A Connection Between Fitness and Mental Health? Ki
Exercise is one of the best and most effective ways that you can help ease your anxiety naturally, without pills and other potentially addictive or dangerous medications. The primary reason exercise works so well as a coping strategy is that it releases endorphins (the “feel good chemicals”) to the brain and gives your mind a healthy boost of serotonin. This is the same way that many SSRIs work, which are commonly prescribed for both anxiety and depression. Additionally, exercise puts you in control of your body and is a proactive approach in treating your health.
Most anxiety disorders have one critical component in common – control. People who are worried about losing control are often those who are the most apprehensive , and those types of control based worries n/f fears can easily lead to more serious disorders, or even panic attacks. While most people accept the fact that control is not necessarily in their hands at all times, those with anxiety cannot accept this fact or give up their sense of perceived control of their circumstances or world around them. They feel that they need control in order to function. The feeling of a loss of control can send them into a downward spiral that launches a full anxiety attack.
Rich Presta, the author of several self-improvement programs for individuals struggling with anxiety and phobias such as the fear of driving which can be found at http://www.DrivingFear.com, had this to say, “Control is an illusion. We’re in actual control of very little except our own thoughts and reaction to those thoughts. Our jobs, the economy, or children, and even our health, are not under our control, but our INFLUENCE. The distinction is slight, but important.”
While we cannot control everything that happens in our lives, we do have control when it comes to our bodies, and we can exercise as a means of gaining supremacy over our bodies and to a great degree, our mind as well. Exercise and physical fitness helps alleviate anxiety by working out the stress that you are feeling as well as raising endorphins that send messages to your brain. What can be better than that?
In the morning, you can perform cardiovascular exercises. This may include running, jogging, stair climbing and even elliptical workouts. Whatever you can do to get the old ticker working will do just fine when you are exercising to treat anxiety. This will not only help you mentally, but physically as well. It will burn off calories to keep you looking good at et beach in the summer and keep your heart in good shape so you have greater overall health.
Prior to going to bed, you may incorporate some Pilates exercises or even some Yoga. These are stretching exercises that will relax you as well as keep you in good shape. You can be relaxed and feel ready for a good night’s sleep when you are practicing these exercises at night, it’s an excellent habit get into to get to sleep easily and can do wonders for insomnia brought on by anxiety. You do not have to attend Yoga classes to memorize the moves and you do not have to contort your body into all sorts of impossible shapes. The main thing is that you learn how to stretch and relax.
By incorporating exercise into your life to treat anxiety and depression, you do not only boost your mood and relax your body, you give yourself something to concentrate on, instead of concentrating on yourself. An exercises routine will take away the troubles that you have in your mind and give you something else on which to focus. It truly a wonderful and effective treatment for anxiety and depression.
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