Are You Exercising Your Way To Stress?
ByChristopher Green
You’re right, the headline is a very strange
one! Exercise is vital to maintain good health
and most of the time, the benefits of exercise
far out-weigh the drawbacks. But if you suffer
from a stressful or a depressive illness,
exercise can actually make you feel worse.
But how can this be?
I’m sure you’ve heard the following
statement over and over again: exercise
can help you to beat stress, or alleviate
anxiety or boost a depressed mind. This
is only true in part. Because many exercises
can actually worsen these illnesses. And
even if you perform exercises that can
help, these exercises will only help temporarily.
The reason many people believe exercise
to be helpful in combating stressful and
depressive illnesses is because when you
exercise vigorously for longer than 20
minutes, your body floods with endorphins.
These chemicals give us a buzz, and this
is why it is widely believed that exercise
can cure stress, depression or anxiety.
If you’re suffering a stressful or depressive
episode, you’ll know that no matter how
regularly you exercise, the bad feelings
return. The only way to beat these illnesses
is to treat the root cause - flawed modes
of thinking. Exercise, though great for
our bodies, simply doesn’t do anything
to address modes of thinking.
When my anxiety was at it’s worst back
in 2000, I exercised 4 times a week. For
2 days, I’d perform weight-training exercises.
These exercises are the type of exercise
that can actually make you feel worse
because you have time to think about all
of the issues and problems you have in
your life at the time. I’d also warm up
and warm down on bike machines or cross-trainers.
Again, you can perform these exercises
easily so you can think about your problems.
For my other workouts, I’d perform instructor-led
circuit training sessions. As you’re listening
out for instructions and performing sequences
of exercises at a high tempo, you don’t
have time to dwell on your troubles and
worries. The problem is that once you
stop exercising, you return to the modes
of thinking which lead to stress, depression
or anxiety.
As soon as my workout had finished, I’d
perform flawed modes of thinking, that
made me anxious and depressed. Exercising
did very little to stop me performing
these flawed thought processes.
Do be aware of what’s happening when
you exercise. Exercises that don’t require
much concentration may have you brooding
over your troubles as you perform them.
Jogging, walking, exercise machines, weight-training
are all examples of such exercises. Instead,
try ones that are more intensive or competitive
so your whole concentration is required.
Circuit-training worked for me, so did
sports like soccer and badminton.
The idea is to give yourself a period
of time where you’re not thinking about
your problems and worries. And of course,
you’ll do your body a whole heap of good
too!
The point here is to understand that
exercise can only provide temporary relief.
The only way to find permanent relief
from your suffering is to understand and
address flawed modes of thinking. And,
just as physical exercise benefits our
bodies, mental skills leading to better
modes of thinking will bring enormous
benefits to our minds.
The following quote sums it up in a nutshell:
"Thought can make you, thought can break
you." - Swami Sukhabodhanada
Until next time.
Copyright 2006 Christopher Green
About The Author
Christopher Green is the author of "Conquering
Stress", a special program which will
show you how to conquer stress, depression
and anxiety without taking powerful drugs.
For a free e-course please click here
=> http://www.conqueringstress.com.
