Exercise and YOUR Mental Health

Welcome back to our Monthly Mental Health Moment. Thanks for all the encouraging comments and e-mails on last months “You are not Broken” post.  You guys rock!

As promised, today we will be talking about self care and its relevance to mental health.  First lets all reflect on how we feel when we have a cold.  We ache, we sit around, we do not feel like doing ANYTHING, because we just can’t and no one likes this.  So what is the alternative? Well, we need to look at how we can look after ourselves.  If we are not in proper physical health, how can we be in good mental health?  Ask anyone who has lost weight, they may share about how good they feel about themselves, no matter how minor the feeling or the weight loss.  And if you have good self esteem, you will start to feel good about yourself overall. 

So lets look at exercise. When you exercise you release a drug in the brain called endorphins and endorphins are the feel good chemicals in our bodies.  Translation, we exercise, we feel good. 
Now I am not saying, that if you take up running your depression will be gone, however I will say that this is a good start to helping your overall mental and physical health.  Remember that exercise does not have to mean you are a marathon runner or some type of Richard Simmons wannabe, but it could be as simple as getting up to change the channel on the television, or walking to the store. 

Good luck everyone! Please leave a comment and let me know what helps you feel good in regards to your mental health! Be sure to check out our Monthly Mental Health posts. I will answer your questions in the comment section unless you leave an e-mail for me to contact you.

Do you have any topics you would like me to cover? Let me know so we can discuss them at next months Mental health moment!
PS. check the auction or Luke

The Richard Simmons photo is licensed for use in the public domain through the Creative Commons license.