Do you love exercise? I never did. While I was using it to lose weight, that is.
I grew up feeling pretty insecure about my body. To try and combat what I thought were chubby thighs and a belly that was a little more ‘Santa’ than ‘sultry’, I’d drag myself out to run on chilly winter nights. It was awful, to be honest. But I thought exercise was necessary to help me feel good.
Of course I never stuck with it. I’d be gung ho for a few weeks. Then stop. And on the cycle went.
Turns out I was half right, half wrong. While exercise certainly makes you feel better, it needn’t be a chore.
“If we are going to change our attitude to physical activity then it needs to become a natural and important part of our lives, not something else for us to find time to do,” writes the UK’s Mental Health Foundation in its 2013 report, Let’s Get Physical: the impact of physical activity on mental wellbeing.
So how to make this happen? Here are two strategies.
The first thing many of us struggle with is finding our motivation. The second is making exercise fun – something you crave doing.
1. Get motivated
I’d argue that learning about the benefits exercise has for your brain provides potent motivation. Here are 3 key ways that fitness looks after your mind.
Motivation # 1
It helps you deal with stress
When we’re stressed the body produces ‘fight or flight’ chemicals to help us prepare for an emergency. This response includes the production of adrenaline, noradrenaline and the hormone cortisol.
As the Mental Health Foundation explains, “Over time these chemicals and the changes they produce can cause serious damage to your health.” Symptoms include headaches, nausea, indigestion, insomnia and exhaustion.
The Foundation also reports that exercise has a stress-buffering effect. It reduces arousal, promotes other healthy behaviours – such as sticking to a good diet – and it more efficiently regulates stress.
Motivation # 2
It builds your self-esteem
“People with high self-esteem tend to have a higher life satisfaction, resilience and greater achievement in education and work. On the other hand low self-esteem tends to be associated with mental illness, anxiety and [feelings of] hopelessness,” the Foundation’s report states.
Its review summarises 113 studies looking at physical activity’s impact on self-esteem. Here, exercise made the greatest difference in this regard among people with low self-esteem and among those who were active the majority of days in the week.
To boost exercise’s effect on your self-esteem, set fitness goals that, once reached, elicit feelings of accomplishment.
Motivation # 3
It helps improve your brain’s resilience
According to diet and movement specialist Joanna Hall, author of Joanna Hall’s Walkactive Program, exercise keeps your brain sharp and wards of cognitive decline.
She writes: “A study of older people, published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke found that those who did regular physical activity, such as walking, reduced their risk of vascular-related dementia by 40 per cent and their risk of cognitive impairment (your thinking, knowing and remembering skills) by a massive 40 per cent.”
2. Make exercise fun
Start by looking at current routine. Is it one you feel you have to do, or a ritual that you really want to do?
For me, it really worked to make the switch from running and the gym (chores) to walking outside and riding my bike (pleasure). But you can be even more creative than that.
As the Mental Health Foundation says, “Some people may prefer to participate in more regular and structured forms physical activity, such as going out for a run or playing sport. These are, of course, great ways to enhance wellbeing and mental health.
“There are so many ways to become more active, indeed the possibilities are limitless – from gardening through to dancing or skateboarding.”
Whatever you choose, make sure it’s an activity that complements your life, rather then complicates it further.
As Buddha so wisely puts it, “To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”
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