There are countless amounts of reasons that someone should consider adding consistent physical activity into their daily lives. Of the many reasons, you can typically separate them into physical and mental reasons. This, meaning, that you may choose to exercise for a physical reason or a mental reasons. Many individuals know that exercise helps you to look better, and live longer. Despite this, many individuals do not know that exercising does actually offer numerous different mental health benefits as well.
The hard part of convincing individuals to exercise, typically, is that they do not see results right away. People starting a program often want to lose their belly fat, and gain muscle and strength after one workout. Although this would be great for everyone (including myself), this isn’t how the real world works. Most of the benefits of exercise take a long time to notice. That is the great thing about the mental health benefit we will talk about now.
One of the best reasons that someone can exercise is the improvement in mood. I can’t tell you how many times myself, or an individual I have worked with, has gone into a workout feeling tired, run down, and lacking motivation to do the daily tasks of the day. It would seem that with this frame of mind, mood is at an all time low, with potentially no way to switch it around on that day. But alas, we find time to get in a little bit of exercise, and what happens? We feel exponentially better. Your better releases endorphins or feel good hormones, charging your batteries for the rest of the day outside of your workout. This immediate postive feeling after a little bit of physical activity is powerful, and addicting. If you aren’t feeling like working out when you start, you can remember that there is a wonderful feeling afterwards that awaits you.
Improved mood is one of many things that exercise can bring into your life. As I write this article, today, I woke up feeling slightly under the weather. I knew I was supposed to workout, but was honestly writing it off. I reminded myself to “just do a little bit.” Instead of doing my workout that was going to be intense, I lowered my expectations for the day. This reminder allowed to go into the session a new frame of mind. After I completed my workout, even though it was not the best, my mood felt so much better afterwards. This can be true for you, too! Next time you aren’t feeling like exercising, do something small, and reap the benefits of improved mood!
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