Exercise Relieves Stress, so You Should Probably Exercise Right Now.
When our Capitol was captured by the rebels yesterday, I went for a walk. A few hours later, after being glued to Twitter trying to figure it all out for far longer than I’d like to admit, I went for a run. That helped.
I will never claim that exercise is sufficient to meet all mental health needs, but it trumps many other coping mechanisms, such as drinking, rolling doom and crying in the shower. (The satire site Reductress probably put it best: ” A woman who says exercise is like therapy should have a fairly mild trauma .”)
If you’re working on really difficult things right now, take the advice of my fellow writer Sam Blum and find yourself a therapist . You have a variety of options, from face-to-face sessions to telemedicine visits and text-based platforms. We also have a rundown of ways to calm your panic and anxiety , including a video you can watch during your panic attack.
Why exercise helps
There are two reasons to exercise when your thoughts get out of hand. One is about the benefits it can bring to the rest of your day and your long-term health. Exercise tends to use up nerve energy, calm our brains, and promote better sleep. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America notes that people who exercise are less prone to anxiety and depression, possibly because exercise helps us cope better with stress.
Exercise is not a panacea, and some people don’t get much mental health benefits from it. But exercise is also a way of caring for your physical body that contributes to your overall well-being, even if you’re one of those people who doesn’t see a direct impact on your mental health.
But the other big reason, I think, is simply because it gives you something to do . When I run, I cannot check my phone. I accept that at this hour, at this minute, I put one foot in front of the other.
The best part of your day
This fall, I read an essay on the Mental Health and Pleasure of Walking . At that time, I kind of flipped through it, but two lines in it stuck in my mind, and I remembered them every time I went for a walk or jog, or decided to lift weights in my garage while the world was crumbling around. me. Writer Sarah Miller put it this way about using her elliptical trainer to combat depression:
It really made me less depressed while I was doing it, but when I finished, I was quite depressed again. I told my friend this … he just shrugged and said, “Do it anyway. It’s a whole hour when you’re not depressed. ”
It seemed like a good deal. How much would I pay in the agony of anxiety so as not to worry for an hour? Or even a little less worried? Walking always seemed like a waste of time to me, even when I knew it was useful, but now I saw it in a different light.
I reviewed this essay in September. According to Apple Health, which tracks my steps anytime my phone is in my pocket, I doubled my average daily steps this month, rising from a summer average of around 3,000 to almost 7,000. The next month I walked even more. …
In early November, when we were waiting for the elections, and then the election results, I completely immersed myself in my new survival mechanism. From November 3rd to 13th, more than 11,000 steps were performed every day.
Sometimes I go for two walks a day, depending on how I feel, and they got longer over time. This brings me to another thing that I took from Miller’s essay – the insight she achieved as she continued her walk:
The two walks intersected – this is a small town – and one day when I was doing the first walk, it occurred to me that I could just add a second and walk longer. You might think that I was discovering electricity. Could I just go and spend the best part of my day twice as long?
You really can. If you run, walk, or dance on YouTube as part of your mental self-care, you can do more of these. (Physically, it might be unwise to suddenly double your mileage, but most of our bodies can handle ultra-long walks or yoga sessions well. Choose wisely.)
What you do while walking, running or doing other exercise is up to you. I love hiking or jogging in nature, but the streets in my area are closer and more comfortable. I pick the quietest streets and drive along them. Sometimes I listen to podcasts or music, choosing the soundtrack depending on whether I want to get rid of my thoughts or think about them.
I highly recommend that if you are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or unsure of what to do, get up and do whatever form of exercise makes the most sense for you. The best part of the day is ahead.