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There were many questions generated by attendees in the September 1st Capital One Listening and Leading webinar exploring mental health and wellness issues for athletic communicators. The three presenters - Ryan Bower, Brian Savard and Ivy Watts – took time to answer all the questions they did not have time to cover in the one-hour webinar. See their responses to your questions.
 
Q&A Followup From Mental Health & Wellness Webinar (Sept. 1) with:
 
Ryan Bower – North Carolina Office of State Human Resources, Public Information Officer/Graphic Designer // Former CoSIDA member and SID
Brian Savard – Plattsburgh State University, Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications  @BSavardSID
Ivy Watts – Founder, Ivy Watts Speaks, mental health empowerment speaker/2015 NCAA Woman of the Year Top 30 honoree  @BeautSimpYou
 



Watch this webinar on YouTube, or search for it via your favorite podcasting platform. Click here to watch on-demand with an automatically generated full transcript.

 
Q: Without games and deadlines, what are some good ways for athletic communicators to get and stay motivated? I'm task/deadline-oriented, and I'm struggling.

• BRIAN SAVARD: I think it’s really important to head into every day with a set of goals, and it’s equally as important to track progress on them. One thing that my college required when we were working remotely was for us to report what we did each week; that needed to be submitted by our supervisors. I kept a daily log of what I did through a Google Drive share, and I found that while that was tedious to keep at times, it gave me a sense of accomplishment to look back at all the work I had completed each day.
  
  Now is a good time to challenge yourself with projects that you wouldn’t have time to do if we were playing a full set of games this fall, and that can also help stoke your drive and passion for your work.
   
• IVY WATTS: One of the biggest things I would suggest on how to stay motivated during tough times, is to set a routine and try your best to stick to it. This routine might look wildly different than your previous routine, but a routine provides structure to your day, and allows you to feel good about yourself when checking off tasks. The other piece is to really just be patient with yourself. It’s truly okay if you are not motivated right now. We are going through a lot right now, and our bodies/minds first response isn’t to get up and do all the things we need to do. Forgive yourself if you didn’t accomplish all that you wanted to do today. But do celebrate even the smallest things that you did – even if that meant you got out of bed on time or took two seconds to breathe before responding to a stressful text or email. Celebrate those small wins, and continuously challenge yourself to try to do more the next day.
  
  Patience, forgiveness, and continuously trying to do your best, are some of the best things you can do during these times and beyond! Also check out the graphic I created on how to stay motivated during COVID-19.

• RYAN BOWER: Speaking to coaches and ADs (many of whom are former coaches or athletes) in terms they understand will help. Why do their teams have days off? Why do their student-athletes rest? Because their body needs the break or else it brings to fail. The brain is a part of the body like anything else and can begin to fail when overworked, stressed, etc.
  
  I think stressing the need to get away and recharge is good. One thing I like to tell folks is to dedicate one day a week, or half a day, where you won’t read or respond to emails, and won’t answer your phone unless it’s an emergency. Yes, the work can pile up and you’ll feel like you always have to be doing something, but it’s just not realistic. The mind needs rest like any other part of the body!
   
• SAVARD: I think most coaches and ADs largely understand this—at least in my experience. The way that I pitch it to administrators and coaches is this: you’re going to get the best out of me if you give me time away from the office to recharge my battery, whether that’s spending time with family, partaking in a hobby, or just plain relaxing at home. If anyone is expected to be “on the job” 24/7, there’s no way the quality of work being produced is going to be as good as if they were given some time to themselves.
  
  When I communicate this with my AD and coaches, they are completely understanding. There will be times where you need to get away, and there will be boundaries that need to be established. I think it’s imperative that you and your AD are on the same page with your work schedule and expectations to work, and make sure that you communicate those boundaries with your coaches (with the backing of your AD).

• SAVARD: I would tend to think that coaches are experiencing the same emotions, even if they may not emote outwardly in front of you. That said, if a coach is not compassionate toward your stresses during this time, I would try not to take much stock in his/her opinion. I would explain to that person that, similar to their sudden change of work, your work has changed too, and you’re trying to adjust to a new reality of no games and an uncertain fiscal climate as well. I know that it’s hard not to take stock in what your coaches think of you, but at the same time, you’re your own best advocate and have to do what’s in the best interest of your mental health.
   
• WATTS: Try your best to not take this personal. It is likely that your coaches do care, but that they are dealing with their own stress and not responding as they normally would. When we are under high stress, we tend to look at our struggles in relation to others as a coping mechanism. The coaches at your school are also dealing with a lot right now, and are also experiencing intense loss. We definitely need to be compassionate and patient with others in our lives as well. Their struggle might come off to us that they don’t care, but it might be that they are not sure how to deal with their own struggle, which is making it hard for them to have compassion for your experience. The more conversations about mental health awareness and the acknowledgement that we all struggle (and that all of our struggles are valid), the more compassionate we can all be towards each other.

