The Incredible Benefits of Regular Exercise

Even though psychologists are supposed to focus on the mind, as a curious trained systemic therapist I choose to focus on how body-mind-spirit relate as a whole.  Like many people I have been exercising regularly as long as I can remember and reaped the benefits over the years.  As a result I persistently encourage others to exercise regularly. Here I will reveal why I do this by exposing the truly incredible benefits of regular exercise.

Preventive and Healing Qualities of Regular Exercise

Our Western methods of treating illness have had the unfortunate effect of dissociating body-mind-spirit from each other when it comes to health and illness.  We have tended to view each as specialisms having little, or no, relationship to each other. We are led to believe that if we are hurting, the doctors will give us a healing medicine.  Not only this belief disconnects us from our ability to heal ourselves but also goes hand in hand with a sense of helplessness and dependency to doctors. However even doctors know that there are a variety of untapped internal resources to heal ourselves at our disposal.  Some physicians and pharmacists even admit that medication alleviates our suffering because we believe in its healing features. This is what we call placebo effect.

Recently, in the USA researchers have discovered that the placebo effect is becoming more effective in the treatment of various kinds of conditions. This unusual finding was discovered during drug trials, where some patients were given inert substances as ‘controls’ against which other patients taking experimental medication could be compared.

Thus, healing ourselves is a much more active process than we realize.   And exercise is one of the most powerful, multi beneficial tools we all freely have access both to protect our health as well as to heal ourselves when we are unwell. Many health promotion consultants say that exercise is the most cost-effective cure ever, because it is free in exchange of your time and willingness to benefit.

What is Regular Exercise?

Many people have a tendency to either over, or under, exercise. Both create illness and can even be fatal. Moderation is the key for optimum results in every realm of life.

Right exercise and how much you need will be changing according to who you are and what your interests are.  But as a general rule daily routines are better than weekly regimes.  Of course weekly regimes are better than no routines at all.

Body-Mind-Spirit Benefits of Regular Exercise

There is no aspect of our human existence that does not benefit from regular exercise.

• Feeling happy and engaged: When we exercise our body releases a miracle hormone called endorphin.  This makes you feel calmer and more relaxed both physically and mentally.  If you feel tense, low, depressed, anxious, stressed or simply  negative, exercise will definitely and effectively change your body and mood. You will enjoy a sense of well being without the side effects of medication or addictions.

• Better concentration, memory and thinking skills: Exercise stimulates the growth of new brain cells, new activity patterns whilst reducing inflammation which in turn keep your mind sharp.  As we exercise dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin levels in our brain increase immediately which in turn improve our memory and concentration.  This has the exact same effect as Attention Deficit Disorder medications.
• Better sleep patterns:Regular exercise is found to regulate sleep patterns and improve its quality.  The need to oversleep or turning and tossing in bed long time
• Better weight, fitness, flexibility, self-esteem and resilience:Regular exercise stabilizes weight by balancing the appetite and increasing activity levels.  Our bones and muscles become stronger, as a result we become less accident prone. Our skin improves as well. When we feel physically fit and flexible and our physical appearance pleases us, not only our self-esteem improves but also we approach stressful situations in our lives with a more flexible attitude from a more powerful place.
• More energy:Regular increase in our heart rate gives us more energy.  As lethargy can be self- perpetuating, same goes with exercise.  You start with few minutes every day and before you know it, you naturally increase your activity level.
• Strong immune system:What makes us ill is often accumulated stress.  As exercise balances the effects of stress we don’t get ill so easily. It is found that regular exercise, by changing the chemistry of our body reduce the risk of major illnesses by up to 50%.

Incorporating Regular Exercise in Your Life

Most of us are not happy and critical of  the way we are.  Habits are difficult to change and forces that want us to stay the same are powerful.  But there are ways you can change any habit as long as you persist when old habits resurface.  It takes at least 3 months and many many failures to let go of an habit and 21 days to establish a new one.

I advise people to have personal, couple and family routines that involve exercise.  You can even introduce such habits with your reunions.  As childhood friends we try to meet at least once a year, often over a brunch.  This year I am inviting them to walk with me near the sea.

How often do you exercise? What exercise you do? If you don’t exercise but feel inspired write below how you can introduce regular exercise in your life?  What exercise routines have you thought of as a couple, as a family? Do you encourage your kids to exercise regularly? What can you do if they are already indoctrinated that they should stop exercising in order to study?

Writing makes plans more likely to happen and if everybody writes we will inspire each other. Be sure to comment below, or on my Facebook page and let me know how you get on.