Importance of Exercise to Boost Your Mental Health

Importance of Exercise for Mental Health

The most common symptoms of a mental health issue include a feeling of loss & hopelessness, inability to focus, reduced memory, feeling agitated or irritated, and loneliness.

According to studies, people who indulge in just 30 minutes of simple physical exercises every day stay happier, emotionally healthier, and less prone to mental health issues than others who don’t. This is because regular exercises release happy hormones in your body. Hence, you feel more relaxed than before when you start to exercise daily.

In the following sections, let us see the importance of exercise in helping with some common mental health conditions today.

• In Reducing Depression

According to a study conducted at Harvard, regular exercise can bring down depression symptoms in people by at least 26%. Very moderate levels of regular exercise like running and walking can do a world of good for your mental health.

These exercises increase the production of melatonin, serotonin and endorphins (responsible for regulating your sleep cycles, mood swings and relaxation).

Apart from keeping you energetic and happy, exercises also give you the much-needed distraction to remove all kinds of negativity from your mind. Once you fix an exercise schedule for yourself, ensure you follow it regularly so that it can prevent you from further relapses of a previous mental condition.

• In Reducing Anxiety and Stress Disorders

Exercises will make you more mindful about your body and mind, bringing a sense of calmness. Stress and anxiety can cause body cramps, chronic pain in the joints, a sense of fatigue, and other issues.

When you take the initiative of stepping out of your home for exercise, you will feel all the negativity and anxiety slowly leaving your mind. Exercises enable the neurotransmitter, serotonin, to send positive signals to the brain. Serotonin, responsible for mood regulation, ensures that your mood swing episodes are reduced considerably, thereby keeping you free from anxiety disorders.

• In Reducing ADHD Symptoms

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a mental condition in which you gradually lose your ability to focus on anything for a while and develop forgetfulness. Regular exercise helps you fight these symptoms and keep such conditions at bay.

When you exercise regularly, even for about 30 minutes daily, your brain feels relaxed. The happy hormones in the brain (dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins) function perfectly. Hence, you feel an internal sense of calmness. This will help restore your focus and memory power when followed daily.

• In Reducing Trauma and PTSD Symptoms

When you are diagnosed with trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you remain stuck in a particular place. You feel fearful of stepping out of that place, as your mind has many unpleasant memories.

Exercises, however, help to get out of this phase slowly but steadily. When you motivate yourself to start exercises, your mind helps you get out of that “stuck” feeling and give action to your hands and legs. In most PTSD cases, when the patients are unstuck from a particular place, they have almost travelled half of the recovery road.

The importance of fitness on mental health assumes greater significance because exercises help you feel as relaxed (if not more) as medications and treatments. The best part is that these exercises don’t carry the side effects of antidepressants.

Physical Activities

Are you thinking, “What type of physical activity should I indulge in to keep myself mentally fit?” Here is your answer to this:

• Walking

Start slowly always. Even 1000 steps a day is enough but do it regularly. Increase it slowly, and ensure you bring it to 10,000 steps a day.

• Running

Run for about 15-30 minutes initially. Take frequent breaths so that you don’t go out of breath. If you don’t want to run, walking is just fine.

• Swimming

• Dancing

• Working out in the gym

Strength training is a good choice.

• Adventurous activities

If you are confident enough, you can take part in hiking, sailing, and other adventurous activities. These are said to be very effective in keeping PTSD symptoms under control.

Even if you cannot do any of these, start by doing simple tasks at home and keeping yourself physically fit.