How physical activity benefit’s children’s mental health?

Before we talk about how physical activity benefits children’s mental health. Let us prioritize first the definition of the main points of the topic which are physical activity and mental health. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service, it tells us that mental health is our well-being on an emotional, psychological, and social standard. From what the researchers understood, it is how good you feel about yourself and how you cope with the day-to-day demands in life. 

On the other hand, physical activity is any bodily movement at the cost of your energy such as exercising, yoga, walking, running, etc.

It is obviously important to take care of our well-being. We should take good care of our mental health for it influences our behavior and perspective towards life. If a person has a bad mental health it takes a toll on the person’s concentration. When you lack focus on a task, it would cause a sudden decrease in performance in your work or school environment affecting others. 

Lack of concentration also messes up with a person’s decision-making which we use every day. Another reason why we should take care of our mental health is that it can definitely make us feel alone when we’re not, it can make us feel scared and worried which no one would want. Bad mental health makes us feel tired which hinders people from accomplishing what they want.

If a child has good mental health, it positively impacts the child’s expertise socially and academically. 

Good mental health helps children stay in control and think rationally. It allows them to continue communicating and staying connected with their loved ones. There are brief examples for improving everyone’s mental health. 

An important example of improving mental health is sleep. Sleeping is where you rest and your body would be in a state of healing, recovering all your energy. Make sure that children would get 9-12 hours of sleep each night, and 8-10 hours in teenagers for it has countless benefits when done proper sleep. 

Another example to stabilize one’s mental health is applying exercise in everybody’s daily routine. Making use of exercise increases an adult and children’s attentiveness, it means that an alert person can quickly respond when confronted with dangerous situations.  As stated by The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, exercises including walking, jogging, and swimming have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression. So make sure to implement exercise in your life especially the children’s.

Physical activity significantly affects children’s mental health because it supports mental functions. Mental functions such as thinking, sensing, language, and perception. It’s undeniable that mental function is useful so we should gradually put exercise into habits. 

Physical activity takes a crucial function in growing the brain, like literally. According to a study by a team from the University of Granada in Spain, they found out that children who take part in physical activities have greater volume in the frontal and temporal locations of the brain which are important for which backs up mental functions from what I said earlier. 

Physical activities also improve problem-solving and our hand-eye coordination (motor skills). This goes to show that if you combine all the advantageous roles of physical activity, it would hugely impact children’s school performance. Physical Activity can also help improve a child’s mental health by decreasing signs of depression, anxiety, pain, and loneliness. According to TonjeZahl, M.S.C of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, “Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity might possibly serve as a strategy for preventing or reducing childhood depression”. 

Children who have experienced heightened anxiety tend to concentrate on anxiety-inducing activities, which makes them even more uncomfortable, creating a cruel cycle. But an anxious child can put a stop to this pattern by focusing on the demands of physical activity, learning new abilities, and feeling accomplished through physical activity. 

Children can also feel a sense of belonging and friendship through joint physical activities. It might be hard for children and teens suffering from social anxiety to engage in these kinds of activities, however having a focus such as a sport can help ease some of the social pressure. Sharing experiences with others, forming bonds, and working toward similar goals might help a child gain the confidence to speak up in class or in their life over time. If the activities are school-based, it can also assist in establishing friendships. Team sports such as football or cricket are great for this. Equally individual sports, such as running, gymnastics or kids swimming lessons are great for building confidence and strong mental health.

Physical Activity can also help and improve body image and how children or teens see their body and build self-esteem, self-worth and self-confidence. A child can develop a healthy body image and self-esteem by seeing and enjoying what their body can do rather than how it looks. It is very important to assist your child in developing this knowledge as early as possible, and enrolling them in swimming lessons Melbourne, while also playing a role in establishing a positive body image through your own actions.

In the pre-teen and teen years among boys and girls there is a strong desire to be more muscular or lean. If your child has a healthy sense of what to “look nice” and understands that comes from healthy, balanced habits, they are less likely to acquire bad habits in order to achieve a so-called physical ideal.

Children’s mental health is such an important topic to be concerned about because their current mental health situation can be a guide for them to where they will be in the future. If they currently have an unstable mental health, their future mental health can also be unstable and this could disrupt their way of living. Being physically active as a child can be very beneficial to our mental health as stated in the paragraphs above, like how it can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, how it can build and improve self-esteem and self-confidence, and how it can strengthen and make bonds with other people. 

Early on parent’s should be guiding their children into having a healthy physical health and mental health for this can help their child be a much better person both in mind and body. In conclusion this topic or study is significant because it talks about children’s mental health and also how physical activity benefits their mental health.