How physical activity and exercise can benefit your mental health

When it comes to mental health, everyone has their own story to tell and everyone's experience is different. But the important thing to remember is that you are NOT alone and there are other people experiencing it too. For me, something I struggle with is opening up more and talking about what is going on, and I feel I've come quite a way in the past few years but there is still work to do. A couple of methods I use to look after my own mental health are running and walking. It may seem like your idea of hell, going for a run, but for me it's my time to get away from everything in my own space and it helps me to think more clearly.

Did you know that 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem at some point each year and in 2023, 6,069 registered deaths were caused by suicide with 75% being men. 

- The Big Mental Health Report 2024, MIND.

In this blog I'll be covering the difference between exercise and physical activity, how it benefits mental health and ways to help overcome barriers to physical activity. Hopefully some of the information that follows can help you with you or someone you know when times are tough.

Let's start with the difference between physical activity and exercise.

Physical activity - this is any movement your body does that uses/expends energy. This can include everyday tasks such as gardening, cleaning and even cooking.

Exercise - this is a type of physical activity we choose to do intentionally, rather than just a part of daily life. This includes, walking, running, hiking, cycling, team sports, dancing and many more. There are a variety of reasons why people choose exercise and a couple of examples are to improve strength/skill/balance or for the social aspect.

Next let’s get into some of the benefits you can gain for your mental health by being active. These benefits include:

• Stress management

• Improved sleep

• Boosts in confidence and mood

• Connecting with nature (one of my favourites)

• Socialising and meeting new people

• Managing symptoms of depression and anxiety

• Improved memory and brain function

• Heart, muscle and bone health

• Combating loneliness

• Calming down the mind

Sketch of a human brain

Something known as neurochemical release happens when we exercise and what this basically means is that exercise influences the brain's chemical environment, and chemicals are then released into the body. One of the chemicals released is endorphins, which you may have heard of being the ‘feel good or happy chemicals’ and the reason for this is that they act as a natural painkiller, as well as a mood elevator (Hillman et al, 2008). In addition to endorphins, exercise also promotes the release of serotonin and dopamine which are linked with the feelings of reward and happiness (Dishman, Heath & Lee, 2013). With regular exercise/physical activity can lead to sustained improvements in mood and emotional wellbeing.

Finally, let’s look into overcoming barriers to physical activity/exercise as this is very common and completely normal, it is just working around them that isn’t always in plain sight. When you’re trying something new for the first time it can be difficult or if you haven’t done the activity before, you may feel self conscious. You could even feel frustrated if things don’t feel right when you’re first starting out and remember, it is ok to stop doing an activity if it doesn’t work for you. 

If you want to keep trying then here are a few ideas to help:

• Be kind to yourself. There may be times where you can’t be active as you’d like to be as energy levels do vary on different days. If this is the case, slow down or take a break if you feel you need it.

• Keep trying. You won’t always find an activity to enjoy straight away, so it may help to try different activities and then you can find out if you prefer a certain class, instructor or environment to do the activity.

• Work with the highs and lows. There are a whole host of reasons why you might find it hard to be active at certain times of the day. A couple of suggestions include exercising in the daytime if you find doing it affects your sleep in the evening or if your medication affects you in the morning, build up to doing exercise later in the day.

• Try not to compare yourself to others. Set your own goals based on what you can do and what you’d like to achieve and with this in mind try to pay attention to how you are feeling rather than what everyone else around you is doing.

• Change who you do your activity with. If you prefer exercising on your own rather than in a group, go for it (I go running on my own most of the time), or try a group if you’ve been doing everything on your own so far, you never know, you might like it.

For even more tips and ideas, check out the MIND charity website.