I've been playing golf my whole life. The game taught me tools I still use to regulate my emotions as an adult.

I was around 10 years old, using the set of kid's clubs I'd gotten for Christmas. First, my ball squirted off into the woods. My next swing missed the ball entirely, and the one after that sent it into a tree trunk and back at my feet. I can still feel the way the frustration surged through me, an emotion I didn't yet know how to deal with. "I hate golf, I want to go home!" I whined, throwing my club on the ground before a full-on meltdown ensued.

In time, though, I learned how to regulate my emotions while playing - a valuable skill that eventually carried over to other aspects of my life. Golf can be a frustrating sport, but I started to work on managing my emotions as I played.

When you're swinging a club in an arc around your body to hit a tiny golf ball toward a hole with a 4.25-inch diameter, there's no room for error. It can feel like much of your performance is out of your hands, and that lack of control can be stressful. But swing by swing, I learned how to regulate my emotions even when the game wasn't going as I'd hoped.

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