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Stress and Health Part 4 - Exercise

By admin | February 23, 2010

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Stress and Health – Part 4 Exercise

So now that you know that stress can play havoc on your health – both physically and mentally – what is it that you can do to relieve your stress? In the remaining article series I will discuss tools and techniques you can use to alleviate stress. Here we will start with exercise.

You have heard that exercise is a great stress reliever for years, but what is the real reason that stress helps in managing stress?

1.    It allows for the body to detoxify stress build up of excess hormones or the flight or fight response through movement and through the breathing process that occurs with cardiovascular exercise
2.    It is a socially acceptable way to be aggressive and blow off steam – through sports (like boxing, etc) you can exert yourself in a way where you can be strong, masculine, and aggressive without hurting yourself or anyone else
3.    It can be like a meditation because it forces you (especially sports) to be more in the moment and focus on what is here and now instead of obsessing about what has been or what will be
4.    It can increase your self-esteem in that you can be achieving goals, such as running a particular race (a marathon), or because your body feels better. If you are stressed because you are overweight exercising can also make you feel better because your body looks better
5.    There is an increase in endorphins, or the feel good chemical, that helps you clear your mind and get away from the flight or fight response

So if exercise has so many benefits why don’t more people do it? Well there are so often excuses of: being too busy, it being too cold outside, or not being able to afford a gym membership. Exercise doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Just walking 30 minutes 3 times a day can be very beneficial in reducing stress. Take a walk with a friend and make it fun and it won’t seem so hard to do anymore. The more you can make exercise a part of your day to day life and make it fun the less stressed you will be!

Continue to look for more tools and techniques on how to deal with stress in more of the Stress and Health series.

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