T-minus 5 hours until my last exam of my third year at kinesiology and where can you find me? That’s right, I’m out on the soccer pitch, making diving saves and getting battered and bruised. Am I not worried about my final so much that I’m brazen enough to go play soccer for 2 hours? Actually, it’s quite the opposite! I’m terrified. So why would I go play soccer? Could I not be better off trying to cram the rest of the knowledge from my binder into my head? That’s a matter of opinion and what works best for you, but as for me, I don’t think it would make a difference. So then, why out of everything did I pick going to play soccer and risk being exhausted for my exam? Let me get into that.
I get nervous very easily. I like to THINK I’m playing it cool, but I’ll be honest just this one time about it, I’m definitely not cool, I’m stressing out like crazy. It usually starts the night before, goes through the night (giving me some really weird dreams of missing my exam) and then lasts all through the day until the test is over. This is the reason that I, unlike many people I know, enjoy 8 am exams. Wake up, get to school, stress for all of an hour, write the exam, and then go home to relax or study for the next one. It’s the perfect scenario. Only problem is, the school doesn’t write the exam schedule based on what is most convenient to me, and so I get stuck sitting around (like this day) until 7pm on a Friday to write my last one. Let me tell you, that Friday is like torture.
I’m not exactly great at compartmentalizing my life day in and day out. So for me, I may believe I have nothing left to do, but still sit around and stress while I play video games. In times like these, that usual, “I’ll just watch a movie or play a game and relax” doesn’t work. It usually just makes me worse off to be honest. But then I discovered something magical.
Last semester I had felt really confident in my exams, so much so that I was done studying the day before the exam. Of course I would look over my stuff again, but the bulk of studying was done. So I thought I’d pop by the Drop-In Soccer program at the local fieldhouse and see what it was like. I realized really quick that once I started playing, all that built up stress went away. It was amazing and I couldn’t believe it. What was even more magical was that for the rest of that day, I felt like a normal human being! No, or at least reduced, symptoms and I felt not only happier but more productive. I felt great, apart from the sore muscles (but let’s be honest, those usually have a sense of accomplishment associated with them). I began to wonder if this was just a coincidence and if maybe, just maybe, I was having a good day. So I kept the idea in my back pocket for a rainy day.
Little did I know, a couple days later I would be faced with the same situation. I felt very confident in my knowledge for the exam, so I dared to venture of to the pitch and try my hand at more Drop-In. I don’t think I have to tell you what happened next if you’re on this site, but I will tell you anyway. The same exact thing as the first time. I felt like a million bucks, like a normal human being and someone without anxiety or stress. At this point I was sold, and Drop-In soccer has made a regular appearance in my day-to-day life that has therapeutic reason rather than skill increasing reason.
The sad thing though is that this semester did not yield the same opportunity as last semester. I wasn’t able to go to drop in as much as I could. I tried and tried, usually making it there once a week and feeling great after, but really it didn’t cut it. The stress usually comes roaring back a day or two later. Now, remember I was also playing intramurals, which helped, but being on a Tuesday evening, the stress free effects of the activity were usually worn off by my Thursday morning quiz! This didn’t do anything justice. I became complacent and just didn’t even work out (which I used to do my first two years of school which I now realize kept my stress levels down). Doing a school-year-in-review, I can honestly say this has been the most stressful semester yet, and it’s really no wonder once I made the connection between sport, exercise, and the stress alleviating nature it brings with it.
Now, unfortunately to dig into the “how” of sports stress-reducing nature, I will have to save that for a future article and for those who are interested but in the meantime, let me leave you with this gold nugget. Sport and exercise help manage stress. It doesn’t matter what is going on in your life: a big exam, a move to a new house, a break up; sport can help you through all. Don’t believe me? Give it a try! Still skeptical but don’t want to put yourself into sport, at least try some exercise. There really is some merit to the whole Runner’s High thing, but it defeats the purpose if I simply told you; you must try it for yourself. Now I will warn you that it won’t be easy. Even today I had every excuse in the book not to go, even after I had left the house. Yet, I don’t regret a thing now. It’s hard to want to do anything when your stressed except to focus on the stressor, but believe me when I say you will feel better for it if you go and just play. Have fun, tackle that stress, and don’t look back. Give stress the boot!