Setting some goals can always be seen as something beneficial to your mental health. I managed to set myself a goal of running a half marathon before coming back to Scotland for Christmas. Having only got back into running in the middle of November, and only running 5 or 6km twice a week, I ended up increasing the distance on each run (probably incurring some injury in the process). At the end of November, I went out for a run and did 10km. The first one I'd done in a long time. The following day I said I would take it easy having just done a 10k. In the words of Mr Gump, I just kept on runnin! Until I had done 12km. The longest run I had ever done. Having managed this and with 2 and a half weeks till I would return to Scotland, I set myself a challenge: run a half marathon (21km) before going back. If I didn't manage it then I could always make it a challenge for the end of January, but I was determined. A 3km run the following day then 15km the following weekend! The challenge seemed doable. A 6km run during the week and then BAM! A COLD! I was ready to call it a day as doing a half marathon while a bit under the weather would do me no favours in the long run (or the short run for that matter). It got to the end of the week and, after some much needed rest and copious hours of watching old films on the couch, I felt a lot better. Maybe, I thought, I'll just give it a go and see how far I get. No shame if I don't go the full way. So I arose on the Saturday morning, had some toast and a fried egg, did a little pre-run yoga stretch, and set off with no expectation. I felt good.
I’m not saying it was physically the toughest thing I've ever done in my life, all I'm saying is that I think that's the longest distance I'll probably ever run in one go. The last km or so it was a bit painful but it did feel amazing when I passed the 21km mark. I let out a huge "YASSS" which attracted a few strange looks. Lots of positive feelings and absolutely no anxiety. That feeling lasted for about a minute maybe. The 15 minutes that followed, I felt like I was going to be sick, knees trembling, freezing cold, achy feet and a sizeable blister on my foot. It wasn't pleasant. After a post-run cool down yoga stretch, the euphoria I then felt was unparalleled. The endorphins being released again when I realised what I had just achieved were filling me with pride, confidence and happiness.
Purely from a mental health perspective, it's not the distance I did that made me feel good, it's not the reaching my goal and completing the challenge that made me feel good, it's not the likes, congrats, "well done"s and "well in mate"s that made me feel good; it's the exercise that made me feel good. Yes, achieving a big distance or doing so many steps or being able to lift a certain weight, does make you feel good about yourself, but the main release of endorphins comes from doing the activity, getting your heart rate up (even if only briefly) and getting out there! When people talk about achievements, they say “it’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey”. Well the same goes for exercising.
The best advice I could give to someone who is unsure about how exercise can improve their mental health, is to read the Nike slogan once and don't look back. Don't spend time thinking about how sore you're going to feel after it. Don't even think about how good you're going to feel after it, just DO IT!
Go for a walk. Walking can be a form of meditation. Waking up stressed or anxious? Go for a walk first thing at any pace you want. Listen to the noises, what can you smell, what colours can you see? How do your legs feel? 5 minutes or half an hour, doesn't matter. Get back to your home, now how do you feel about starting your day?
Don't think "HIT” or the heaviest weights you can lift or CrossFit, yoga, swimming, running, cycling, going hard 5 or 6 days a week is the answer, because ultimately your body is going to suffer because of that. Exercise is about finding a balance, knowing when to go for it and get up to your max heart rate or lift the heaviest weights, and when to just back off and allow your body to rest. Knowing what that balance is for you, is key. You did well, you deserve to take a rest day or 2 or 3. Don't crash, keep up a routine. You do HIT 3 days a week and yoga twice a week. Fine? Fine... if you feel it’s balanced out. You are taking the time for your body to rest. Relax. Enjoy your downtime but aim for around 2 hours of physical activity over a week.
I know plenty of people (myself included) that make the same excuse for not exercising over and over again. “I don’t have the time”. I’ll agree, we are a busy people. Exercise is one of the key components to good mental health. Improving our mental health is done not by 1 single thing, but by lots of different things working in conjunction with each other. If we don’t eat right, we have a bad nights sleep. We have a bad nights sleep, we wake up exhausted. We wake feeling tired, we say “I’ll exercise after work”. Your day is so busy that you finish work late and can't exercise or you finish work on time but are so exhausted that you feel you need to rest instead of exercise. You then feel guilty that you didn’t stick to the plan. It can have a snowball effect, having a bad day where you do not look after yourself at all, all because you didn’t eat right. The key lies, not in eating healthily and nipping it in the bud, as looking after ourselves can mean eating that pizza or whole tub of ice cream or having a few drinks, but lies in making a decision to counteract the voice in your head saying “I’m too tired to go exercise” or “I’ve had a mentally draining day so I deserve to unwind and relax and not exercise”. That voice is only going to hinder you in improving your mental health. Yes, absolutely, relaxing and having some “me time” is essential for good mental health”. But if you are sacrificing exercise for “me time” every day, not making any time at all to raise your heart rate, your mental health will not improve. Much like life, it’s all a balancing act. Chances are most people reading this have at least 1 hour of down time, watching tv or otherwise, between finishing work and going to bed. Anything more than that can be spent doing some mild exercise. You are already having a whole hour of “me time” and relaxing, feet up, Netflix on, cup of tea, whatever. There should be enough time to have a mix of relaxation and exercise at the end of every day.
Genuinely not got time after work? Set your alarm half an hour earlier in the morning and exercise before work. Exercising first thing in the morning sets a routine. After a month or so of sticking to it, you wont want to break the routine because it will just be a normal day for you, getting up and going for a run. Morning exercise will also give you more energy (maybe even more than a cup of coffee!) You will have increased mental clarity, a sense of achievement and feel more productive throughout the day. You’ll be in a better mood for the day – endorphins, serotonin and dopamine – All good shit my friend! Exercising first thing is daunting and often unpleasant, getting up to sweat it out when you could have had an extra 30 minutes in bed, but trust me as soon as you have your shoes on and take that first step, you’ll be so glad you did it. As well as less stress and lower blood pressure, exercising in the morning can improve your sleep too.
If you’re unwell, you should rest and don’t do anything strenuous, and if you are also in a really bad place in your head at the same time, don’t be hard on yourself for not exercising. It’s easy to feel guilty about not exercising and those feelings might contribute to feeling sick. Instead, try to focus on something else, slowly building physical activity back into a routine, when you feel better. Always try to find a balance between physical and mental health. When we have poor mental health, our physical body can feel the effects and when we are not exercising, our mental health won’t improve. So balance it out. Both are important.
I praise exercise as being vital to keep up with a good mental health regime. I meditate, I journal, I write, I open up about my feelings, I take medication, I eat quite healthily, I try to spend time in nature every day, I do yoga and I play. But just as important as all those things, is exercise. If you don't enjoy any form of exercise, then you haven't found the right exercise for you. The 2 exercises that I enjoy and make me feel great is running, and going to the gym (where possible). As long as your blood gets pumping, you will reap the rewards. While Yoga is a fantastic exercise and I would suggest doing yoga to everyone, it probably wont raise your heart rate that much. You need to do exercises that get your heart going like the clappers, your breathing going nineteen to the dozen and your brain releasing all that good stuff. Exercise is up there with the best thing you can do to look after and improve your mental health. Lift weights, run, do sports, cycle, swim, row, do workout videos, dance...anything to get those endorphins released into your system. Get your blood pumping a few times a week and look after your body. Take care of your body, and the mind will follow suit.