How Sports Saved Me During Lockdown

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my relationship with sport: why I always turn to it and why it might just be my biggest addiction. During the past year we have collectively experienced unprecedented upheaval on a global scale; Portugal, along with most European countries, went into lockdown in March 2020. And from that point on, life as we knew it completely changed. Our routines disappeared, our mobility disappeared, and in large part our individual autonomy disappeared. In its place was fear and uncertainty, and the pandemic challenged all of us in one way or another.

My job as a brand awareness manager in the travel industry was made redundant just a few weeks into lockdown, which created another level of uncertainty, fear, and stress.

For perhaps the first time I realized how important it was for me to maintain a routine. Even though I continued to wake up early, I stayed in the house all day; Free time blended into work time and work time blended into free time, and it was easy to walk around in the same clothes all day. There was no off-switch. After a few weeks the stress and anxiety of the whole situation started to creep in, and I knew I had to do something to change it.

I started reflecting about what my previous reactions have been to help me deal with fear and uncertainty; and the only thing I could think about was sport. Sport has always been a safe space to breathe, to clear my mind, to challenge myself and to push through.

Growing up, horse riding was my sport. I pedalled my bicycle to the stables every day from when I was seven years old. Spending my childhood and teens around horses taught me so much about myself and it taught me to take on responsibility from a very young age. It also gave me ambition: from the first time I sat on a horse, I knew that I wanted to become a professional horse rider.

There’s more to any passion than just that innate force propelling one forward-- I quickly discovered that professional success didn’t come easy, and that I had to put in the hard work and become very disciplined in order to reach my goal. At the same time, the stable became my escape, a place where I could be free of any pressure or expectations, and I am so thankful that I had that growing up.

Shortly after turning professional, I was involved in a tragic car accident in China that altered the direction of my life forever (read my story here). Ten months after the accident, I moved to Australia to learn how to surf, and it changed everything.

Surfing became my new safe haven, my new passion - a place where I could go with friends to be social, but also a place I could go alone as my own form of moving meditation. The actual sport itself may have changed, but it remains the vehicle through which I can explore fear, achievement, curiosity, empowerment ... the gamut of human emotions.

During the first months of the 2020 lockdown, surfing was banned in Portugal. Since the beaches were closed, I had to find another habit, another way to stay strong and fight the restlessness building up inside of me, the feeling of losing control. I therefore decided to take back the control, to do what I could to feel better, to create a routine.

I started to go for a 30 minute power walk every morning followed by a twenty-minute workout session on Youtube. I began to be more productive in the mornings and I started procrastinating less, but something was still missing. I had a hard time finding the off-switch between work and free time; I became restless sitting in front of the computer all day. So I started exercising after work as well. I went on long walks, I started mountain biking, I did outdoor workouts, YouTube classes… anything to get myself moving and out of the house and feeling in control. After a few weeks it became a habit to ride my mountain bike for 20-30 kilometers after work.

The days started to make sense again and I managed to break my day into work and time off. But the biggest change was how good it made me feel mentally. I slowly felt more positive, more grounded. I slept better and my mood was elevated after working out… all those yummy endorphins! My discipline and my new routine also paid off professionally, as I managed to land a new job.

Let me be clear that I am not doing a lot of physical activity because I am trying to look a certain way, or reach a certain weight, or so on. I am doing it because I am addicted to how it makes me feel. It forces me to be present in the moment. At the same time, it also helps me be more creative in my work: my ideas rarely come from sitting and staring into the computer screen. They come to me when I go for a walk, a surf or a bike ride. It gives me the clarity that comes with the freedom of space and movement.

One of the questions I have started to ask friends during COVID instead of “How are you?” is "What is bringing you joy this week/month/year?" It implicitly guides people to focus on what is important to them and what positivity is present in their day-to-day life.

I hope this article can help motivate you to find out what makes you feel better, help you deal with what is going on in the world, and articulate what is bringing you joy during these strange and challenging times. I recognize that we are all different, and maybe sport is not your thing… but maybe it’s reading a good book, maybe it’s painting, maybe it's writing in a journal, maybe it’s yoga? What allows you to access your flow state, and unplug from the world? I would love to hear from you - let me know what has helped you through this past year? I will definitely keep up my new routine in the future.

How Sports Saved Me During Lockdown

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