Sports are full of benefits for your health. It stimulates blood circulation and helps fight diabetes and obesity. It has proven to be very efficient for our body but what about our mind? Can sports help us feel better in our head? Let’s find out together.
Sports and mental health
Negative thoughts, anxiety, insomnia, chronic fatigue and even depression… when you have a disease attacking your mind instead of your body it can be very difficult to cope and operate properly in your daily life. It can lead to panic attacks, social phobia, heart palpitations and many other symptoms that you must inform your doctor about so that he can guide you towards a solution after a diagnostic. But did you know that sports can help you feel better?
When you exercise, your body produces endorphins, also called hormones of happiness, and they act just like painkillers. These hormones produced by the pituitary gland spread in the nervous system and the blood and then affects our mood in a positive way! So as a result, you feel happier and way more relaxed when you exercise!
So what kind of exercise should you do?
So yeah, sports can lift your mood in an incredible way! It is recommended to practice endurance sports like jogging, cycling swimming, football or aerobic! These activities can be really good for you and your mental health. It’s not easy to workout when you’re depressed but it would be great for you to start a routine of 45 minutes of exercise, 3 times a week to feel the positive changes on your mood. Sports are also a good way to keep your mind busy and distracted from daily stressors! For better results, you should workout in the morning, this way you will have more energy to face the day ahead!
And why not associate sports with meditation? According to a study by the American magazine Translational Psychiatry, combining sports and meditation can really impact the mental state of a person in a positive way! This study was led on 22 depressive students who had to alternate between 30 minutes of meditation and 30 minutes of exercise everyday. Afterwards, the results were really promising since this practice allowed them to be more positive and more focused in their life. It even helped decrease their symptoms by 40%!
Reference :
https://www.nature.com/articles/tp2015225
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-benefits-sports
https://www.onlymyhealth.com/how-do-playing-sports-affect-us-mentally-1475829703