Exercise isn’t just a booster for your physical attributes. It can also improve your mental health, making the everyday experience just a bit better. Getting into exercise habits can improve your life in more ways than one! Although getting into the habit can be difficult, the benefits of keeping it up consistently are huge. To enhance your mental health, there’s a wide range of benefits to consistent exercising.
First, we’re going to go over the variety of mental attributes that exercise can improve, and then consider some of them more specifically. Exercise can help with self-esteem, cognitive function, mood, depression, energy, memory, relaxation, positivity, stress relief, and sleep. When people are able to improve so many things about themselves, their lives and well being improve drastically. They’re happier, their well-being is improved, and their general outlook on life increases.
Getting more specific, exercise can help with depression. Exercising releases feel-good endorphins, which are natural brain chemicals that improve our sense of well-being. Exercising can also simply take our mind off of the negatives. Focusing on the exercise can start to take our mind off of the negative thoughts that often feed cycles of depression and anxiety. Meeting exercise goals can help to improve our confidence as well. Knowing that you were able to meet even a small goal can make you more proud of yourself, increasing positive feelings and decreasing some feelings of hopelessness, since you’ve achieved something for yourself. It doesn’t have to be equipment-related exercise either. Just taking a walk around your neighborhood can be of great help. It gets you outside and into fresh air, which can be very helpful if you’ve been inside for a long time. It also makes it so you’re able to socialize with people living in your neighborhood. Even just sharing a friendly smile with somebody that you pass by on your walk can improve your mood.
Exercise also helps with sleeping, lessening insomnia. A moderate amount of exercise can increase the amount of “slow wave” sleep, or deep sleep, that you get. This has a higher chance of working if the exercise is done a few hours before going to sleep, since doing exercise releases chemicals that increase brain activity and may keep a person awake longer. Exercise also increases body temperature. The few hours of time after completing the exercise but before sleeping lets the levels of the chemical wind down and the body temperature to decrease, which increases sleepiness. This allows for a better sleep experience and gets people sleeping quicker. However, whenever in the day a person exercises, they will see benefits to their sleep. It doesn’t take much time at all to see benefits either. A person can do around 30 minutes of exercise one day and see benefits that same night.
Getting exercise is a great assist to improving your mental health. There are a lot of reasons to pick up exercise, from physical health, to physical appearance, to having consistency in your schedule, to improving your mental health. Whatever reason you have for doing it, you’re reaping all of the benefits! Exercise is a great way to improve your life, and improving one part of it can have a domino effect on the rest. The resulting improved sleep will also increase cognitive function, which will improve memory. It will also replenish energy, usually leading to a more positive mood. Adding exercise to your daily routine can do so much towards improving your day-to-day life, and quality of life overall.
Resources:
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/exercising-for-better-sleep
no listed author. “Exercising for Better Sleep.” Johns Hopkins Medicine, 2024, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/exercising-for-better-sleep.
Staff, Mayo Clinic. “Depression and Anxiety: Exercise Eases Symptoms.” Mayo Clinic, 23 Dec. 2023, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/depression/in-depth/depression-and-exercise/art-20046495.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9902068/
“Role of Physical Activity on Mental Health and Well-Being: A Review.” Edited by Alexander Muacevic and John R Adler, National Library of Medicine, 7 Jan. 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9902068/.
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/the-mental-health-benefits-of-exercise.htm
Robinson, Lawrence, et al. “The Mental Health Benefits of Exercise.” HelpGuide.Org, 5 Feb. 2024, www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/the-mental-health-benefits-of-exercise.htm.
