Have you ever heard of pickleball? If you haven’t ever heard about that, well, it is a newly invented sport, or maybe not that classic, that is currently gaining traction and popularity all around the world, particularly in the USA. It is basically a combination of ping pong and tennis. Usually, this spot is played on Badminton Arena, although with slightly lower net height. It uses a low weight ball that has a lot of holes, also slightly bigger than ping pong bats are used.
However, today we are not going to talk about how the sport is gaining popularity, Instead, we want to talk about the connection of pickleball and mental health. Yep, for this article we are not going to talk about our usual food hygiene and health course, or our well-known food safety and health course. But we will talk about the mental health.
Mental Health and Physical Activity
A lot of us will prefer to just lay around sleeping and eating at home compared to do some physical activity outside. However, without us realize This can have some negative aspects to our quality of life, which will also affect our mental health. A lot of studies shown that physical activity has some roles on mental health and well-being. To be precise, the effect is positive effect, not the other way around.
And pickleball as a kind of sport, of course it will involve a lot of physical activities. This means that the pickleball sport will also have a lot of positive effects to our mental health. And not to mention the overall positive health of our physique. For example, the pickable spot can help us to get us in the flow, or like some people say: in the zone. This means that our mind is relaxed and focusing on the activity, being un-stressed from everyday problems that can happen in family or office, etc. This will of course reduce the stress level in our metal state, which will eventually upgrade the health effect.
Social Connection and Mental Health
Unlike playing video game in your own room, playing pickleball will need you to have a direct contact or direct meetings with at least one other people or up to 3 other people playing together. This eventually will push us to connect with other humans, which is some kind of luxury in our daily individualistic lifestyle. Of course, this is a good thing for our mental health because humans are designed social. being, which means that they will have to connect with each other to be able to live their life healthily and happily. And also vice versa, Less social connection with other humans will the great the quality of life, the happiness, the mental health of human beings.
There are also some scientific links between exercises and the improved moods of our daily life. This is because when we do the exercise, it will help the brain to release endorphin hormones that is connected with our stress level. This endorphin release will reduce the anxiety which will in effect make us feel more relaxed and less stressed compared to if we don’t use any physical activity in daily life. And this explains Why sporting in pickle ball can help us to relax and reduce our anxiety.
Pickleball can also reduce the mental burnout due to our stressful Office work or maybe some family problems, etc. But of course, you cannot only rely on pickleball. To reduce that mental stress. You also need enough rest, healthy food, keep your hygiene, healthy environments, etc … to keep your mental stressed down. But in essence, you can always try to do some pickleball games with your friends or your colleagues and use the opportunity to help relieve the mental stress, improve your mental health, as well as your physical health.
