CHENNAI: Since April 7, the Sports Authority of India, on its Facebook page and other social media, have hosted a number of events with respect to ensuring the mental well-being of the community at large. ‘Mindfulness meditation’, a yoga programme, was followed by ‘health and nutrition during lockdown’ and ‘coping in the time of crisis (sports psychology)’ on April 8. On April 9, there was a session labelled ‘5 practices for emotional health’. A day later, athletes were given a 101 on ‘using home props for workout’. Saturday saw ‘fight the indoor blues with this vinyasa flow’, a family fitness session by yoga specialist Bhumika Uniyal.
The ongoing lockdown to help contain the spread of the pandemic is causing mental anguish, of this there is little doubt. There have already been several suicides reported across the country as people are struggling to come to terms with the new normal. To help cope better, SAI rolled out these programmes. However, the common folk aren’t the only ones who are feeling under the cosh at the moment.
Some of India’s elite athletes, including a few who had qualified for the Games, have sought out psychological help to deal with the situation. Their issues range from “sleeplessness, loneliness, lack of motivation, frustration and anxiety,” according to Mugdha Bavare and Divya Jain, two sports psychologists who have been advising several of the country’s best athletes the last years.
Mugdha, who in fact took the ‘coping in the time of crisis’ class on Facebook, has noticed an uptick in the number of athletes who have complained of frustration. “The first week (of the lockdown) was okay. After that, I noticed a few of my clients, including Olympians, coming to me with complaints of frustration,” she told this daily. The last 10 days or so, for Mugdha, has been a series of webinars and online sessions with athletes about best practices they can follow to keep themselves fresh during this time. She has told them they can even apply what they use in a sporting context to real life.
“How they deal with pressure, expectation, and so on... they can apply those to real life,” Mugdha, a founder member of the Disha Counselling Centre in Mumbai, said. Mugdha’s advice also included just keep focusing on things that are within your control — training whenever possible, good nutrition and an effective sleep cycle.
Divya, head of psychological services for the department of mental health and behavioural sciences at Fortis, noticed something similar among her clients. “There has certainly been an increase, yes. We have seen an increase in the number of athletes wanting to speak to us about mental health because there is more free time now and they feel they can work on that aspect. There has also been an uptick in the number of athletes wanting to speak to us because they feel frustration as suddenly there is no competition and there is no clear end goal.”
With no clear end goal, a lack of motivation has crept into a few of them. “Lack of motivation because events have been moved, some have complained about sleeplessness because of the different level of exertions (in terms of energy) and so on. Some have even told us they have too many people living in one house at the same time, so these are all issues we are dealing with at the moment.”