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Self-improvement is difficult since you'll face many obstacles and discomfort repeatedly. However, the results you'll experience in your life are worth every bit of sweat you sacrifice for your goals and purpose. Finding your path may sound like a difficult task. But, if you focus on the right things and develop positive habits, you'll become, with time and effort, an entirely different person. Boxing will serve as one of these platforms that'll build your self-improvement foundation. It'll also serve as a positive habit you can stick to. This is because it allows you to invest time and effort in yourself. This article will examine some of the typical benefits boxers experience. Of course, some will come sooner than others. However, if you invest enough sweat into this beautiful sport, I'm confident you'll notice them all eventually. Now, before we dive into the first benefit, you might want to read another article of mine on the best martial arts for self-defense – if you have a hard time choosing one to learn. #1 – Increased confidence The first benefit is increased confidence. Let me tell you something about it. Unfortunately, few are those who are truly confident in themselves, although everyone tries to look as confident as possible. However, this is the problem at its core. You're likely not as confident if you're trying to show the entire world of your confidence. Confidence is how you appreciate your abilities and skills and whether you rely upon and trust yourself. Contrary to self-esteem (which we'll discuss in the next section), confidence doesn't mean you love yourself; Rather, it means you're acting in a type of self-assurance. Now, achieving this feeling will be harder than most people think. Today's society is filled with unconfident people. That results from the many distractions surrounding us, such as social media, Netflix, YouTube, etc... Now let's return to the reason we're all here. Boxing will help you be more confident, ensuring you experience plenty of discomfort and pain. But, it'll also bring you to face many problems and obstacles. As you can imagine, you will have to meet and solve them yourself. Photo by Jewel Mitchell on Unsplash Now, this is how you build character and self-confidence. #2 – Higher self-esteem How you view yourself is also how the world views you. This is why changing and improving your self-esteem—should be your top priority. Boxing will better your self-esteem for the same reason it'll improve your self-confidence. It'll force you to face countless obstacles. But, eventually, these obstacles will give you a feeling of self-assurance. How can you not trust, appreciate, and love yourself if you see what you're made of in real time? Let's assume the opposite was true. Can you trust yourself if you're not investing effort into bettering yourself? How can you trust yourself if you're not seeing what you're capable of? Frankly, it's unfortunate many individuals will never feel this sense of self-assurance. Trusting yourself, without any doubts, is indeed the best feeling in the world. Instead of having inner wars, you'll be complete and at peace. So, don't hesitate to start boxing if one of your goals is to improve your self-esteem. #3 – Mindfulness Being more mindful means having fewer negative thoughts and mind-wandering. It also means you're living in the present moment (in the right now) and not in the past or future. So, what is the link between boxing and mindfulness, one might ask oneself? To understand the link, let's first understand why meditation and mindfulness are closely correlated. Meditating means practicing staying on a particular anchor (such as your breathing) and not wandering from it. Likewise, when you notice your mind has wandered to different thoughts, you return to this anchor. Boxing will have the same effect as meditation. You'll be focusing on one task, one anchor. In boxing, it'll typically be fighting and sparring, especially if you're facing an opponent stronger or more experienced than you. This will have similar results to meditation, as the practice works on similar traits and skills. Thus, it's common for boxers to become more mindful after a vigorous boxing session. This is one of the significant benefits of consistent boxing and martial arts practice. #4 – Being in the flow state more often I've deliberately listed being in the flow state more often after being more mindful. This is because these two benefits are closely related to one another. Eventually, if you're more mindful, you'll likely enter flow states more often. For those unfamiliar with this term, being in the flow means being in the zone. Essentially, not thinking about anything other than one task or activity. For instance, the laptop has my undivided attention as I write this article. I'm not thinking about anything else. Hence I'm in a flow state. Boxing will help you be in the flow more often for the same reason it'll make you more mindful. It'll serve as an anchor for you to continually return to. This is the basics of mental practice. Let's say you want to better your physical shape (don't worry, this is what we'll discuss in the following section); what do you do? First, you go to the gym and work out. You must do the same to improve your thinking and cognitive abilities. Boxing can indeed serve as this workout to your brain, allowing you to focus on one task and one task only. #5 – Better physical shape A better physical shape is a highly desirable trait many people try to achieve. However, many individuals can't find their path to achieve this goal. I'm confident that most of them experience the same issue, not having enough fulfillment, progression, and enjoyment from sports and nutrition. If you can have fun, you'll also be more likely to stay consistent and dedicated to the sport you're doing. For instance, if you're doing 20 minutes of intense daily cardio, how likely are you to continue this daily ritual? Photo by Jonathan Tomas on Unsplash Personally, I'm not a fan of cardio. Nonetheless, boxing can serve as your activity to get in shape quickly and lose body fat. Not only that, but it'll also ensure you experience enough fulfillment and progression to continue your training without hesitations or doubts. Let's examine the following