Mental Health and Exercise

It may come as no surprise that mental health and exercise are intertwined. The care and feeding of the human body is an intricate balance. Working with women that struggle with getting enough sleep, proper eating practices, and maintaining a stressful job is a recipe for weight gain and mental imbalance. Exercise is a means of reducing hormones associated with stress that can also have a positive impact on sleep. Bottom line, we don’t feel good when our bodies are sick.

The biggest issue is most people aren’t aware how they feel because of the intent focus it takes to get through life. Having a demanding job, marriage, kids, aging parents, home ownership . . . serve as daily distractions. We aren’t paying attention to how drastically our bodies are changing because we’re on auto-pilot.

What I have learned over the past eight years is “you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves.” Scary truth! Assisting a person through their struggle with weight loss and learning healthy lifestyle habits is extremely rewarding. On the flip side, not everyone is successful. Providing an eating plan, sleep strategy, exercise program, emotional support system, pain management practitioners, and other schema won’t fix the underlying issue unless it is embraced. An individual’s mental health is the X factor.

Get Help

Easy to say, but super difficult to do. We have psychologists trained to counsel, psychotherapists trained to treat mental and emotional disorders, hypnotherapists trained to heal our subconscious, physical health practitioners trained to help manage exercise and pain, but admitting there is an issue and seeking help is just the first step. The hard work goes into consistently working on our issues. This is the one thing we can do to create a safe and healthy environment. When negative internal voices are chattering, it’s time to find someone to confide in and move toward healthier mental practices. Please use your voice to speak out.

Leave a comment