The Relation Between Exercise, Stress & Anxiety

[caption id="attachment_3552" align="alignleft" width="282" caption="Working Out Helps Clear Your Mind"][/caption]

For someone like myself who sits in a chair and in front of a computer all day, I need that hour at the end of the day to exercise and clear my head. Now there are those days when I have no energy to get dressed and go for a run, and I usually always feel a little more stressed on those nights. The correlation between exercise, stress and anxiety are all connected, and it is important to always remember that, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed in the workplace.

Health and wellness are common goals of millions of people across the globe, partially because the focus on what a worthwhile life is has changed. Not long ago, working hard and earning a great living was considered the key to living a life without regrets. Now it appears that people are starting to realize the importance of personal health and happiness; that to truly live a great life, you need to live long, live healthy, and try to obtain enjoyment from everything that you do.

But there are roadblocks, and some of the most common roadblocks are stress and anxiety. Stress alone has the potential to harm your health and wellness, and anxiety makes it very difficult to focus on the positives in life. Both can be overwhelming, and even in light amounts they run the risk of harming your quality of life.

Solving the Problem with Exercise

There are a lot of different ways to improve your mental health. Therapy is very effective, and removing stressful situations (leaving a bad job, getting out of a bad relationship) can also go a very long way. Yet it’s exercise that may be one of the best – and often forgotten – solutions to general anxiety. Benefits include:

Reducing Health Concerns

Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that one of the main cause of anxiety – health – is much less of concern the more you keep your body in shape. Exercise isn’t a surefire solution to health issues, but it certainly reduces them and addresses a lot of the worries that people have about their health on a regular basis.

Relaxing Your Body

While a lot of anxiety is mental, there are other aspects of anxiety that are strictly physical. Misplaced energy can cause general anxiety, make it hard to sleep, and make it easier to feel the “fight or flight” system working. But when you exercise regularly and keep yourself active, your body becomes a little too tired to experience the severity of physical anxiety, which should lead to less actual anxiety. Also by improving your ability to get a restful night’s sleep you’ll experience less anxiety the next day.

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