Healing Anxiety with Exercise
By Sarah Lake
It's not surprising news that anxiety disorders have been steadily increasing. Anxiety has grown across all demographics, with young adults and teenagers being hit the hardest. Since this is a growing problem, our current solutions to treat anxiety aren't enough. However, what if starting to heal this rising issue was as simple as moving our bodies?
Our anxiety problem might be even more compelling than it appears. It's incredibly common to deal with an unpleasant amount of anxiety despite not meeting the criteria for an anxiety disorder diagnosis. Thankfully, there are simple ways you can reduce anxiety and improve your health. Exercise is one of the most effective ways to holistically heal your body and mind while taking back control of your life.
The most common ways anxiety is currently treated are psychotherapy, medications, or a combination of both. This works well for some people, but it's certainly not a viable solution for everyone. The quality of medical care varies significantly from place to place, and good mental health care is particularly difficult to access. It can be expensive, located far away, or impossible to find the time to fit in frequent doctor visits and therapy sessions. These reasons are precisely why exercise is such a simple yet revolutionary approach to healing anxiety. Whether or not you need mental health care support in addition to exercise, it can significantly improve your well-being.
How Does Exercise Help?
If you're a skeptic, you may still be doubting how such a simple habit can have such huge impacts, but there's plenty of evidence to back this claim up. A thorough meta-analysis in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examining nearly one hundred different studies has shown that exercise alone is 1.5x more effective at reducing mild-to-moderate symptoms of depression, stress, and anxiety than cognitive behavioral therapy or medication. Exercise makes measurable changes to the brain that can improve both short term and long term mental health.
These are the Main Mental Health Benefits of Exercise :
● Exercise shifts attention away from anxiety triggers and provides immediate stress relief.
● Most types of exercise reduce physical tension in the body, which can otherwise contribute to feelings of anxiety.
● A regular exercise routine can provide an outlet for processing difficult emotions.
● The heart rate increase that comes with exercise boosts the availability of anxiety-reducing chemicals like serotonin, GABA, and BDNF.
● Exercise trains the brain to become more resilient and better cope with stress.
● Regular exercise improves physical health and self-confidence which can otherwise be a source of anxiety.
What Types of Exercise Help Heal Anxiety?
The mental health benefits of exercise are impressive and luckily, you can reap these benefits from practically any form of exercise you enjoy. Activities that temporarily increase heart rate are particularly helpful at building resilience and increasing feel-good chemicals in the body. This includes activities like jogging, swimming, cycling, dancing, racquet sports, hiking, bodyweight exercises, or even walking!
Another area of physical activities that help relieve anxiety is anything that nurtures mindfulness and relaxation. This reduces stress and releases physical tension from the body. Yoga, pilates, tai chi, qigong, gardening, and stretching can all provide these benefits.
Overall, both your mental health and physical activity preferences are an entirely individual experience. What's helpful for one person likely won't be helpful for another. Finding a routine you enjoy and can stick to is the single most important element of using exercise as a tool to heal anxiety. It's true that taking ownership of your mental health is a daunting task, but little by little with the support of loved ones and perhaps healthcare professionals, you can create a more resilient and peaceful mind by regularly moving your body in ways that spark joy.