Well?
What they never told me, is that medications and therapy can be provided, but the rest of it was up to me. A leaflet telling me to eat healthily and get exercise is never going to get me reaching for the kale smoothies and an exercise bike. I need someone to verbally spell it out whilst holding my shoulders and shaking me, and then repeat it.
- We need regular exercise … that means more days doing it than not
- We need regular fresh air and light
- We need to eat the good stuff and drink water like it’s going out of fashion
- We need to ditch the alcohol
- Meditation and/or yoga are a must to calm the anxiety
- And finally, work, work, work on getting up and doing … don’t let the lethargy lothario seduce us into doing nothing and lying on the sofa for hours surfing the net for the latest Graham Norton YouTube videos (although I have to admit that I will resort to this when Betty the Demon has me in a headlock and I start googling pain-free ways to die).
So, back to the point in question,
What exercise are you doing for your mental health today?
I’m going to play tennis … inside of course, this is Scotland after all. And whilst I type, I’m still in bed and not exactly bouncing around at the prospect of it, however – I know I will love it when I’m there. The dopamine, serotonin and endorphins will give me a major boost. The social interaction will help me out of my hermit state and finally the sense of achievement and accomplishment will spur me on to reinforce that a little pain for a massive gain is absolutely and undoubtedly worth the effort.
So what exercise are you doing today?
Katie x
