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Boosting Your Mental Health Through Physical Exercise
Blog Post Author: Calvin Hollingsworth
Mental Health has received quite the buzz in recent years. There are many ways we can improve our overall mental and emotional well-being. I have mentioned this in previous blog posts on various things we can do to be mentally and emotionally healthier. This post will focus on what consistent physical exercise can do to improve yourself mentally and emotionally. Exercise in any form, helps the brain release endorphins that help improve your mood, thus improving your overall mental health.
The best example I can give to you is what exercise has done for me in my life. I have struggled with depression most of my adult life. My depression led to a lack of ambition, isolating myself from others, and being deep in negative thoughts of self-loathing and mental anguish. I ate food that wasn’t great for me, which led to me gaining a lot of weight and being obese for most of my life.
Shortly after graduating from college, I had a goal to join the Navy. I busted my butt with the help of loved ones. Over time and much sacrifice, I lost nearly 60 pounds. To make a very long story short, a career in the Navy never worked out due to medical issues. Despite being unable to join, I still decided I wanted to continue my trajectory of healthy living instead of reverting to gaining the weight I worked so hard to lose.
Doing aerobic and anaerobic exercise, while being more active throughout the day has been able to help me to keep my depression and lack of motivation at bay. Though some days are better than others, through my consistency at exercising, I have been able to be more happy and feel a great sense of accomplishment having a solid workout was the highlight of my day because I was able to conquer my inner demons that day. My depression doesn’t last as long when I exercise.
We all go through hardships in our lives that demand so much of our time, energy, or stress which can make life too much for us to bear. This leads to many people suffering from imbalance in their lives. Though exercise is not the cure-all for all mental issues, it is one of the greatest things for you to do to improve your health both physically and mentally. You will be able to have more energy throughout your day which will help you to be more productive. Who doesn’t want to be more productive?
As I have stressed in many previous blog posts, consistency is key to success. It’s human nature to want to take the easy way out in life. If you want to grow and improve, you need to meet adversity head-on and muster the strength to overcome that said adversity. It’s hard to exercise, that is the point. The point is to push yourself past your limits by developing an unyielding mindset that you can accomplish anything you set yourself to do. Again, all it takes is consistency and self-discipline. Before you know it, you will be in the best physical and mental shape of your life and you will want to conquer the world!
