Basketball can help us learn about the connection between the body and mind.
Our body is a messenger. It is the first sensations we receive to seek safety. Through our fight or flight responses the automatic fear based systems in our nervous system kick in and our behavior becomes less in our own control.
Being mindful of our actions and choices can only come after we regain our thinking brain. That depends on greater awareness over what is happening in the body and body based ways of coping with stress.
By providing education through hands-on activities, physical play, and educational bonding experiences, we aim to increase access to important mental health education while improving overall community well-being.
- Encourages movement and communication
- Empowers teachers and parents
- Removes stigma through play
basketball [at] createkidsedu [dot] org
Why it matters
By recognizing the bodily cues signaling the need for coping mechanisms, individuals gain greater control over their responses, increasing a sense of emotional regulation and resilience.
This, in turn, leads to more constructive and adaptive coping strategies, reducing the likelihood of maladaptive behaviors or emotional outbursts.
Nervous system education cultivates empathy and understanding towards others’ emotional experiences. Armed with a deeper understanding of their own emotional responses, individuals become more attuned to the signals of distress in those around them. This heightened empathy fosters stronger interpersonal connections and promotes more supportive and compassionate relationships.
Greater awareness also serves as protection since children recognize physical signals of mental health distress. It is through awareness that we know to seek support and body based education makes that possible sooner than ever.
Meaningful Education
The Nervous System is where our body processes and behavioral responses are being managed. There are three divisions in the Nervous System: Autonomic, Parasympathetic and Sympathetic.
- The Autonomic Nervous System is said to regulate the body’s unconscious actions.
- The Parasympathetic system activates rest, repair and digestion processes that only happen when your body is in a resting mode.
- The Sympathetic Nervous System activates our fight or flight responses like tension in our jaw and hands, lighter breathing and the escape feelings when we are feeling stressed.
The Sympathetic Nervous System feels like:
- a pounding heart
- adrenaline
- quick or shallow chest focused breathing
- tensed muscles
- Nausea, vomiting and stomach pain
- sweating
- Processes in our body that are quick responses
This combined response is what we call the fight-or-flight response.
The Parasympathetic Nervous System feels like:
- a calm heart,
- slower blood pressure,
- deeper belly focused breathing,
- relaxed muscles
- digestion processes restart
- Processes in our body that are slow responses
This combined response is what we call the rest-and-digest response.
It is possible to learn to activate or trigger the Parasympathetic Nervous System to immediately reduce stress and cope with resurfacing stress from prior experiences. That's what CREATE programming focuses on teaching.
Education that Empowers
Nervous System
Body Skills Spotlight
The Ears
How to stimulate the Vagal nerve to start the rest-digest process in the body. Also, learn how humming and vibration can help us calm down fast through music.
The Lungs
What is Box breathing, how can double breathing help us recalibrate stressed breathing. Also, how 2 simple breathing tricks that can increase our oxygen intake by 15% on every single breath.
The Hands
How squeezing, pushing and pulling, helps us complete the fight fear response and think better in the moment. Also, how we can use our non-dominant hand to grow the self-control muscle in the brain.
The Stomach
What emotional eating is and how to notice it. The impact strong emotions have on our eating habits and how healthy foods support well-being. Also, how to do a lymphatic release to promote movement in the stomach area.
The Feet
How to use jumping to complete the flight fear response. Also, the importance of movement for good blood circulation and waste drainage in the lymph system.
Full Body
What bilateral movements are and how they help the body move out of fear responses into rest and digest modes. Easy to remember bilateral movements that increase body awareness.
Everyone is going through something we can’t see.
Kevin Love
Intervention Stages
Support for all needs
Preventative
Free basketball programming through delivered through physical education classes in public schools, community centers, after-school care programs and on-site.
Selective
One-one-one mentorship with one of our volunteer high school or graduate students seeking medical or mental health professional tracks.
Indicated
One-on-one therapist sessions, family workshops, support groups, resource bridging as well as additional investments in the child's future including skill building, college and future planning.
Building Connection
Evidence backed research
CREATE uses a variety of materials to develop its educational programming.
Parenting workshops, educational training and basketball programs use facts and strategies outlined by the following resources:
CDC - HI-5 Interventions
School-based Programs to Increase Physical Activity, School-Based Violence Prevention, Early Childhood Education
CDC - Advancing Health Equity Through Partnerships, Collaboration, and Community Engagement
Community-Clinical Linkages Health Equity Guide, Healthier Food Retail: An Action Guide for Public Health Practitioners
CDC - Leveraging Evidence to Prevent ACEs
Merging somatic strategies with recommendations by the CDC to create body based strategies that provent trauma based stress retention.
Healthy People 2030 Mental Health and Mental Disorders Evidence-Based Resources
Treatment for Self-harm, and Suicide Attempts Among Youth, Screening Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: Screening, Eating Disorders in Adolescents, Suicide and Violence Prevention, Mental Health: Targeted School-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Programs to Reduce Depression and Anxiety Symptoms, Physical Activity, Preventative Care, Nutrition and Healthy Eating.
Education Partners
basketball [at] createkidsedu [dot] org
More than just play
A program that cares for a child's mental, emotional and physical health.