These past few weeks it seems as if everything has gone wrong in the world, including your exercise programme. During the past three weeks, much of our attention was diverted away from staying committed to ourselves ‘mind and body’, while witnessing the country on the edge for about a week or more. With de-conditioning starting to kick in by Day Three of no exercise, compounded by anxiety, fear and stress taking over both mentally and physically…by now, most people are feeling like a wreck! Your only weapon is to get back into the swing of things and start moving.

Fighting depression with exercise

Nature’s best remedy for mental and internal stressors is fighting back with the physical body. Any activity, movement, breathing or stretching, are all physical remedies for anxiety and depression.

When you are depressed, your feelings are different than normal. You don’t want to do anything. You just want to lie in bed or just sit on a chair, and think. If you are doing that, at that time, self-defeating thoughts may come into your mind. Your mind goes into idle mode. Ironically, the best solution to battle depression is to keep yourself busy.

When you are doing exercise, don’t think about the drawbacks of doing it. Try to involve yourself in that task. You may not like that task, but force yourself to do it. Focusing on each movement will take your mind away from resisting it, and move you into a new zone while performing it. Concentrate on your body, and your mind will follow. You may feel better than how you were feeling previously.

Emotional eating

Depression grows whenever your mind is in idle mode. For example, when you are eating, your mind is in idle modeand at that time depression can increase. For emotional eaters especially, to avoid depression when you are eating, read something to keep your mind busy, or do a crossword puzzle to keep your mind focused.

Aerobic treatment

Many persons who fight depression have done so through exercise, with best results being reported from aerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise works faster than medicine for lifting the grip of depression. Walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes every day, for up to 10 days has had measured success from one person to the next. The speed, being pre-set, forces the movement of the body to keep up with the belt. It is a speed that is set, challenging the participant’s physical capacity, to the point where their focus is directed solely on the actions and energy that it takes them to stay upright and on the machine. Contrary to the involuntary thought process, it literally jolts them OUT of their own minds!

Depression severity was measured at the beginning of the programme and at the end. The intense activity, which was supposed to be done for three minutes, was alternately replaced with three minutes of light walking activity, approximately half the speed of normal walking. The participant rates his or her mood at the start, middle and at the end of the session.

After 10 days, it was reported and proven that a good percentage of the participants undeniably felt less depressed. Antidepressant treatment takes three to four weeks whereas aerobic treatment takes almost 10 days to make you feel better.

Taming the beast

Universally, most people (myself included), inherently JUST DO NOT WANT TO! I don’t feel like or enjoy doing exercise on a daily basis. “It hurts, it’s hard, I’m tired, I’d rather be lying down, NO, I don’t want to” are a few of my most popular tunes on the hit-list. How I manage myself mentally around these “dragons” is that I have to literally turn off, stop listening, and go straight for the physical action. And yes, that does take a lot of practice, but, anybody CAN do it.

The focus and attention that it takes me to apply force to create the movement, the precision, the balance, the speed and the intensity, is all concentrated, and in that moment… POOF! The “dragons” are all swallowed up. If you are incapable of moving, the body still allows an outlet for you to release yourself “mentally”. Replace the thoughts with the action.

Get “high” off of breathing

Breathing is a physical action which, when concentrated upon, can be a wonderful way of getting “out of your head”. Of course, this one being for the gurus and the Buddhists, DOES take A LOT of practice, but again, the good news is that ANYBODY can do it.

The road to “ascension” is not an easy one; many of us get stopped along the way as our thoughts wander off within the first ten seconds of the attempt. But the benefits of breathing effectively are BIG like a Buddha’s belly, my friends. Not only can it save you from an anxiety attack, it can really help you to change your entire perspective from just stopping… and taking a breath. Anywhere, anytime, it’s always available … and it doesn’t use up ANY electricity!

But, as we all say in the fitness world, ‘nothing worthwhile ever comes easily’. The harder you have to work for something, the sweeter the reward always is. Just take a look at the life of the Buddha, who never got angry or upset, and you can see. The calm and the lightness that are available from doing ‘breathing’ right, are invaluable.

Cooling down for a better “you”

But for those of us who do not have the time every day to do one hour of Yoga or meditation, a very important part of your workout should include your COOL DOWN. The cool down doesn’t have to take more than five or ten minutes, but what it can do for your mental and physical state….is big.

Taking that time for YOU to just stop, breathe and slow down in a renewed mental zone, can probably be the most creative, effective and rejuvenating time of day for your mind and body.

Cooling down means gradually slowing down the level of activity. Cooling down after exercise is just as important in reducing the risk of injury as the warming up process before exercise. If the major purpose of warming up is to prepare the body for movement, then the main purpose for cooling down is to prepare your mind for the rigorous rollercoaster of a day in your life. Reduce your risk, take responsibility for your mental health with as much commitment as you do with your physical health, by freeing your mind with your body.