• WATTS: Feeling down looks and feels different for everyone. What triggers one person to become upset might not bother another person at all. However, whatever you are feeling down about is valid. Some strategies you can use when you are having a tough time:
  • Talking to someone you trust/going to therapy: Being able to talk about what you’re going through is so healing. When you open up to someone who listens to you and validates your experience, such as a trusted friend or therapist, stress or sadness you were feeling tends to be lifted - even if just a small amount. When we hold our feelings in, our mental health struggles are more likely to build. Speaking up about our struggle can be so powerful. If you are feeling down, there is no shame in asking for help. Your mental health matters.
  • Journaling: It’s a great tool to use to let out a lot of things that might just feel heavy on your mind. Journaling provides you with a great outlet and allows you to make connections that you might not have otherwise made. It’s a great technique to use if you aren’t yet ready to talk to a friend or a therapist but need to let stress or pain off of your chest.
  • Exercise: Any form of exercise, from yoga to talking a walk to a high intensity workout, are all incredibly beneficial for your mental health. Our minds and bodies are so interconnected. When we move our body, not only are we keeping ourselves healthy physically, we are doing wonders for our mental health.
  • Meditation: Meditation is a great way to bring calm and peace into your world, helping you to breathe through stressful moments. It can be really beneficial in these uncertain times. Helpful meditations to deal with anxiety and uncertainty are all over the internet! 
  • Affirmations/Positivity: One of my favorite tools to help when you are feeling down is the practice of affirmations. What you say after “I am” is what you become. Typically, when we are feeling down, we don’t say to ourselves, “I am an amazing person who deserves all opportunities that come my way.” Instead, we will often say things like “I am a terrible person, why would I let that happen?” When we say these negative things to ourselves, it only makes the situation feel that much darker. 
            By being positive with ourselves, we can re-wire our brains to see the positives around us and within us, and that allows us to get closer to reaching our goals. The next time you are feeling down, practice saying affirmations such as “I am worthy, I am capable, I am good enough” over and over, and even if it seems strange, your brain will believe it, and it helps provide calm in otherwise difficult scenarios. It’s pretty cool that simply what you speak to yourself can change your brain, change your mindset, and ultimately change your life.
  • Practice gratefulness: Instead of asking why are all of these bad things happening “to” me, ask why is this happening “FOR” me. Maybe these bad times are happening for you to have an opportunity you wouldn’t have had before, like finding your identity outside of your job, finding new activities that you enjoy, or being able to grow and develop in ways you wouldn’t have otherwise. Become grateful for what you do have in your life, and by doing so, you put positivity at the center of your world, and positivity can be life changing.

• WATTS: The fear and anxiety of these times can truly be overwhelming. First of all, make sure you are validating those fears that you are having. It’s okay to feel those fears. One of the biggest strategies I can provide is to “live where your feet are”. My therapist told me this when my mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. My mind immediately went to every bad thing that could ever happen because of this diagnosis, and the fear was literally eating me alive to the point where I forgot what self-care techniques even worked for me. Living where your feet are is a really powerful tool, and did wonders for me during my time of extreme uncertainty and worry. It allows you to fully take in this moment
  
  It’s important to pause and be where you are in this moment. Living in this present moment allows you to recognize that although you can’t change the past, or control the future, you can control this present moment (and be grateful for what you have in this present moment), and that’s beautiful. So, if you are on a walk, truly feel your feet hit the pavement and the wind hit your skin. Once you can accept that you cannot change or control a lot of things, you can become centered in this moment, truly enjoy this moment, and have faith that everything will work out exactly as it should. Maybe not how you planned, but maybe even better than you could have ever dreamed.
  
  Think back to all those times when you were upset that things did not go your way, but everything that happened ended up being the better scenario for you anyway. I can count several times that happened to me. I can’t promise you when or how, but everything will work out. And one day you’ll look back and say, “wow, I got through that? I can get through anything.”

• SAVARD: While I know that this challenge is amplified during our current public health and financial crisis, this obviously is a hurdle many of us have to contend with whenever someone leaves a job in our department (and that job isn’t filled immediately). Right now, my philosophy is that at all of our colleges and conferences, it’s all hands on deck. Many of us are having to take on jobs that are unusual for athletics communicators, whether that means supervising a quarantine dorm, doing contact tracing or performing tasks around the department that are usually done by paid student workers. I do think that these times call for all of us to readjust our work priorities and assist with other tasks that your college and AD deem of greater importance to the immediate operation of the college than your normal day-to-day work.
  
  Now, I do think it’s unreasonable to expect that you work hours that far exceed your normal workload in season. In that case, I would consult your union or HR office to see what is allowable per your contract. Once the dust settles with the pandemic and we do return to some semblance of financial and operational normalcy, I would suggest being much more of an advocate for yourself in not doing the jobs of multiple people. Right now, though, many of us need to build up equity within our college and department so that our positions survive the pandemic.

• BOWER: The transition to a new job was much less about mental health for me than it was about planning the future for my wife and me. I didn’t feel that I could balance doing the work of an SID with eventually having a family. I know some folks can, but I’m just not wired that way. It was important for me to take a job that really forced me to have breaks, weekends off, etc.
  
  I will say that the stress is a lot less, but I wasn’t sure it would be going in. I thought it would, but you can never be sure. The transition has been great, and it has helped my mental health. But the real reason I made the move was for family considerations.