How Your Fitness Goals Help Your Mental Health

Exercise has so many benefits, most of which are well-known to fitness fanatics. For one, exercise helps you tone up and look great. It also helps you lower your risk of developing common heart diseases like cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure that leads to stroke. Regular exercise even benefits your mental health and should be a necessary part of everyone’s treatment regimen for these top reasons.

Exercise Produces Feel-Good Hormones

One of the first side-effects to exercise that people will experience is the feel-good hormones. These hormones are caused by the release of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. If you don’t know what these chemicals are, they are the same ones released when we are happy and in love, though often in smaller doses. This means that regular exercise can help you produce the chemicals you need to feel good every single day, which can act as a significant step towards managing your depression or anxiety. 

Exercise Helps You Feel More Awake

Another reason why exercise helps improve your mental health is that it plays a key part in improving your natural energy levels. There are two main causes for this; the first is that exercises increases your release of adrenaline, the second is that exercise promotes great circulation, meaning that more oxygen is pumped through your body and your brain. Combined, regular exercise can help you feel more energetic every day.

Exercise Helps Be More Social

When you are feeling good and awake during exercise, this can simultaneously be more social. Working out in a gym or joining a running group can help you connect with others, even for a little while. This can help you make friends or at the very least help you reduce the amount of anxiety you may feel during social interactions.

Exercise Helps You Manage Mental Illnesses

Exercise alone won’t help you beat mental illness, but it can prove an effective means to help manage it. Find other drug free depression treatment options that work for you from Smart Brain and Health, and never give up on finding the right treatment that works. The brain is incredibly complicated, meaning there is no one-size fits all solution to help you manage your mental illness, but as mental illness becomes less-stigmatized, so too do the number of options for treatment. Just remember to give yourself time to see if your new treatment really works, rather than giving up on it too soon. It is also important to note that you will probably need to use several methods at once.

Mental illness is not your fault, just as any other disease is not your fault, and the sooner you can accept this fact the sooner you can seek help. Never give up until you find the exact regimen that works for you, ideally one that does not require a dependency on medication. It won’t be easy, but you owe it to yourself to find the right measures for you and to keep working on it through the years.