Easing Anxiety By Working Out
Written by Mark Warrington
We all have our moments where we feel stressed about everything causing us to feel very anxious. Anxiety is often an effect of stress which makes us worry about everything or have that feeling of dread that something would go wrong. The common thing about both feelings is that they happen for no reason. Anxiety is described to be a reaction to stress with no stimuli and it is not a good feeling because our body reacts to it physically, mentally and psychologically. There are a lot of ways to ease your anxiety like taking medication but you can actually ease anxiety for free by getting some exercise.
Anxiety is caused by stress and our body naturally responds to stress with a fight or flight response which leads to the production of adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that stimulates the body by increasing the heart rate and prepares the body for action. That's why an adrenaline rush generally allows us to do things that we can't normally do. However, adrenaline is still caused by stress and if we stress too much, our body will start having problems processing any kind of stress and react similarly even to the smallest kind of stress which can cause an anxiety disorder.
Exercise is a good way to battle anxiety and stress because it gets rid of too much adrenaline in our system and it lets the body know that an increase in our heart rate is not a fight or flight situation, which lowers the chances of an anxiety attack. Other than that, it also helps lower stress levels making the chances of an anxiety attack even smaller. The general thing that can help you ease any form of anxiety is by simply relaxing which is also something that exercise can give you.
Almost any exercise can help you ease your anxiety but cardio would have to be the best exercise for you to do since it increases your heart rate and when that happens frequently, the body will stop thinking that you are in a stressful situation when that happens. Exercises like yoga and pilates helps you release tension and control your breathing which can instantly relax you and that ultimately is what you need to free yourself of feeling anxious. The important thing is that you are able to find an exercise that you can work with regularly. You don't even have to do it at a gym. You can do it at home or anywhere that you want and it can be as intense as a complete body workout or as light as walking everyday.
Exercise has many benefits which is the reason it is recommended to be a part of our daily lives. Stress is something that happens to us and it is mostly unavoidable but you can fight it by simply getting up and exercising.
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