Beat depression with exercise…

When talking about depression, it generally refers to a mood disorder that affects your brain. This disorder is usually very common, but again very serious. Depression normally brings about severe signs and symptoms that affect the way you handle your normal activities, think or even feel.

Additionally, depression can affect anyone, whether rich, poor, outgoing or even successful. One way to alleviate, compress or avoid depression symptoms is by engaging in some fitness activities. Graeme Cowan, a great Psychologist in his book, Back from the Brink, said that engaging yourself in some exercise makes you feel good and importantly makes you feel mentally healthy.

For that reason, in the following discussion we are going to look at 7 ways fitness helps to fight against depression.

1. Makes you wake up happy

It’s obvious that each and everyone loves to sleep, getting out of your warm bed to the cold can sometimes be very hard. When you are suffering from depression, the task of waking up actually becomes harder when that time comes. Performing regular exercise makes you more awake, energized and important challenges of getting out of bed will be something of the past. Therefore, regular exercise is a very important aspect of fighting against depression.

2. Helps you achieve confidence

One major side effect of depression is the lack of confidence and self-worth. This is something that you cannot avoid if you experience depression and the only solution is looking for a way of dealing with it. Taking some time to work out in a gym or going for a 6 mile walk, is one sure way of building your confidence as a person who experiences depression. Regular exercise is a sure way of regaining your confidence back and more importantly makes you feel more of yourself.

3. Makes you remain Focused

Depression can sometimes leave without a drive, without motivation or even concentration. Living a life without these three traits can really be frustrating and to great extents discouraging. One of the best ways in which you can overcome this situation is through physical exercise. Physical exercise will add a motivator molecule and neurotransmitter to your brain known as Dopamine. This will make you experience a feeling of enjoyment and can help you remain motivated.

4. Enhances productivity

Research conducted by the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence shows that regular fitness exercise does not only benefit the physical aspect of the body but literally changes the entire lifestyle of outside the gym workouts. Allowing yourself to focus and set fitness goals gives you motivation in your workplace and helps you remain more productive until the end of the day. By this, you would have greatly beaten the depression in you.

5. Promotes your social aspect of life

Being depressed can greatly affect your social aspect of life to the extent that it reduces the way in which you interact with your close friends. Getting up and going to your nearest gym, taking a long walk or even running can greatly make you realize that you are not alone. This will help you come out of your oppressed thoughts and know that being around other people is not really bad.

6. Makes you look good

Sometimes you can find yourself out of your mind not feeling comfy wearing that favourite dress of yours. Performing a workout can greatly help in getting out of this. A proven benefit of fitness from an Australian Psychological Society article, A Review of Depression Diagnosis and Management, shows that fitness helps in preventing and treating depression to levels where it moderates the physical activities such as the way someone looks.

7. An Important element to glowing skin

Depression and stress are one of the worst nightmares of your skin. These types of mental disorders facilitate the production of toxic substances in your body that affect your good and fresh looking skin. Engaging yourself in a fitness exercise helps in cleaning these toxic substances and hence helping in the good grooming of your skin.

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Marcus has a degree in psychology, a masters degree in health psychology and has worked within the NHS as well as private organisations. Marcus started psysci a psychology and science blog in order to disseminate research into bitesize, meaningful and helpful resources.