Reducing Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression

While we have all heard or read that exercise is great for our mental health and can help manage or prevent anxiety and depression, there are also certain guidelines to follow the will help improve your mental and emotional health through exercise. 

• Get Outside
• It only takes 5 minutes of outdoor activity to boost your mood and self-esteem. Exercising outdoors can also lower tension and anger as well as absorb vitamin-D, which is important and managing depressive symptoms. 
• Find a Community
• Exercising with friends or others with the same common goal as you helps you to feel supported and be around positivity, which helps with your mental health. 
• Do the Talk Test
• Despite what you hear, exercise does not have to be strenuous to benefit your mental health. Moderate-intensity activity is actually the most beneficial for mental health. So, when exercising, if you can talk in short sentences, but not sing a song, then you are probably working at the right intensity to best benefit your mind and emotions. 
• Create Functional Goals
• Try to create goals that will enhance your self-efficacy and your confidence i yourself and your exercise abilities. Rather than making goals to lose weight or body fat, focus more on things such as doing your first pull-up, or increasing the weight on your squat. 
• Avoid Situations That Leave you in a Negative Mood
• When it comes to the media, trainers and fitness professional boast about perfect bodies, perfect workouts and the perfect diets. However, this is not realistic and may cause you to think negatively about your own life. Choose to unfollow these types of sites and follow body-positive and health-minded sites and professionals instead. 
• Thank your Body
• At the end of the day, no matter where you are in your fitness journey, be grateful that your body has the ability to move and exercise the way you like. Don't put so much pressure on yourself if you didn't have the best workout or reach your goal as quickly as yo would've liked, just be thankful you are able to workout to begin with!