Everyone experiences stress and anxiety; research shows that exercise is good for your physical and mental health. Exercise helps improve anxiety and other related disorders by releasing natural chemicals enhancing a sense of well-being. It allows you to escape from negative thoughts.
- Reduces feelings of depression and stress, while improving your overall mood. Everyone responds to stress differently. A short 20-minute walk can make a difference when feeling overwhelmed and stressed.
- Increased self-esteem empowers you to feel more in control. Low self-esteem will not allow a person to gratefully acknowledge themselves, which can affect their mental health. Thus, it is essential to improve self-esteem and confidence. Exercise is one of the best ways to improve self-esteem. By following a regular exercise routine, you can achieve endurance, weight-loss, and increased muscle, which can all add up to a boost in self-esteem.
- Improves sleep. When you’ve exercised, your body wants to recover, and sleep is a good way of doing that. Exercise also provides significant stress relief, less stress better sleep.
- In addition, exercise and physical activity may possibly improve or maintain some aspects of cognitive function, such as your ability to shift quickly between tasks, plan an activity, and ignore irrelevant information.
Here are some exercise ideas to help you lift your mood:
- Walking, bicycling, or dancing (Zumba). Endurance activities increase your breathing, get your heart pumping, and boost chemicals in your body that may improve mood.
- Yoga. This mind and body practice typically combines physical postures, breathing exercises, and relaxation.
- Activities you enjoy. Whether it’s gardening, playing tennis, kicking around a soccer ball with your grandchildren, or something else, choose an activity you want to do, not one you have to do.