ReDefine Yourself through Sports
Peals of laughter, motivating cries, thunderous claps, groans that follow a missed shot, disappointments, words of encouragement, fits of rage, moments of reconciliation, pats of reassurance, neck to neck scores, a nail-biting finish, a well-earned victory – A sport is capable of packaging a life’s lesson in one game. It teaches us lessons which scripts would fail to teach us in a life time. Have you ever thought that something as simple and entertaining as playing a game, can one day help rewrite who you are as a person?
As human being we all seek for happiness, not knowing what it truly means. What is Happiness? For some it is having a high paid job, owning a house, driving a BMW car or going on exotic vacation with buddies. We seek, never knowing what it is or how to constantly preserve it. After all what good is happiness if it is relentlessly fluctuating and can’t last forever!
Funnily, I got the answer from an unsuspecting little monk, my 3 year old nephew. He was always happy, when I said “pee-ka-boo” he laughs his heart out. We think that he’s a baby; what does he know, he just smiles for everything. Well I thing we as grown up’s are conditioned towards life and false illusion of self-fulfilment through external materialistic pleasures. It is small things in life which actually hold true blissfulness. But we are so distracted with the mere externalities and its distractions that we simply are not in the present moment to appreciate them, unlike my 3 year old little monk. The joy of simplicity is happiness & learning to appreciate small things in life will constantly keep us there. Happiness is a state of mind.
What does all this has to do with sports? Well I found my happiness through it. I never thought that playing a simple game can actually change someone’s life positively. In my surprise when I started to work with special children’s it served as a powerful tool in bring a progressive impact in them.
The term ‘Special needs’ lists shortcomings in terms of Physique, Cognitive abilities, Social skills and psychological well-being. These are broadly categorized as Physical and developmental disabilities. A child’s learning and development are basically categorized into three areas. Cognition – thinking skills, Emotional Intelligence – ability to feel emotions and reciprocate and Psychomotor skills – skill sets or physical aspects. While academics has its own constraints when it comes to assessing the overall development of the child, a sport can effortlessly put every aspect of the above-mentioned areas to test, which makes it easy for us to understand the child’s strengths and needs for development.
Can we discover and redefine ourselves through sports?
This is precisely the reason why sports play a significant role in a child’s overall development. It is said that the history of sports may extend as far as the beginning of civilization and military training. A sport has always been a quintessence of how a society at large should function as a concretization of inclusion and identification.
Children with physical disabilities, in circumstances scarce of guidance and motivation, tend to remain in a shell wherein they disconnect from social life, as a result of being hyper conscious of their disability. Lack of confidence and self-esteem are commonly seen amongst these children. Sympathy only excludes them further, but ‘action’ is what can put them right back at their prime.
“2000 – A five-year-old child gets his right leg crushed under the ruthless wheels of a bus which leaves him with a permanent disability.2016 Paralympics games – Rio de janiro – Mariyappan thangavelu wins the gold medal in the men’s high jump T-42 category making him the first Paralympic gold medallist since 2004. He was also conferred the prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ award and Arjuna award in the consecutive year.
Mariyappan said that it was “a good feeling” to be recognised and to have his neighbours treat him with great respect”.
Numerous inspiring leaflets can be pulled from the books of many such Paralympic achievers like Devendra Jhajharia, Deepa Malik, Jonnie peacock etc.
While Developmental disabilities like Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy are explicit, Autism, ADHD or Learning Disability are not as conspicuous as physical disabilities which puts the children at greater risks of being misunderstood and shunned. Their inability to socialize is of extreme concern to parents.
Ethan Fineshriber, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. He never socialized and preferred being alone most of the time. At the age of 7, seeing that there was no improvement in his social skills, his mother decided to put him in a Taekwondo martial arts school. Though initially reluctant and frustrated, Ethan began to notice that he was good in it and started enjoying what he did. At the age of 11, not only did Ethan become a world champion with a perfect score, but had also made friends and became more sociable thereby reaping the benefits of ‘inclusion’.
Sports are said to increase the levels of Dopamine which keep stress and depression under check. It is said that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself. A sport is a contradiction by itself where you lose your identity and you also find one. On the field, your presumptions are dropped as the focus shifts to the ‘moment’ and by the end of the game, you rediscover yourself, which becomes your true identity. Every child, normal or ‘special’ deserves the privilege of being able to drop every preconceived notion and stigma to be able to rediscover their true abilities.
I found my Happiness through sports which helped to redefine who I am as a person. The Joy of giving, is thy simplicity of life.