Why does exercise improve your mental health? It is shown that exercise releases chemicals, such as endorphins and serotonin that improves your mood. When dealing with depression and anxiety it is easy to find oneself feeling sluggish and not wanting to even get out of bed, to either go to work or to do any physical activities such as working out. Study shows that working out even if it is just taking a walk, helps your mentality tremendously. According to the National Library of Medicine , researchers have found that exercising can alleviate some symptom’s associated with depression.
Exercise is a natural and effective anti-anxiety treatment, so where you would originally have to wait for a medication such as Lexapro to work (which can normally take weeks and months) exercise will take effect right away in helping your overall mental health and physical health. Not only does it help mentally, but physically as well and you will feel much better about yourself overall. A few things to focus on when working out that can help you feel levelheaded and can ground you, is by focusing on your feet hitting the ground when running or doing jumping jacks, your breathing when you are inhaling and exhaling air. This will not only help you physically but will also interrupt all of the worries and stress that is currently running through your head.
Have you ever felt stress to the point to where it physically affects you? Where you have a knot in your stomach from the anxiety?
Anxiety along with depression can cause you to physically feel ill, this happens from all of the worries and negative thoughts that run through your head on a daily basis. Distracting your mind and shifting your thoughts can help, exercising can do just that. As mentioned above, being mindful of your feet hitting the ground when running or your breathing can help appreciate the small things that help make you feel better. A study done by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, found that even taking a walk for 15 minutes a day can decrease major depression by 26%. Needless to say, it is very important to be active when experiencing anxiety/depression.
According to Motor PMC a study was done with a young man, who was diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. He was entered into a 12-week progressive exercise program, and at the end of the program they saw a significance increase in his communication, physical abilities, and his motivation. When you feel motivated you feel as you can accomplish almost anything that gets in your way. There are many positive effects to exercising such as, more energy, better sleep, stronger resilience, higher self-esteem, sharper memory and thinking (this is because all of the endorphins that help you feel better).
Although exercising may seem like a big obstacle to accomplish when dealing with depression/anxiety, it is a very healthy way to get yourself back on track and to help motivate you to get through hard situations. Even taking a few minutes while on lunch break or before class, to walk for a few minutes is very beneficial. It is better to do even the smallest things than to do nothing at all.
Of Mental Health 