In today’s world, where stress, anxiety, and the daily grind can weigh heavily on our minds, it has become more crucial than ever to find effective ways to protect and nurture our mental well-being. The answer - exercising!
Exercise is known to help build our bodies and help us stay healthy. However, it doesn't just benefit our physical body, but also our mental health. This article outlines the power of exercise on mental health.
Exercise helps relieve symptoms of depression
Studies have shown that exercising helps to relieve clinical depression, and even works as well as antidepressants, without the side effects. Exercise helps to treat depression in the following ways:
Creates the opportunity for new activities.
Releases endorphins, a chemical in the brain that helps to energize you and lifts your spirit
It helps distract you from having negative thoughts
Promotes mental alertness and a sharper memory.
Exercise enhances memory and thinking skills, which helps keep your mind sharp and alert allowing you to think clearly and be creative, not sluggish or foggy. Exercising helps with creativity as well, a sharp mind improves your entire well-being.
Exercise builds higher self-esteem
Engaging in exercise means investing in your body, mind and spirit. The more you engage in physical exercises, you, in turn, build your confidence as you improve your sense of self-worth. Exercising boosts your self-esteem as you begin to feel better about yourself.
Exercise helps reduce ADHD
Studies have shown that exercise offers benefits to ADHD patients. Exercising can help to reduce ADHD symptoms through the release of chemical components in the brain, such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. All these chemicals enable you to focus and increase your attention span. Just like depression, exercising helps to reduce symptoms of ADHD as it works as effectively as the medications for ADHD.
Exercise reduces stress and anxiety
Working out regularly reduces stress and anxiety, giving you a feel-good sensation. When you exercise, your heart rate increases, and as your heart rate increases, you tend to become less reactive to the things that cause you to be anxious and stressed. Therefore, exercise reduces the feeling of negative emotions by reducing your sensitivity to these triggers.
Exercise gives you better sleep
If you struggle with getting a good night's sleep and want better sleep, try exercising. Engaging in physical activity increases your body’s temperature, calming your mind and making it very easy to fall asleep at night for quite a long time.
As much as exercising helps to improve your sleep, avoid exercising very close to your bedtime.
Getting the help of a therapist
Even though exercising is one of the best ways to help improve your mental health, it is not the only way. Seeing an expert or a therapist is a great way to get help when you are concerned about your mental health. Get in touch with me today.
Want to learn more? Here is a great article to check out!
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/03/02/bjsports-2022-106195
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