study that proves my point: Boxing intervention was more efficient to develop physical fitness and TPE variables better than traditional intervention. SOURCE This study found that boxing is, indeed, enough to develop a better physical shape, especially if you set goals. When you have a clear goal in mind, you're also more likely to work hard to achieve it. It'll also allow you to see your overall progression over time, thus, motivating you to keep training! If you want to learn more about the physical benefits of boxing and how it will affect your current physique, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic. #6 – Reduced stress and worry The following way boxing will help you with your self-improvement journey is by reducing stress and worry. The best analogy I can come up with to explain this benefit is the following one: Dogs need to release their energy by playing and running. Now, imagine a dog with the exact needs won't run for 2 weeks. How do you think the dog will act? The same applies to us people. If you want to release built stress and worry, you have to have a platform to do that in. This is where boxing comes into play. Boxing will act as that platform for you. Thus, it'll also help you release all the energy you're used to keeping inside. Now, you can transmute the energy to the outside. #7 – Decreased violence and aggression levels This seventh benefit closely correlates to the previous one. Stress, worry, aggression, and violence are all linked together. So, by reducing your aggression, for instance, you'll also lower your worry levels. One study found that martial arts reduce aggression and violence levels. Now, the study doesn't go into assumptions as to why it's the case. However, I have a pretty good sense from my own experience. I've been a person with high levels of stress. But I've been able to change that by releasing all the energy I'm building throughout the week with martial arts, or more particularly, boxing. Photo by Roman Aguila on Unsplash It might be impossible for you to stop being so stressed and worried constantly if you won't pick up an activity like boxing. So, don't wait for something to come at you. Instead, step out of your comfort zone and start learning to box – if you want to reduce your aggression and violence levels. #8 – Developing a growth mindset Knowing you will make it is almost as important as taking steps to make it. This is something I've seen work repeatedly in my life. Whenever I'm genuinely confident in my abilities to achieve something, the most effective way to get there will reveal itself. Boxing teaches a valuable lesson about life: you can achieve anything if you set your eyes on it while being confident in your abilities and skills. You will notice that the more self-confidence you have, the more you'll achieve and learn in your boxing training. That's what having a growth mindset is about. I want to challenge you: There must be one area in your life you struggle with. Regardless of the reasons for the struggle, I want you to be highly confident in your abilities to better yourself in this area. Try it for a few weeks; I'm confident you'll be able to improve this area by first believing it's possible. Lastly, let's end this section with the dictionary definition of a growth mindset. That is to motivate you to begin boxing. Growth mindset describes a way of viewing challenges and setbacks. People who have a growth mindset believe that even if they struggle with certain skills, their abilities aren't set in stone. They think that with work, their skills can improve over time. SOURCE Think about the endless obstacles you'll face in your boxing training. Overcoming them will reflect the same mindset in other parts of your life. #9 – Developing mental toughness Today's society is filled with mentally weak people. Look at how much comfort we have today. We're unrequired to step outside our homes if we want to. Why, then, should people step outside their comfort zones and start doing hard things? The primary reason is that to achieve incredible feats in life; one must invest significant effort into the right things. Boxing is one platform to invest your time and effort if one of your goals is to become mentally tougher. Imagine facing a more skilled opponent than yourself. How would you feel? You'll likely feel overwhelmed and wouldn't want to meet him. However, this is precisely what differentiates between mentally strong and weak individuals. You'll eventually get accustomed to pain and discomfort when you get hit in the face numerous times. This is what we aim to achieve. When you notice you're not getting as excited or overwhelmed when you get hit in the face, you'll know you've become mentally tougher. This is it. When you constantly face other boxers and win (even when you lose), you'll begin to trust and appreciate yourself. Do you see how all the benefits in this article link? If you're confident, you'll also be more likely to invest more in yourself, leading to a mentally tougher you. If you want to learn more about the mental benefits of boxing and how they will affect your life, follow the link to an article of mine on the topic. Final words I thought about different ways I could end this article. However, the primary purpose of this section is to give you what you need to start boxing. However, let me first start with the hardships you'll face. You'll rarely want to wake up early in the morning to shadowbox or go for a run. Likewise, you won't be as inclined to commute to your martial arts gym and start boxing. Likewise, rare are the times when you'll want to invest all your energy and power into the boxing session. This is, indeed, difficult. However, you'll never want to return to your past self before you have started your boxing training. Likewise, you'll never be more confident and love yourself after a vigorous boxing session. The person you were before will seem like a stranger to you, a weaker person. To become a better person, you must face discomfort. Don't let the world dictate what you can and can't do. The best way to find out if you're capable is to try. So, what are you waiting for? If you enjoyed reading this article, you'd also enjoy reading about why martial arts help with self-improvement.

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