Exercise for Better Mental Health

We've all heard that we should eat healthy and get the proper amount of exercise. It's not a state secret or anything. But, sometimes we fail to realize all of the benefits of exercise. There's more to it than just looking healthy and being in good physical health.

Exercise can do drastic things to our mental health. To put it in simple, terms, think of the "runner's high". You can literally use this same effect to get immediate improvements to your mental health. The body is a wonderful thing, full of mechanisms that regulate all aspects of our bodily functions. Endorphins are just one of the tools that the body uses. They are pain relieving hormones that can induce a state of euphoria in a very short period of time. They are released when the body is under stress, such as exercise. Yes, exercise causes stress, a good kind, but stress none the less.

Now, let's look at some of the effects that may take a bit longer to see.

Overall improvement in health. Of course, the better you feel in a physical way, the better you feel mentally as a result. You also look at yourself differently. As your body becomes healthier, you look healthier. Now, that doesn't mean that it's all about looks. It does mean that you can actually see the evidence of your efforts. That's important if you are a goal oriented person.

Sexual stimulation. As the body gets healthier, all components of it seem to work better. That's because specific hormones have been stimulated and the body has to respond. So, look forward to an increase in your sex drive.

Increase in motivation. No matter what habit you get into, the more you do it, the more you want to do it. So it is with exercise. When you begin to implement a regular exercise program, you'll find that you really just can't sit around and do nothing. All of a sudden you feel motivated to just keep moving!

Decrease in anxiety. Studies have shown that one of the areas of mental health that gets the biggest impact is the level of anxiety people experience. Though it's hard to say exactly how this happens, there are certain things that just take common sense to figure out. For instance, if you are inducing your body to release endorphins and they cause a sense of euphoria, mathematically speaking that means they would obviously decrease anxiety levels. Another thing to consider is that anxiety often comes from a lack of exercise coupled with the body's need to move. In other words, if you naturally have a certain amount of energy and you aren't expending it physically, then it has to expended emotionally. Hence, you have anxiety.

Let's put it all together and see what the result is. To begin with, you had a person who didn't do much in the way of physical exertion. They spent a lot of time just sitting and thinking, worrying if you will. They had very little motivation, minimal sex drive and in general just didn't feel good about themselves.

A regular schedule of exercise can change that same person to one who is motivated, doesn't have the time to think about things that they can't change anyhow and has a healthy sex drive. (By the way, sex is also a great form of exercise and yet another way to release endorphins!) In short, you have a healthy, content individual who strive to meet the goals that make them happy. All this for the price of a regular workout?

Reference:
http://www.fitness.gov/mentalhealth.htm, http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=55001