3 Psychological Benefits of Exercise
Every article about morning routines or habit lists contains doing some form of exercise.
Most people already know that it is essential. But is knowing enough to start exercising consistently?
I know I occasionally need extra motivation to start my day with exercises, especially in the wintertime, when it is still dark outside in the mornings.
Physical fitness is essential to the success of the person. According to an article in Forbes, “countless successful people, from Fortune 500 CEOs to entrepreneurs and celebrities, have discovered the undeniable connection between fitness and success.”
For example, Richard Branson (who’s started over 400 companies) knows that regular physical activity, such as running, lifting, etc., provides him with up to four extra hours of productivity every day.
Perhaps these three psychological benefits of exercise below will help you to get motivated and be consistent.
Exercising Clears Brain Fog
Brain fog seems to be a relatively new term for the clouding of consciousness, which is the inability to think clearly, and a lack of a sharp focus.
I encountered it just recently. During the quarantine being at home, being cold and dark outside, I started to feel a lack of concentration as never before. It was not just that I would get easily distracted. It was hard to get myself together; everything felt blurry, I was forgetful, and I could hardly think and pay attention to something.
By looking up the possible reasons for brain fog, I concluded that lack of exercise must be the reason in my case.
I had been running for a long time, but I had not been doing it during the last two months. I only had done some morning stretches each morning. The lack of proper exercise and fresh air had given its’ results.
I started running again, despite the cold and wind and snow. Already the first day, I felt the difference. It was easier to focus, and I could think way more clearly and creatively.
Physical exercise helps with focus, memory, and a clear mind tremendously. And this cure for the brain fog and difficulty to focus is available to us for free. We only need to be disciplined to exercise regularly.
According to Synergy Health Associates, physical exercise increases endorphins and gets more glucose and oxygen flowing to the brain.
Researches also show that individuals who moved more scored better on the memory and thinking tests.
Besides, physical exercise increases the cerebral cortex’s thickness and promotes neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form new neural connections. Neuroplasticity plays a crucial role in our learning process, as with each new thing we learn, we are developing new neural connections.
Exercising Reduces Stress
There are different forms of stress; some of the mental symptoms include worry and irritability, restlessness and insomnia, anger and hostility, or sensations of dread, foreboding, and even panic.
Although we cannot always change the circumstances which cause us stress right away, we can use some resources always available to us to reduce the stress. One of such is physical exercise.
Physical exercise lowers the levels of stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. Exercising also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body’s natural painkillers and mood elevators — letting us feel more calm and happy. Exercising improves blood flow and the body’s ability to use oxygen.
Once I had a more difficult moment in my life due to relationship problems and dealt with anger, I realized how relieving it is to run out those emotions. I was running super fast — faster than usual, and by running fast, I could feel how those negative, stressful emotions are falling off.
Also, as emphasized by Harvard Health Publishing, “when your body is busy, your mind will be distracted from the worries of daily life and will be free to think creatively.”
Exercise also improves the quality of sleep. Lack of quality of sleep can also be one of the stress contributing factors.
Exercising Improves Self-Esteem And Confidence
Healthy self-esteem means authentic confidence.
We can build confidence with the little things we do daily. When we are disciplined and follow up on our promises to ourselves, that adds bit by bit to more authentic confidence.
We don’t need to achieve big projects every single day to feel like winners and be confident. We can track little controllable goals we do every day. One of those is exercising.
How great and confident would you feel when you would step outside in the morning and follow through with your commitment to running or following the fitness plan you have?
When we are pushing over our limits and following up on our promises, we will feel more confident.
It will take strength to choose the uncomfortable way over the easy way, but you will increase your self-esteem and confidence as you are building mental toughness.
Self-disciplined people are confident. They are not weak to submit to excuses, but they are strong enough to overcome feelings of “I don’t want” or “I can’t.”
There is a saying, “how you do anything is how you do everything.” It is proved how improvement in one area of life can improve other areas of our lives.
Becoming self-disciplined with exercising will also make it easier to discipline ourselves in other areas, such as resisting fast food or inconsistent sleep habits. Adding together all these little habits will make a huge difference in our confidence level and the way we see ourselves.
Having daily morning routines have improved my self-image and increased my confidence in immeasurable ways.
On top of that, your self-image will improve because your body starts to look more fit. You will experience energy and excitement, which will help you succeed in other tasks.
Takeaway
Clearing brain fog, reducing stress, and improving self-esteem and confidence are only some of the benefits of exercising.
However, these are benefits that many people are pursuing. So many of us want to increase confidence, we are dealing with stress and looking for therapists to help with that, and we are searching for productivity hacks to be able to focus better.
Yet, we sometimes neglect the free resources we have at hand to help us with that all.
Of course, exercising regularly will not help solve all the problems, yet by taking better care of ourselves in general, we can avoid a lot of pain and hassle later.
You can do plenty of different things — running, long walks, fitness apps with various exercises, fitness plans, etc. You only need to commit yourself to do it regularly and do it no matter what, also when you don’t feel like so. Having accountability with a friend or a coach or mentor can help a lot.
