Exercise has always been a big struggle for me when I'm depressed and it's really ironic because I know it's one of the things that can help depression most. It's just that when I don't even have the motivation to take a shower, it's hard to find the motivation to go exercise. Something I've been talking about with my therapist is changing the framing around exercise to just "moving your body." I don't know about you, but sometimes the word exercise stresses me out. Whenever I think of exercise I think of fitness buffs who live at the gym or have daily coordinated workout schedules. Which is not me at all. So I've found it helpful to sometimes reframe exercising as just moving my body.
At my house, though, my workout options are limited so I've had to get more creative when it comes to finding ways to move my body. For starters, I've started playing the video game Just Dance as a way of exercise. I haven't played Just Dance since like 2012 but it WORKS UP A SWEAT (like after 3 songs I am panting). But it's also really fun and nostalgic and I end up having so much fun that I forget that I'm exercising. Another thing that I've been doing, though it's a lot harder now in the winter, is going on nature walks. Every week my family goes out to a trail in our area to go for a walk. Yes, it can be FREEZING outside but somedays are better than others and if you bundle up then you'll be okay. Walking outside is great because it's really nice to just zone out from everything going on in your life and just connect with nature. I don't know about you but spending time in nature always makes me feel better. And you don't even have to go as far as a trail somewhere, taking a walk around your neighborhood can do the same thing. Lastly, I really enjoy doing yoga. There are so many places online to learn yoga nowadays and so the accessibility makes it much easier. Through different practices over the last year, I've learned that there are so many types of yoga for so many different purposes. Yoga to calm you down, to energize you, yoga for stress, yoga for flexibility, yoga for anger, yoga for back pain, etc. There's literally yoga for everything. Meaning that there's no excuse for not being in the mood to do yoga because whatever mood you're in, there's a yoga sequence for it :). Another important thing about exercise is remembering your why. This is something really important that I was talking about with my therapist and something that was mentioned on the podcast of a friend of mine. When you exercise it has to be for you. So find your why. Do you want to improve your mood? Do you want something to make you feel good in the morning? Finding your why is really important for the times when you don't want to keep going. Your why is the thing that you can hold onto to keep you from dropping it. Just having something to hold on to can go a long way. For me, faith is what keeps me going when I don't have motivation. I have faith in God and faith that if I consistently exercise, eventually it will start to make me feel better. Your reason for faith doesn't have to be spiritual though. Perhaps you have a dream or goal you want to achieve. And you know that the energy you'll gain from continuously moving your body will help you achieve that goal. Having something to hold on to when you're doing something difficult, like exercising, is literally the best way to convince you to keep going. So if you do want to start exercising more, or just incorporating movement into your life more, before you start, it's really worth it to sit down and ask yourself why you're doing it. What is your motivation? What can you draw strength from when you feel like giving up. Finding the motivation to exercise is extremely difficult, let alone during a pandemic. But I hope that this was able to give you some helpful tips and ideas. Because if you're able to find ways to exercise that you enjoy, it really makes it that much easier.
0 Comments
|
Naija SunshineHi! My name is Efe and this is my mental health blog where I'll be talking about my experiences with mental illness, as well as my thoughts and tips. Archives
September 2021
Categories |