How exercise helps manage your emotions: regulate stress and build emotional control
How Exercise Can Help You Manage Your Emotional State
Emotional health often gets overlooked, but it’s crucial to your overall well-being. If you weren’t raised to understand your emotions, it can feel foreign to you as an adult. However, once you get in tune with your emotional process, you gain more control when you feel triggered.
Stress distraction:
Whether you step into the gym or work out at home, you’re able to focus on your body and mind. Making that time for yourself gives you a break from all the other stresses going on in your life. When you start exercising at the appropriate intensity, cortisol (a stress hormone) is automatically reduced in your body. The break from thinking of life’s problems and the chemical reactions from exercising brings you into a calmer state of mind, providing a clear mind to make the best decisions.
Hormone regulation & Neurotransmitters released:
Through consistent exercise your brain chemistry begins to change. Your hormones balance as cortisol and insulin become regulated, leading to a stable mood and emotional control. Neurotransmitters are the “feel good” chemicals in your brain that get released during exercise — dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Even after a hard training session, most people will still feel better about themselves because of the reward and pleasure effect of serotonin.
Cognitive restructuring:
Cognitive restructuring simply means to change your thought instincts. We all have automatic insecurities and doubts that don’t serve us well in our relationships, career, and life pursuits. These negative thoughts don’t go away just because we want them too. You have to constantly train your mind to think otherwise until we replace our automatic thoughts to be positive.
It’s like when you lift, your approach to the bar can make or break you. If you go in unsure of yourself it translates to how you perform in the lift — lighter loads start to feel heavier, the lift might not be as smooth, and the grind feels harder. At the worst you can’t lift what you know you can.
It’s best to take a step back, regroup, and approach the bar knowing you can do it. At times, when you catch yourself automatically thinking negatively about a situation, it’s best to apply the same principle before you go into a downward spiral.
Conclusion
Exercise is a powerful tool to manage stress and emotions, helping you achieve balance mentally and physically. If you’re ready to take control of your emotional health, our virtual personal training programs are designed to build both your physical and emotional resilience. Contact us today to start your journey!
