's okay not to be okay. :)
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