Many benefits of working out regularly go beyond improving your physical composition. Physical exercise can improve numerous aspects of your mental health. Exercising just 30 minutes a day is all you need. Do you have trouble getting motivated? Continue reading to learn more about you can integrate physical exercise into your daily routine.
Reduced Stress Levels
Are you someone who regularly lives in a high-stress state. Then making time to exercise is the mental break you so desperately need. Take a step away from your desk and take a walk outside. You’ll realize very quickly that you’re more present and relaxed. Following this, your thinking becomes clear and deliberate, improving your overall efficiency and productivity. Our ability to manage and overcome stressful situations can become debilitated under chronic stress. Therefore, exercise keeps our stress and rest states at bay.
Increased Energy Levels & Improved Sleep
Have you ever noticed how, after finishing a workout, you feel accomplished? Your energy and mood become elevated, lasting hours following your exercise. Despite feeling physically tired, your mental state is awakened and fully engaged. When you exercise, your body releases serotonin and endorphins, your body’s mood-improving chemical that acts as a natural painkiller. On the contrary, regular exercise improves your quality of sleep. After working out, your body must rest, replenish, and rebuild muscle. Therefore exercising routinely leads to consistent, quality sleep.
Increased Self-Esteem
One of the primary motivators of partaking in regular exercise is to improve one’s physical composition. A secondary benefit of this is improved self-esteem. When you feel good about your outward appearance, your inward presence adapts accordingly. Confidence can be obtained through many aspects of physical exercise. Setting goals such as improving your mile time, doing a certain amount of pull-ups, push-ups or squats, and or reaching your goal weight are all ways to improve your self-confidence. This shift in one’s self-awareness reveals itself in many different ways. Soon you’ll see your work life, social life, and emotional wellbeing improve.
Reduced Anxiety
Improving your mood and getting adequate sleep as a result of regular exercise helps subdue any anxious feelings. Often it’s hard to pinpoint what’s causing us to have anxiety. When your workout, your mind is diverted from all things unrelated to what you’re currently doing. Again, an essential break clears our thoughts and improves our ability to think clearly. Exercise also helps build resilience, the antagonist of anxiety.
Bottom line: Physical exercise boosts health and well being. When you feel better on the outside, you feel better on the inside.
When your exercise, be sure to practice the mindfulness practices I discuss in my previous post here.
With the recent improvement in the weather, make it a point to establish a workout routine. Share this post with a friend and ask them to join in on your journey; two are always better than one.
Personal & Professional Development 