The Many Benefits Of Exercise For Depression Exercise For Depression Report | Page 17

11 Real Mental Health Benefits Of
Exercise
In terms of depression, when we consider the word ‘exercise’ we are
considering both mental and physical exercise.
The Mental Health Benefits Of Physical Exercise
Improved Self Esteem - Being physically active naturally makes us
feel better about our lives and ourselves. Physical exercise
promotes greater production of feel good brain chemicals called
endorphins, which naturally make us feel better about ourselves.
When we feel good about ourselves, we tend to feel better about any
circumstances that we may come across in our lives.
By getting physically fit we improve our capacity for living, we
begin to lose weight or tone up and so we feel better about our
image, we begin to push our
limits and gain new skills and
strengths and so we improve upon
our feelings of self-worth.
Physical exercise has the ability
to massively affect our levels of
self-esteem in a positive way.
Reduced Stress – By performing physical exercise we encourage the
release of pent up stress and emotion. By exerting ourselves
actively, we physically burn energy that has been stored due to high
levels of inactivity.
At the same time, the good feelings that we get from physical
exercise improves our outlook and mindset and this can have the
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