Why Exercise Is Important

I’ve started going to the gym again after taking a pretty long break. Over the past few months, I was still keeping a little active – surfing, jogging and playing soccer – but it wasn’t enough. Due to the prolonged period of inactivity, I became a lot more prone to injuries. Today, I want to speak to you about the benefits that I’ve personally experienced from working out.

As with all habits, always remember to start with why. Keep your intentions clear and aligned with your values. The more the benefits of what you’re trying to do are clear, the more likely you are to stay consistent.

I’ll dive into the mental health benefits, the physical health benefits, developing consistency, a growth mindset and mental sharpness.

Mental Health and Self-esteem

You’ve probably heard this before but I’m here to reiterate the point, your physical health and mental health are interlinked. The better you take care of your physical needs (i.e. Exercise regularly, sleep well, eat healthy), the better your mental health will be.

The interesting thing about exercise is that it’s an incredible distraction. All you focus on when you’re working out is the next rep, the next mile or the next stretch. You narrow down your concentration and form some kind of tunnel vision, allowing you to de-stress.

When you feel good about your body, your self-esteem naturally boosts. This has tremendous benefits to your psyche, because your inner self-talk plays a critical role in your day-to-day activities.

Next time you’re feeling lazy to work out or go for a jog, think of how much better you’ll feel when those muscles are burning. Not only will you have more mental clarity, but you’ll also have more confidence in yourself.

Physical Health and Longevity

This is a bit more obvious. Exercising improves your physical health (Duh). To ensure that your body functions effectively, you need to constantly keep it active. A simple way to think about it is like a car. If you keep it static and stagnant for a long period of time, things can go in many different ways.

The circulation in your body also helps deliver blood more efficiently to the different organs, as well as your brain. This relationship helps cells recover faster and keeps you healthier, for longer. In essence, keeping fit helps you survive for longer (keeping in mind that the time you pass on has already been written and is inevitable).

Consistency

An invaluable skillset. I talk about this quite a lot, but this habit emphasizes it perfectly. You only get better, fitter and stronger when you exercise consistently. It’s also quite incredible how you can transfer this mindset into other areas of your life.

How you are in one part of your life is how you are in all parts of your life. You can’t separate who you are. The way you carry yourself at work, at home, at the gym, on the field, whilst studying, inevitably leaks into all other areas. Focus on giving everything your best shot.

“What you do everyday matters more than what you do once in a while.”

Keep at it. Don’t stop after a week or 2. Don’t even stop after a month or 2. Just keep at it for a few months and make improvements on your weak spots. This brings me to my next point, having a growth mindset.

Growth Mindset

I absolutely love talking about this concept because it’s such an important part of life. You have to believe in overcoming the discomfort. You have to believe that the struggle is making you stronger. You have to believe that pushing yourself past your limits will lead to growth.

This is easily proven when you’re doing any kind of exercise. Whether it’s lifting weights, running a half marathon, working on difficult yoga poses or just stretching. You need to continuously exert yourself and see how that allows you to reach your goals.

You’ve got to learn to love the burn. This will then allow you to build on your resilience; which as you should know, works exactly like a muscle.

Energy and Mental Sharpness

I’ve already mentioned how the blood circulates to your brain better when you exercise. This in turn gives you energy and an ability to focus. You’re training yourself mentally as much as you are physically, and the benefits are holistic.

The point of this blog post was to motivate you to get up and get going. There’s always a million and one excuses why we can’t exercise. I’ve hopefully given you a million and one reasons to make it a priority. Start small and keep consistent, even if it’s just a 15 minute walk everyday.

If you say ‘I don’t have the time’, you need to carefully re-arrange your priorities. Taking out the time to exercise will not only help you stay fit, but it will also give you more energy, help with your mental health, and allows you to develop consistency, resilience and a growth mindset.

The Journey V

Equilibrium. Before my science nerds start geeking out, I’m going to be talking about a different kind of equilibrium here. A balance between Mind, Body & Soul. Maybe more of a triangle, considering how stable of a shape that is.

Mind

I’ve discussed the mind a LOT in this series, and the most relevant topic to this sub-section will be from The Journey IV, where I spoke about the growth mindset. The reason for this is because I want to emphasize how important your mindset is, on perceiving the events that occur to you, and what you can do to develop that.

Taking care of your mind comes in many forms, but a large portion of it comes from seeking discomfort and confronting new challenges. This includes doing things like brain exercises; solving puzzles,playing chess, reading, learning new languages or any form of active engagement which requires thinking. Why? Because of something called neuroplasticity. This is the brain’s ability to physically change throughout your life. Whereby new neural networks and connections are formed in response to new information, sensory information, and learned behaviour.

