In some ways, being a professional athlete is a selfish lifestyle. Everything is focused on performance. For pretty much 12 months a year, life revolves almost solely around sport, and it’s as if there’s just this one and only thing in life – and that can become overwhelming. Given that all-encompassing focus, having balance and being able to focus on something else was incredibly important for my mental wellbeing , and my ability to perform week after week. When there was some downtime, I made sure I’d spend it doing things I enjoyed, social events with people outside of netball, for example. Even taking my dog for a walk every day, making time to switch off and get a coffee, made a real difference to my mood. It wasn’t just taking that valuable ‘me-time’ that helped me keep going, having a strong support network and connection to the people around me was also crucial. It’s probably only now I’ve retired that I can look back, reflect, and realise that I sometimes took
