The Prince and Princess of Wales attended Sports Aid Mental Fitness Workshop

 

 

The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine were at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre to attend a mental fitness workshop run by SportsAid . The Princess of Wales has been Patron of SportsAid since 2013. This was William and Kate’s third engagement this week celebrating the World Mental Health Day which takes place annually on 10th October. This year’s theme was “Our minds, our rights”. The Prince and Princess travelled to meet various organizations working towards the youth mental health and emotional well-being.

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The workshop, which is run in conjunction with SportsAid’s charity partner Believe Perform, aims to support young sports people and their families to manage their mental well being and understand how they can help themselves and each other to build the skills for happy and healthy experiences in sport and life.

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From Hello! Mag’s report, “During a candid chat with a group of young athletes, Prince William, 41, said: “For me, resilience is a mindset. When things go wrong, I go into a different gear.” Laughing, Kate turned to her husband, saying: “William will know that I take quite a creative approach to resilience.  As a mother, making sure I’m speaking to my children and raising the progress and the effort involved I think is quite hard to do, and I think an important message for youngsters is that this growths mindset is so important for all the different challenges they face.”

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The visit coincided with an Athlete Mental Health Survey conducted by SportsAid with input from Believe Perform in September this year. Results from the survey found that 42% of young athletes said they ‘occasionally’ feel anxious in their day-to-day life with 20% saying they ‘often’ or ‘always’ feel anxious and 40% of all athletes have ‘little’, ‘none’ or are ‘not sure’ of how much access they have to mental health services or support.

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About the visit Kensington Palace said, “during the visit, Their Royal Highnesses will join sessions with young athletes and parents to see the support being offered by SportsAid to build their mental fitness. They will be joined in the sessions by SportsAid ambassadors including gold medal winning Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds and Commonwealth champion netball player Ama Agbeze”.

William and Kate also participated in two practical sessions with young athletes focused around building mental resilience.

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In the first session we saw the sporty couple going against each other while trying to score points in a netball hoop under various forms of external pressures such as performing against the clock or with some crowd noise.While William was defending the goal-post, Kate tried to win a point in four tries but missed it.

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William and Kate also tried their hands at a game of goalball, a visually impaired Paralympic sport. All participants are required to wear opaque eyeshades at all times to ensure fair competition. The sport was invented in 1946 to help rehabilitate veterans who had lost their sight during WWII.

Continuing from Hello!’s report,

The duo also spoke to a group of athletes about how to cope with stressful periods and how to build up resilience. Musing on the importance of mindset, Kate said that being able to change your mindset is a “really important skill.” She went on to say: “It’s a skill we could teach our youngest kids that would help our children later in life. William, meanwhile, said: “For me it’s mindset – I have to get myself in a certain zone. When things start going a bit wrong I click into a different gear. I see the end goal and I try and work out a path, like a maze, to get there, and I prioritise.”

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This week, William and Kate had undertook various engagements to break the stigma around mental health. On Tuesday they travelled to Birmingham to participate in a Forum discussing the youth mental health. Yesterday, while The Princess headed to the Nottingham Trent University, William was visiting Milton Keynes. The mental well-being had been their primary focus since 2016 when they launched a ground-breaking campaign ‘Heads Together’.

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What The Princess of Wales wore to SportsAid Mental Fitness Workshop

• Zara Cobalt Tailored Blazer – (Repeat – Debuted May 2021)
• Lauren Ralph Lauren Nadalia Top– (Repeat – Debuted in September 2020)
• Mother Denim The Dazzler Jeans – (New – Thanks to regalreplikate on Instagram for the id)
• Ear Sass Issy Star Earrings – (Repeat – Debuted in Birmingham this week)
• Veja Esplar Metallic Low-Top Trainers – (Repeat – Debuted in May 2021)

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Thanks to Coutureandroyals on Twitter we have the confirmation that The Princess of Wales will be hosting another Christmas Carol service at Westminster Abbey on December 08th this year. This will be Catherine’s 3rd Christmas Carol service in a row. She first hosted the event in 2021 to thank those who have gone above and beyond to support the nation and community during the pandemic and it seems like the event has become her Christmas tradition.