Beneficial for:
Adding exercise into our daily lives which improves mood and overall wellbeing.
How to do it:
- Don’t push yourself! Studies show that if you force yourself into doing more exercise, the chances are that you’re going to give up pretty quickly, it is all going to go horribly wrong and that doesn’t benefit anyone’s mental health.
- The strategy here is to gently and gradually do more in your daily life. That means you don’t have to go out for a run every morning or start pumping weights. What you could do is instead of writing a quick email to a colleague, write it on a sticky note and walk to their office and pop it on their desk. Finding how you can add a little bit more movement in your life is enough to slowly and gradually build up from there.
- There will be lots of ups and downs but the trick is to start again. So what if you were doing well for a couple of days but then you did nothing over the weekend. On Monday, try again.
- If you need motivation, join a friend for a walk or find a community group like a Yoga class which you might be interested in. If you are anxious about others seeing you exercise, find something physical you can do indoors on regular bases like housework or DIY.