Emotional Benefits of Exercise (7 Useful Advantages)

This blog will talk about the emotional benefits of exercise. Readers will first learn about how exercise helps with mental health. Then, we will explore 8 such emotional benefits of exercise.

What are the Emotional Benefits of Exercise?

The emotional benefits of exercise and physical activity are listed below:

• Increased Happiness
• Reduced Stress
• Fight Depression Better
• Deal with Anxiety Better
• Improved Sleep
• Enhanced Sense of Well-Being
• Positive Body Image
• Increased Gratitude
• Better Relationships
• Replacement for Unhelpful Habits

Can Exercise Help with Mental Health?

There are several ways how engaging in regular physical activity can improve one’s mental health. That’s because humans need movement in order to remain healthy and well. Activities like walking, running, stretching, and exercising help keep the mind and body fit as they ensure proper functioning of our organ systems.

People tend to wonder how moving your body can have an effect on the mind. Well, the truth is that both the mind and body are deeply interconnected. To keep one functioning well, we need to take care of the other too.

Just like poor mental health can lead to bodily illnesses, similarly, poor physical health can also take a toll on the mind. Hence, exercise is an important part of self-care, especially when it comes to emotional wellbeing.

8 Emotional Benefits of Exercise

In this section, we are going to go over eight emotional benefits of exercise. Each of these are backed by research, proving that regular exercise can go a long way in maintaining your emotional health. So, let’s begin!

Increased Happiness

According to a 2019 systematic review, as little as 10 minutes of physical activity per week or 1 day of doing exercise per week might result in increased levels of happiness. Any kind of exercise makes our body pump endorphins, which are chemicals produced by the nervous system to deal with stress and pain. 

In fact, because endorphins help relieve such discomfort, they’re also known as ‘feel-good chemicals’. Exercising frequently boosts the production of endorphins, leading to feelings of elation.

Reduced Stress

It can be hard to imagine how one can benefit from working out when they’re super stressed. But regular exercise can help reduce the impact of stress on your body by preventing various medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.

By giving your body regular physical activity, you build resilience and endurance. Doing so makes your body stronger and more capable of handling stressful situations. Exercise also improves immunity, something often impacted by chronic stress.

Fight Depression Better

Exercise is associated with a greater reduction in depression symptoms compared with no treatment, placebo, or active control interventions, such as relaxation or meditation. It helps fight depression in two ways.

The first is by increasing your happiness levels through the production of endorphins. Secondly, when you maintain a regular fitness routine, you add structure to your daily schedule, ensuring that you sleep better, feel hungry, and avoid negative thought cycles brought by idleness.

Deal with Anxiety Better

When one is anxious, there is an excessive production of energy in the body. That’s why anxiety often brings with it a feeling of restlessness. Exercising is a way of channeling this energy and releasing it from the body.

Not only do you feel more relaxed with energy levels back to normal, you also keep yourself engaged by working out. It’s pretty hard to think endless thoughts of worry and fear when you’re pushing yourself to exercise.

Improved Sleep

If you have a good workout during the day, your body will automatically feel tired and want to rest. According to research, exercising regularly also improves the quality of sleep. You tend to get more hours of deep sleep, which allows you to feel rested when you wake up.

Many people suffer from sleep disturbances like broken sleep, early awakening, and unpleasant dreams. Exercising can help eliminate these problems and by doing so, improve your emotional and cognitive health.

Enhanced Sense of Well-Being

Since exercising is an important self-care activity, it promotes wellbeing. There are numerous physical and psychological benefits to doing physical activity with discipline. These benefits manifest in an overall improved functioning in life.

You tend to have a positive and open mindset, make better decisions, tackle problems well, and bounce back from bad days quicker. This enhanced sense of wellbeing brought by exercise makes you a better version of yourself.

Positive Body Image

It’s no secret that exercise makes your body fitter and stronger. The changes may come slowly but if you pay attention, you’ll notice your body shifting shapes. Seeing yourself become more physically attractive can improve your body image.

The best thing is that it’s not as much about losing weight as it is about building endurance. Unlike fasting and dieting, you don’t have to skip meals to see these results. Consequently, you tend to develop a healthier and more positive body image.

Increased Gratitude

Since exercise increases happiness levels, you tend to start noticing the things that make your life more enjoyable. As a result, you feel a sense of gratitude for everything adding to the joy and beauty of life.

Gratitude is a powerful positive emotion that has been shown to fight mental illnesses, improve health, and promote wellbeing. It is a very useful emotion and exercising helps you feel more of it.

Conclusion

This blog will talk about the emotional benefits of exercise. Readers will first learn about how exercise helps with mental health. Then, we will explore 8 such emotional benefits of exercise.

The emotional benefits of exercise mentioned here included Increased Happiness, Reduced Stress, Fight Depression Better, Deal with Anxiety Better, Improved Sleep, Enhanced Sense of Well-Being, Positive Body Image, and Increased Gratitude.

FAQs (Emotional Benefits of Exercise)

What are emotional benefits?

An emotional benefit is when a practise or activity creates a positive impact on one’s emotional health. This can be caused by an increase in positive emotions, decrease in negative emotions, or a reduction in the intensity of negative emotions.

What are the advantages of being emotionally healthy?

The advantages of being emotionally healthy are mentioned as follows:

• Having a positive outlook
• More energy
• Resilience
• Strength
• Better immunity
• Improved productivity
• Better relationships
• Self-awareness
• Self-acceptance

How do emotions affect physical health?

Due to the mind-body connection, emotions have a strong impact on physical health. Here are some of the ways your emotional health can affect physical health:

• Chronic stress can lead to cardiovascular disease
• Quality of sleep
• Poor immunity
• Skin issues
• Reduced appetite

References

• https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-21826-023
• https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-018-9976-0?platform=hootsuite&error=cookies_not_supported&code=a592bab8-77e7-45db-8299-6661718e8da4
• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/1881295
• https://www.sportsmed.theclinics.com/article/S0278-5919(04)00139-5/fulltext