How Fitness Helps Mental Health

Mental health means accepting yourself, understanding what makes you happy, building significant relationships; coping with problems of day-to-day living, and maintaining a sense of humor. It also plays important role in striking a balance in all aspects of your life: social, physical, spiritual, economic, and mental.

Getting a balance is a learning process.

It’s easier if you Practice Mind + Body Fitness.

In a sense, mental health is like the weather: it is the emotional and psychological climate in which we live. Like the weather, it is affected by systems moving through, sometimes fine, sometimes overcast, sometimes stormy. Mental health is about coping with the challenges of life: from bereavement to job stress to relationship problems.

Strong support networks and financial security can help a person cope with mental health problems, whereas living in poverty or abuse, with little control over circumstances, places serious strain on someone’s mental health. Income, housing, education, and employment – or the lacks of these – are key factors affecting our sense of well-being.

Exercise is a very powerful “drug” in that it does naturally what many scientists in the pharmaceutical world have been creating for decades.

A study of 1.2 million people has suggested that people who exercise regularly have, on average, 1.5 fewer days of poor mental health a month than those who do not exercise

Those who exercised between 3-5 times in a week had better mental health than people who exercised not as much of or more each week.

Fitness helps in various levels of mental health areas such as grow & make stronger Interpersonal Relationships

Better Sleep

Because of the body’s need to recover from exercise, your brain will make you tired earlier and help you sleep more soundly throughout the night. Without sleep, you will not progress very far in your quest for fitness. Luckily your brain has your back on this one.

Increased Happiness

Exercise can boost the release of “happy chemicals” called endorphins. In addition, exercising outdoors can also give you a boost of extra happiness because of nature.

Better Self Confidence

There are several factors that make this an immense benefit from exercise. First off, your social skills get a “workout” leading to more self-confidence in and out of the gym. You will likely be more confident in the gym surroundings which will carry over to other aspects of your profession and personal life. Last but not least, you will also be humanizing your positive self-image and self-talk, all the while increasing the perception of your self-worth.

Lighten Anxiety

The purpose here is very similar to what was discussed above with endorphins. Exercise has been publicized to be even more successful at plummeting anxiety than a bubble bath. Exercise helps diminish feelings of anxiety because it not only releases endorphins but gives your mind something else to focus on, like keeping your breathing steady.

More Energy

When we exercise, our blood flow is enlarged, which helps carry oxygen and nutrients to our muscles and makes us more energized and alert… Research shows that people who work out on a regular basis are normally more dynamic in both work and personal life. This is also united with the fact that their positive self-talk is increasing which has a great consequence on the perception or feeling of being awake and full of energy.

A good workout doesn’t just benefit your physical fitness. Exercise also has a positive effect on mental health, providing benefits that range from improving sleep to easing anxiety.

For example, exercising three and five times a week was associated with around 2.3 fewer days of poor mental health compared with people who exercised twice a month.

Some of the symptoms of depression also are that you don’t have a lot of energy. This seems counterintuitive to starting an exercise program. That’s why self-care is important for people with a mental health diagnosis, even when there are no active symptoms. “If you can make exercise element of your life when you are feeling well, this can be a tool to help keep you well and to help decrease symptoms of depression also.”

It can also help address the isolation experienced by many people with mental illnesses.