Have you ever noticed that people who exercise regularly seem happier? This is because exercise is not only good for your body, but also for your mind. With books like The Secret and the personal care industry in general becoming more mainstream, more and more people are realizing that personal development is not only healthy and positive, but necessary for a full and balanced life. The link between physical and psychological health is also becoming increasingly clear. So although exercise is of course good for losing your spare tire or trimming down your muffin top, it is also has many proven psychological benefits.
How does exercise improve your mental health?
1. Exercise raises your self-image. This is not just because it makes you look better, exercise is a form of caring for yourself. By exercising, you’re showing that you value your body and yourself, and who doesn’t love to be valued? Also, exercising takes discipline, and when humans accomplish goals, we feel better about ourselves. Exercising gives you achievable goals with visible results, which is fantastic for the psyche.
2. Exercise can make you feel good. It helps increase formation of hormones like serotonin, the happy hormone; and endorphins, which make you feel euphoric. Mutually, these hormones can help you progress your psychological well-being. It is important to note that most anti-depressant medications actually are a type of serotonin regulator. By exercising, you naturally increase production of key hormones that can make you feel just as good as Prozac would.
3. Exercise is also wonderful for relieving stress. With all the daily stessors and complications of everyday life, we need to have something to turn to that can get us back on track both mentally and physically. Getting physical can help you work off your stress. It can assist you in calming your mind, increasing serotonin and endorphin productions, and helps you to eliminate daily stress and worries that each and every one of us faces on a daily basis.
4. Exercise raises your sex drive and reduces PMS. Both men and women can appreciate this effect. It is well documented that exercise raises your libido, and reduces the debilitating side affects of PMS. Aside from looking better, which raises your self confidence in the bedroom, exercise can reduce cramps, lower back pain, and of course the crazy mood swings that come with PMS, clearly a win-win situation.
5. Exercise also helps to improve your quality of sleep. Often, we have difficulty sleeping because our mind is still active and filled with the stress from the day. Some people have a very hard time relaxing and turning off the mindless chatter in our heads. By exercising, you can relieve this stress. It also aids in the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that assists in maintaining your sleep schedule.
In addition to the psychological advantages, you can also reap physical benefits as well. Some of the physical benefits you may experience from exercise are: loss of excess weight, better muscle tone, a healthier immune system, improved circulation, and many other benefits. With there being so many psychological and physical benefits, why not embark on an exercise plan now? If you put in a little time and effort each day, you can not only lose that pesky spare tire, but beat the blues at the same time.
It’s fantastic to understand how understanding the psychological benefits of exercise can alter your destiny. This author recommends visiting this personal development blog for more on the psychological benefits of exercise and looking into The Freedom Movement.