Can Exercise Lead to Happiness and Purpose?

By Andrea Travillian

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Is living a life of happiness and purpose related to your level of physical fitness? Yes! It gives you the energy and emotional desire to go out and do more, thus getting you healthier from just moving around more! I am sure there are other ways that it also increases your physical fitness, but what I really want to look at is if you are not living a life of purpose and are unhappy can focusing on physical fitness help you find your life direction? I believe it definitely helps and has big impacts on my journey! There are three main reasons that participating in fitness helps you with your direction.

1. Self esteem
2. Clearing your mind
3. Reduce stress

First, when you are exercising you end up establishing a higher self esteem. When you are surer of yourself it is easier to move in the direction of your true calling. You have the confidence to make the right jump or confront the issues that are affecting you.

Second, when you exercise it helps to clear your mind. It allows you to zone out. This helps because sometimes it makes way for a break through to occur with no other thoughts in the way (you often hear that great ideas came through in the shower, this is the same phenomenon). These break through can be realizations that you are at the wrong company, it is time to retire or that it is time to start your own business.

Finally, exercise reduces stress. Stress blocks logical thoughts making it harder to think and feel in an organized non emotional manner. The less stress you have the clearer you are able to think and determine what you want from life.
So are you ready to add physical fitness to your life so you can begin to discover your true dreams? It is much easier than you think and you don’t need to become an athlete to achieve this either! I recommend three basic ways to add easy (and inexpensive) exercise to your day (talk with a doctor first if you have not worked out in a while!)

1. Walk – super easy just put on some shoes and hit the road. Start small if
you need to by walking around the block, keeping adding more every week.

2. Yoga – I love yoga as a way to not only get physical activity but to also find mental clarity. There are enough styles of yoga out there that finding one you like is just a matter of trying different classes! Try a local studio; buy a DVD or my personal favorite the web! www.yogatoday.com is full of great teachers and lots of classes. You can even start with the free class to see if you like it!

3. FitDeck Playing Cards (www.fitdeck.com) – these cards make working out at home incredibly easy. I have multiple sets and am always amazed at how fun and easy these cards make exercise! Even my four year old loves to do these with me!

Don’t wait another day, add exercise to your life and find that discovering your happiness is much easier!