3 Ways to Give Your Body-Mind The Exercise it Needs

For example your heart has its own electricalsystem¹  that keeps it beating in rhythm, we strengthen it through cardiovascular exercise.  This can include things like running, biking, swimming, walking, anything you do with your big muscle groups for a period of time that makes your heart beat faster and breath rate go up.

Equipment like treadmills, recumbent bikes, and elliptical machines are used to help people raise their heart rates indoors and get an effective cardiovascular workout done on limited time.

When we workout doing cardiovascular exercise we help our mood too. Our serotonin ² endorphins, domaine, oxytocin, acetylcholine, all increase. These are the feel good hormones in our bodies.

Doing just 2 – 30 minutes aerobic exercise sessions per week for at least 7 weeks is as good as taking a Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor (SSRI) anti-depressant medication for depression³.

These feel good hormones do more than just make us feel good, they also regulate other processes in our bodies. They also decrease inflammation throughout our physical system.

This is important because inflammation ⁴ wreaks havoc on our tissues. It creates brain fog, digestive issues, joint pains, weight gain and makes us feel more stressed out.

When we feel stressed out everything is harder.

It’s harder to learn, our relationships are more difficult, often because we are more irritated. It is harder to relax, and harder to get excited about doing fun things, which is exactly what we need to do if we are going to feel better. So it’s a double whammy of struggle!

When we feel stress we are feeling the increases of chemicals in our endocrine system. Specifically through what’s called the HPA-axis. This is our hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal glands.

They work together to shift us into high gear and stay alive through a threat. However, if we don’t move those chemicals out of our system they keep us inflamed and don’t help our tissues relax. And our body mind can’t tell if the threat is really happening to us or just something we saw on TV or in our video game⁵. We feel it in our physical system. Then we respond as though it is happening to us even if we are just watching it or playing a game.

Exercise is also considered a stressor and it works with the HPA-axis ⁶ too. BUT it gives us a mechanism to metabolize and use up those chemicals as our muscles, heart, lungs, and bones are working to move faster, lift heavy things, and challenge our fitness levels. So when we move our bodies and challenge ourselves we are building a stronger physical and mental system that works together ⁷.

Another big way exercise helps us is through our breathing.

When we workout we breathe harder. Our lungs are one of four organs that help us get toxins out of our bodies. Exhaling even helps us lose weight⁸.

Breathing is directly tied to our nervous system.

When we breathe in we impact our sympathetic system. This is our high energy creative doing and fight/flight side of our nervous system. As we breathe out we impact our parasympathetic nervous system side⁹. This is our rest, digest, stay, and play, creative inspiration, feel good side.

We want to be here more.

This is where we feel safe and connected to people around us and something larger than ourselves. This tells our brains we are ok and the world is ok. We don’t have to be afraid. We have help and support when we need it.

All humans need these feelings. When we are here our bodies and minds work better.

So getting enough exercise is really important in our overall health. It helps our bones and muscles get stronger, helps our heart and digestive systems work better, and helps our minds learn faster, our moods feel more positive, and increases our self-confidence.

Running is great because it asks the large muscles of our body to move over time – also known as cardiovascular exercise. Plus, it’s hard for most of us and creates a mental game we must play if we are going to keep with it. It teaches our body how to function more effectively and our minds how to stick with boring things.

Strength training is about challenging your muscles to be stronger than they are now. There are lots of ways we can build our strength.

So we can usually find something where we don’t get too bored. We just have to pick lifting, pushing, pulling things that are just a little bit heavier than what can comfortably do now. However it’s hard to lift heavy things. This challenges our muscles, builds our bones, and helps our minds remember we can do hard things!

Yoga asana or postures are known for its ability to help us regulate our nervous systems through repetitive movements linked to our breathing.

Remember above I talked about how our breathing is tied to our nervous system? This is part of why yoga works so well. Plus it asks us to contract and lengthen our muscles in a rhythmic pattern that helps our muscles stretch and become stronger under stretch.

This is important for our range of motion – how much we can move a joint on our body – and keeps us moving throughout our lifetime. Yoga teaches us to be present to each experience as it happens and to just witness it. Let it go as it has happened. Then move to the next moment.

We do not have to hold onto our judgment, frustration, fear, or joy because things are always changing. Yoga teaches us that change is ok and that we can make it through any changes, good or bad.

If you have a healthy and developed nervous system and strong mind you can handle anything that comes your way. Even the hard stuff, the boring stuff, the wanted and the unwanted stuff. A solid nervous system helps you regulate your emotions better and helps us stay present to our experiences which make our relationships, confidence, and ability to impact our world better.

Today think about how you can move your body and help control your mind using movement.

Challenge yourself to do hard things, lift more, run / walk further, or stay present to your breath. Use your body to experience everything that comes your way today.

What you do today, impacts what you can do tomorrow. Many won’t be willing to put the effort in today to have the life they want tomorrow.

Be willing to do the hard work of creating the life you want. This is called living an embodied life.

Want help incorporating these ideas into your mental and physical fitness routines?

Check out our integrative clinic at Studiob.life 

We work with people online and in person to learn more about how you can live more embodied everyday, understand how you can cultivate good feelings through simple movements and breathing exercises, and look closer at the science behind what’s happening in your psychology and physiology? We have some great programs for you and can help you towards better cardiovascular exercise.

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2 – Peluso M. A. M., & Guerra de Andrade, L. H. S. (2005). Physical activity and mental health: The

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And as always, if you are struggling to engage fully in your life and would like to see how psychology might be able to help you contact me today!