Urtė Stankevičiūtė

Part 2

INTRODUCTORY PART

Together with my co-partners we are conducting a pilot study on the thesis ““Exercising makes a person happier”. I am interested how literature reflects a particular aspect of it, i.e. how physical activity impacts mental health with the aim to find out how exercising or any kind of movement helps to deal with stress, depression and other mental issues whereas my colleague will concentrate more on the previous studies which reveal the positive effect of exercising in general (see article by Aušrinė Tunkevičiūtė)

KEY TERMS

Mental issues (Mental illness) – mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions – disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.

Anxiety – distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.

Depression – a state of feeling sad (anger, anxiety); a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.

MULTI-PARAGRAPH SUMMARY

Today exercising has become a very important part in people’s life. More and more people are going into gym, hiring a fitness trainer, buying fitness workout plans. Everyone understands the benefit of sport to our bodies, but not everyone knows that sport also impacts mental health.

A lot of researches have been carried out and now scientists are trying to convince the society that working out helps not only be stronger or have a healthy heart, but also be happier, confident and have more power over your inner self. This comes from a very simple thing. While working out our body releases hormone endorphin‘s, which is the hormone of happiness. Also as I said earlier, sport helps to feel more confident about yourself, your body and your abilities. First, working out is beneficial if you want to lose weight or to tone up. As soon as people start seeing the results and become satisfied with how they look like, automatically their confidence is bloosed. Secondly, working out is not all roses, but may be hard and exhausting, even painful. Doing cardio workouts you have full of 20-30 minutes of high intensity moving and all your muscles are involved fully. Working out like this three times a week is far from a joke. Strength training is not that easy as well. To lift the dumbbell when your hands are giving up, to do one more squat, one more push-up when your whole body is shaking that is when your mind is coming in the way. It is said that our body can do everything following our mind that we need to convince. By going harder, faster even when your mind screams to stop and give up, it is the moment when you feel the strongest and the most confident person in the world because you made it through. That is how my friends the confidence are gained.

Another really significant benefit of sport is that it helps to deal with mental disorders. Scientists have examined various age groups of people and made conclusions that nowadays people are more stressed, have more mental health issues than before. They also add that whatever our age, there is good scientific evidence that being physically active can help us reduce anxiety, depression, psychological distress, emotional disturbance. A review of the research on this topic reveals that low-to-moderate physical exercise, even in a single session, can reduce anxiety. Another long-term study concluds that increases in aerobic fitness have both short and long-term beneficial effects on psychological health. The explanation lies on the principle that when you are physically active, your mind gets distracted from daily stressors. Blocking daily stressors, even just for a while, helps to avoid getting booged down by negative thoughts. Another point worth mentioning is that exercising reduces the level of stress hormones, which helps to lessen stress level.

One more quite beneficial sports advantage is that working out improves our concentration. Regular physical activity helps to keep your hey mental sills in progress of aging. This includes critical thinking, learning and using good judgment. Research has shown that doing a mix of aerobic and muscle strengthening activities is especially helpful. Participating in this kind of activity three to five times a week for at least 30 minutes can provide these mental health benefits.

All in all, exercising gives benefits not only on looking better, fitter, stronger, but also on our mental health. Working out is not about killing yourself in the gym to lose that little amount of weight for summer. I believe that for people who are struggling with insecurities, mental issues, working out would contribute to dealing with them and therefore achieving mental balance.