How training the mind is shaping athletes performance by breaking mental health stigma

The Health and Wellness Center at UNC Asheville provides athletes with the opportunity to enhance their performance by strengthening their minds.

“When you struggle with your mental health, your performance can decline. It causes you to get in your head and not perform as well as you usually can,” Wellness and Performance mentor Emilee Nooney said.

She states one of the most common challenges is performance anxiety. When athletes are stressed and constantly thinking about their performance, it can make them question their self-worth.

According to Wellness and Performance mentor Estella Gajarsky-Prado, after being injured for 2 years her mental health was in a tough place. She was hard on herself because she wasn’t the same player she was, and that frustration made her play worse. 

She states having a positive mindset is so important because it impacts how you perform whether you’re on your own or with a team.

“Mental health is a piece of athletics that hasn’t been talked about a lot until more recently. Focusing on it can actually improve performance, while neglecting it can hurt you both on and off the field. Maintaining good mental health and doing the work it takes to keep yourself in a positive mindset is just as important as physical training,” Gajarsky-Prado said.

Dr. Laura Jones, faculty of health sciences and neuroscience and athletics coordinator of athlete well-being and performance, states the department has a suite of resources for athletes. 

Athletes have free access to the Health and Counseling Center as well as the Mindflow app which athletes can use to meet virtually with sports psychologists and clinical mental health providers.

Athletes can also meet with nutritionists to understand the link between nutrition, mental health and performance. Another tool is the biofeedback lab, which has a variety of tools athletes can use to improve performance.

“Biofeedback is about becoming aware of your body’s real-time functioning and learning how to change it. Think of it like a smartwatch telling you your heart rate – that’s a form of biofeedback. In our lab, we use more specialized tools to measure things like heart rate variability or brainwave frequencies,” Jones said.

“Athletes can then train their bodies and brains to function at an optimal level. For example, they might learn to increase heart rate variability, which shows how adaptable the heart is or train their brainwaves to enter a focused state. This allows athletes to manage distractions, regulate stress and stay in that ‘flow state’ where performance is at its peak,” she said.

During Gajarsky-Prado’s time preparing to conduct undergraduate research in the Biofeedback lab, she states training yourself to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and heart rate can help athletes avoid negative spirals when they mess up. Instead of reacting irrationally or getting frustrated, athletes can stay calm and keep performing consistently.

“Training your mind to focus translates to how you focus on the field. Just like practicing physically makes you better in games, practicing mental health makes you stronger and more successful overall,” Nooney said.

According to Jones and Gajarsky-Prado, biofeedback is becoming more common in professional sports to help regulate athletes’ performance. The world is opening up to more mental health conversations, which is important to take advantage of.

“I’ve seen a lot more professional athletes taking mental health breaks, like Simone Biles speaking openly about her struggles. In women’s soccer, more players are talking about it too. Sports psychology has also grown as a field, and I think it’s a great opportunity for athletes to use resources that weren’t as accessible before,” Gajarsky-Prado said.

Sports psychology is focused on performance and helping athletes improve their mental game. Clinical mental health is broader and supports athletes when struggles impact other areas of life, according to Jones.

“Overall, my message to athletes is to use the resources available to you. We have people here who want to support you in being your best, both in competition and in life. You have coaches, staff and teammates who care, and I hope that every athlete takes advantage of the support we provide,” Jones said.

Jones said they have always cared about destigmatizing mental health and showing getting support isn’t something shameful. Division I athletes experience higher rates of mental health struggles, which makes this work especially important to her.

As Health and Wellness Ambassadors, Gajarsky-Prado and Nooney said they realized how important it is to open up the conversations around mental health in athletics, because it’s so stigmatized and not talked about enough.

“It’s okay to not be okay, and your performance doesn’t define you. A lot of athletes may feel weak when they ask for help, but it actually takes a lot of courage to do that. You’re not weak for asking, you’re strong,” Nooney said.