Exercise for Your Mental Health
Use movement to take care of yourself.
Burn members on the first workout together two weeks after Helene hit.
This time has been HARD and we’ve got a long road ahead. Whether you lost everything or made it through with minimal losses, we’ve all endured a life-altering experience together. We’ll also come out of it together. To do that, we need to take care of ourselves first and foremost. Remember, there’s a reason we’re told to put our oxygen masks on first before assisting others.
It’s easy to find ourselves eating emotionally, drinking more, skipping our workouts and doomscrolling social media. Unfortunately, these things are going to make processing what has happened harder and will impact our mental health more than the storm already has.
Working out is a great place to start, as it’s known to help with anxiety, stress, depression and trauma. Exercise releases endorphins, making you feel good. It is known to improve your sleep, give you energy to do more, relax your muscles and reduce tension caused by stress, and help your nervous system get unstuck.
Tip: When working out, try not to zone out but rather focus on your movement, your breathing, and how your muscles and joints feel with each movement or rep.
Knowing you need to work out for your mental health is easy. Doing it is another story. Try some of these tips to help get yourself moving, literally.
- Zero energy? Set a timer for 10 minutes (less if that feels like a lot) and start walking, running or doing another exercise. More often than not, once you get going, you’ll finish.
- Overwhelmed? Struggling to focus? Remind yourself what it will cost you when you don’t take care of your mental health. Add a workout to your calendar, set an alarm, make yourself a priority and remember you’ll be able to better help those around you once you’ve taken care of yourself.
- Unmotivated? Phone a friend. Find an accountability buddy who also needs help showing up. Besides, friendship and community are needed just as much as exercise.
Give yourself grace. Do the best you can, take it one day at a time and remember that taking care of yourself is taking care of others.
Dana Hall is a Burn Boot Camp trainer and the ad strategist for Stroll Biltmore Park. Carrie Robitzer, owner of Burn Boot Camp Asheville, sponsors Focus on Fitness.