An Osaka life lesson

Jarrel De Matas

If you’re an avid tennis fan like me, you would not have missed one of the biggest stories to rock the sport. If you’re not a tennis fan and could not care less whether Rafael Nadal breaks the record for most Grand Slam titles, you should still be aware of it, because it concerns your life.

Last week, the world number 2 player, Naomi Osaka, withdrew from the current French Open tournament. This followed her initial refusal to give a post-match press conference, citing a need to protect her mental health.

Her decision drew criticism from the tournament organisers, who threatened to fine her as well as possibly expel her. Osaka subsequently withdrew from the tournament.

While I have my own personal and polemic opinions about Osaka’s decision to withdraw, I thought one opinion in particular could be agreed upon: the need for greater self-care and protecting our mental health.

Osaka has opened the door for greater attention to how we look after our mental well-being. Given the ongoing pandemic, which at this point reads like its own version of a Zack Snyder Cut, it seems necessary to sit up and take note of why Osaka’s decision is important to us, when to detect our mental health is under pressure, and what we can do to protect our own mental health

Mental health is health. As such, it becomes your responsibility to make decisions you think are best. When Osaka withdrew from the French Open she stood up to ideologies that define success, happiness, and labour. Success isn’t worth your life.

As the number two seed, Osaka had a lot going for her at this year’s French Open. Having won the previous two Grand Slams, the 2020 US Open and the Australian Open earlier this year, she was arguably the player to beat.

Even as one of the tournament favourites, however, she understood that the current state of her mental health determined her success, not the other way around.

Let me repeat: being successful is not going to make you happy. The cliche "money can't buy happiness" does hold core truth, and Osaka knew this. Overworking yourself to the point of physical and mental exhaustion simply isn’t worth it. You might be successful, but at what cost?

Osaka gave us a lesson in recognising, communicating and asserting our personal and psychological boundaries. Her brave decision has helped redefine success as not material but mental.

As we power through the pandemic, revising traditional business models, creating new action plans, and attending countless Zoom meetings, spare time to recognise your own boundaries; to be able to say when enough is too much. Because the first step is recognising when our mental health is under threat, it therefore becomes necessary to know, or detect our own boundaries.

While the physical implications of overwork are in some ways recognisable, the insidiousness of mental exhaustion goes under-scrutinised. This makes its adverse effects all the more harmful in the long run. Osaka revealed that she has suffered from depression since the 2018 US Open. Her anxiety has been worsened by having to face the media after every single match.

Her courage in confronting the source of her mental ill-health draws attention to the need to detect when our own mental health is under threat. If you’re like me, patiently awaiting the Ministry of Health’s 4 pm update, anxiously wondering what new restrictions will be put in place, and watching countless people lament the impact of covid19 on their lives and livelihoods, then you need to examine your own mental well-being.

If my own signs of mental ill-health seem familiar to you, then the next step you can take is, like Osaka, to make a firm decision.

While Osaka’s decision to withdraw from the French Open has been seen as drastic and attention-seeking, it does not take away from the urgency that is needed when protecting your mental health.

Osaka’s first action was to communicate her mental state. She privately let the tournament organisers know she would not be giving post-match conferences, but would opt for a single post-tournament briefing. When her decision was made public, she let the world know that her mental health was more important than a game. When her communicating failed, Osaka withdrew from the competition. Communicating the state of our mental health is key. Similar to Osaka, when our mental health needs are under threat, we should feel confident in removing ourselves from the threatening situation.

For me, this means not waiting for a 4 pm covid update and tuning out the misinformation surrounding certain vaccines, or vaccines in general. Like Osaka, communicate your mental state and make a firm decision. Because no one else will do that for you.

We’ve all lost a lot owing to the pandemic, some more than others. Some have lost loved ones, jobs, and places to live because of covid19. We cannot afford to lose our mental health.

Osaka gave us a lesson in how to take charge of our lives. We would do well to take note of it.

Jarrel De Matas is a PhD student of literature at the University of Massachusetts.