Why exercise

I guess the title is a little bit of a strange question right? I mean you ask 100 people and I’m sure the answers will vary ever so slightly. There are quite a few benefits to exercising, apart from the obvious one. Throughout 2020 more and more people have come to realise that exercise contributes to an improvement in mental health. With gyms and personal training studios closing down more and more people need a way to manage and help their situation. Lets be real for a moment. In no way am I saying exercise cures mental illness by no stretch of the imagination, but it is a great way to improve certain situations for most. This is just one of many ways that can help.

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How many of you, have missed a workout and felt more rubbish for not doing it? Thousands of years ago we only really had physical stress in our lives. This would be searching for food, running from something trying to kill us or the weather. Today stress is now more mental and emotional. Back then we didn’t need an outlet, as survival was pretty much the main goal of our ancestors I’m sure. Now more than ever we need to turn to more healthy outlets. Just from my perspective I use exercise and art, for you it might be something completely different. One thing to not discount would be exercise, whatever type you enjoy. I wont go in depth on how and why exercise is good for us mentally as well as physically I’ll leave that bit up to you or I’ll write another post. Some people not only enjoyed going to a gym or studio to feel good from working out but they also went for the social aspect. Talking with others, bantering if you will, about anything and everything, laughter and enjoyment from it all is such a powerful tool towards mental health improvement. 

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I noticed in myself that not working out for almost two weeks that my own mental health started to crack. Negative thoughts started creeping in. It wasn’t good. What helped turn it around was that I went on a long walk for about an hour, I also had someone to vent too while I was on this walk. Even if I was on my own I know that when I got home, I would of felt a little better in myself. After I realised that I can talk to my family and my friends and that I didn’t have to suffer internally anymore. Also before I started writing this I finished a home workout and I’m feeling pretty good. One downside with talking with family is that they will try and ‘fix’ you, it comes from a good place but maybe with a little less understanding. For me, I feel like I am out of alignment with the world and my life, so exercise helps me kind of get pulled back in so to speak.

I understand how we can get caught up in this emotional whirlwind, where we feel like there’s no escape, the dark thoughts come and keep beating at our ‘door’ then we start thinking about how much of this can we really take until it becomes to much. My friend I hope that it never gets to that point for you OR that if you do feel like that then please try and go for a walk, a run, lift weight or just do some calisthenics. It might not stop it completely but it’ll be a start and hopefully help you focus on other ways you can receive help too.

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If you find exercising or any type of physical activity hard to motivate yourself to do on your own, get a friend or family member to join you. Either in person or via video calls. Not only will you be able to have a chat you’ll also be helping them out as well, they might be doing it because they really enjoy your company or just being able to talk with you.

If mental health is something you yourself struggle with and you feel you have no one to talk to, by searching your local council/government there are programmes such as talking therapy’s that can really help. Also there are forums, where people try and help each other as best as they can too.

Remember, you are not alone.