Exercise for the soul – 3 tips to help you get started
- Michal Shoham-Polonsky
- March 16, 2021
One of the things I ask at the first session with you as my client is how often do you exercise?
Research has shown regular exercise has a great impact on our mental health.
It is recommended to train at least 30 minutes X three times a week, and during challenging times – probably more.
Besides known benefits to our physical health, using our body can strengthen our mind-body connection, re-energise us, improve the quality of our sleep, and help us regulate our emotions and manage our thoughts.
3 Tips to incorporate exercise in your daily life:
- Do what you like or explore new things
- Notice the benefit
- Commit and reinforce
Choose a sport that you like – may it be cycling, group sport, dancing, rowing etc., or challenge yourself and try to connect with a new type of exercise.
Observe and notice the impact training has on your mood, emotion regulation and thoughts. This will motivate you to keep repeating this behaviour due to the expected positive impact.
To assist with committing, as this will need to be a re-occurring thing in your schedule to make a substantial impact, you can try the following
- schedule to train with a friend,
- sign up for a gym,
- schedule in classes that suit your diary,
- train while listening to a podcast/ music that you like and feel inspired by.
As exercising may be a new habit that you wish to add to your schedule, a helpful way would be to add it just before or after another existing activity in your schedule, for faster implementation.