BEREAVEMENT
Sweating tears We’re squeamish about death and dying in the UK, but if we could overcome this barrier, the industry could reach out to help many people overcome their losses through sport and physical activity. Kath Hudson reports
W
hen my husband lost his dad to cancer three years ago, he described the grief as being like having a dark cloud
above him all the time. Counselling had no impact, and all that sadness would have stayed put if it wasn’t for his mountain bike. Pedalling hard, he sweated out his tears and began the process of healing. More recently, a friend who has just been widowed is doing the same trails on her bike. She says that sport has been the coping mechanism that enabled her to get through the dark days. Everyone can benefit from the mental health effects of exercise, but particularly those who have been bereaved. Being active not only provides a chance to reflect, it also increases blood flow to the brain – which promotes clearer thinking – and triggers a number of beneficial neurotransmitters including endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, glutamate and GABA. Exercise also improves sleep and appetite, and gives a sense of routine and control: all things that are incredibly important when you are grieving. Paralympic sprinter Dave Henson agrees that sport is an excellent way of getting life back on track after a trauma: “In hard times, sport is really good at signposting your life.
lift their mood, enabling the individual to
Sport and exercise can be the path that
If you give yourself a clearly defined goal,
see the light ahead. As one client described
leads them back to involvement in life.
then you start to plan your training, your
it: ‘I feel like I’m drowning, but when I do
“As human beings we tend to look into
food and your targets, and before long you
exercise it gives me the energy to lift
the future, and happiness research shows
find that you’re planning your life again.”
my head out of the water and breathe’.”
that people like structure and things to look
Steve Phillips, a personal trainer, has
Clinical experiences confirm this way of
forward to,” he says. “People suffering from
supported a number of people through
thinking. Sports psychologist at Glasgow
depression lose their vitality, but sport and
bereavement using exercise: “People who
Caledonian University Dr Paul McCarthy says
exercise can be a way of bringing it back.”
are suffering from grief often experience
that when people experience a significant
levels of depression and anxiety that can be
loss they frequently lose the structure in
WALK AND TALK
all consuming and massively deep,” he says.
their lives too. This loss of normality can
For two years, the Greenwich branch of
“My experience is that exercise can help
lead to loneliness, depression and despair.
bereavement charity Cruse has been inviting
48 Issue 131 May / June 2017
sportsmanagement.co.uk