Sword & Fist
Many studies say depression is at an all time high, especially among youth. Some professionals believe a lack of connection to a greater community could be the root cause.
Bobby Ogilvie is a certified coach with a background in psychology and team dynamics.
Ogilvie regularly participates in “cognitive sports”, such as boxing, fencing, and kendo. He believes in maintaining a healthy mind and body.
Cognitive sports are physical activities that require mental focus.
Leo Cui from the Damocles Fencing Club considers himself an expert at chess and says fencing is basically a fast paced version.
Ogilvie says cognitive sports are much more than fun activities. They may offer a solution to a more sinister problem.
“Depression is rising hugely,” Bobby says. “The fact that people don’t have an innate sense of their own power, strength, capacity, mastery and that they don’t have healthy ways of relating to and developing communities with others is at the root of the problem.”
Bobby is starting a campus club called Sword and Fist to focus on this epidemic. He hopes by helping students learn these types of skills early on they might be happier and more fulfilled with their academic path and future career.
“From a happiness standpoint, there are two amazing reasons why you want a flow state,” Ogilvie said. “One, from a stoic standpoint, it leverages something called the eudemonic happiness. Which basically means that it is something you have control over, you can leverage your strength, and it relates to your own personal sense of meaning or identity. So, you are using your best to apply that. You are using your skills.”
Ogilvie says almost everyone has experienced a flow state at some point in their lives. It’s that moment of complete concentration where external needs fade away and the task at hand is the only focus.
Most people recognize flow states as a moment of being at their best. Bobby says these moments allow us to explore personal meaning and self-worth.
“Because it includes loss of self-consciousness and a bigger sense of what is going on around you,” Bobby says, “it taps into something called cheronic happiness which has to do with self-transcendence and in that, spiritual development. So it both gets you outside yourself and leverages your strength.”
The Sword and Fist club has a Facebook group and will begin meeting soon at the O’keefe Fitness Centre.