Let’s simplify this a little, think of riding a bicycle for example. The first time you ever did it, may have seemed quite tough. You struggled a little, couldn’t really balance and maybe even fell off. But the more you practiced, the better you got. This is because the neurons in your brain (neurotransmitters), kept firing in response to the active learning, strengthening the muscle memory. That’s how you get better at things. When you push yourself and try to leave your comfort zone, through consistent practice and dedication, you physically strengthen the neural connections in your body. This allows the process to get easier and easier.

http://blog.myneurogym.com/neuroplasticity-train-your-brain-for-success

How does this now relate to the growth mindset? Well, if you believe that the more consistent and deliberate you are in your practice, the better you get, the more dedicated you can allow yourself to be. So your beliefs inherently allow you to physically change the synaptic connections, and thus allowing you to further grow. It’s the mindset, which leads to behaviour, which in turn produces better results.

Another point to add to this, as part of the triangle, is that you need to take care of your mind by facing your fears. This is again to create newer and stronger synaptic connections. The more you train yourself to deal with what makes you scared, the stronger your mind becomes at overcoming it. I’ll give you a great place to start: have a cold shower every day! It doesn’t have to be the entirety of your shower, but just the first 20 seconds or so. Where you know your mind is anticipating something dreadful, but you dive into it anyway and realize that you’ll survive. Doing these kind of activities on a regular basis allows you to physically develop a healthier brain. I could go on about the benefits of a cold shower, but I’ll leave that research for you. Let’s move on to the second aspect of the equilibrium; taking care of your body.

Body

Ahh, this is where all the fun starts for me; being active! Through rigorous physical exercise, your body releases a chemical called endorphins.
Endorphins are your body’s natural antidepressant, as they reduce your perception of pain by interacting with receptors in the brain. This occurs through neurotransmitters as previously mentioned, and the neuron receptors which endorphin binds to, are similar to that of pain medication.

Exercise also gets the blood pumping in your body, which increases the oxygen levels, helps promote nutrient absorption and even eliminates toxins from the body. This in turn, strengthens your heart, increases your energy, lowers blood pressure and also helps reduce body fat. If that wasn’t good enough, it also has other psychological benefits; boosting your self-esteem, reducing your anxiety, and helps you sleep better.

“A healthy mind lies in a healthy body.”

The picture above depicts one of my favourite Arabic quotes. And that couldn’t be any more true; the better care you take of your body, the better state you allow your mind to be in. We can now slowly start to see how important the balancing aspect is. But, taking care of your body doesn’t just end with exercise, you need to properly fuel yourself too. I’ll start with something I myself, dreaded to hear as a kid:

• Eat your fruits and vegetables!
• Drink lots and lots of water, your brain needs it. (2L per day)
• Avoid processed (junk) food as much as you can.
• Reduce sugar consumption.

Essentially, focus on foods that will support your equilibrium. Do some research on brain foods, which include things like: Almonds, avocados, blueberries, broccoli, salmon, walnuts & plenty other ingredients. Once you start adding fresher and more natural produce into your diet, you’ll immediately feel the difference. Not only in your physical health, but your mental health too. I’ll now move onto the final aspect of the triangle, your soul (or spirituality).

Soul

Spiritual practices give our lives meaning, by bringing serenity and peace to the heart. It’s very personal and unique to every individual, and comes to each of us in different ways. Islam is what truly keeps me grounded, through constant praying and strengthening my relationship with God (Allah). That’s where true contentment really comes from, when you can understand and appreciate your blessings more, by thanking & worshipping God.

(This is my own opinion and beliefs, so I understand that it’ll differ from person to person) But like I mentioned in previous posts, we’re here for a greater purpose. It’s not a coincidence or an arbitrary existence.
Spirituality in turn, creates discipline. It allows us to understand that we shouldn’t act on every impulse or desire, and that our actions have consequences. This keeps us in check and brings about a different kind of balance.

Something especially lacking nowadays from my observations, are people consistently following a spiritual practice. This leaves a certain gap or hollowness, which ultimately disrupts the balance and can mess with the mind and body. This directly relates to the post about death, because when we’re spiritually lost (or without direction), it creates fear around what comes next. This fear is very subliminal and manifests itself in different aspects, but will definitely affect the way we live our lives. So what I’m suggesting is that if you don’t already have a belief system or foundation, take some time out for yourself to figure it out. We’re here for more than our university degrees, job statuses, bank accounts and social media followers. (I’m not saying don’t strive to achieve your goals, but don’t make that the only objective in your life.) The only thing we truly take with us when we pass on, is the state of our soul.

Any form of meditation in essence, allows you to ultimately find a balance between all 3. When you’re able to better control your mind, through your body, using your spirit; you develop equilibrium. Naturally, happiness is the result of achieving this.

To bring this triad of information into a pyramid, we need to understand that as multi-dimensional beings, the mind, body and soul are deeply connected. Each plays a vital role in supporting the other, as this forms your whole self. By understanding how your mind works, through its physiology and neuroplasticity, we can develop a growth mindset and work on being better each and every day. By taking care of your body through exercise and a healthy diet, we holistically strengthen our health. Finally, by forming a deeper connection with ourselves and the world, through spirituality, we can find contentment in our lives.