Five Reasons to Exercise

The warmer weather is here and it gives us more opportunity to go outside and move our bodies. In addition to looking better and feeling better, here are five benefits of exercising that you may not have thought about.

1. You will get out of your head and into your body. Many who do not exercise tend to focus all their energy on their intellect rather than their body. This cerebral way of being can cause you to over analyze almost everything to the point where no issues ever get resolved. When you move your body, you notice your legs and arms moving in unison. You become aware of your heart rate increasing and the sweat flowing from your pours. These physical changes are exciting and life affirming. While you are exercising, you are not feeling like an over burdened adult, but a playful child experiencing a sense of innocence and glee.
2. You will find calmness and tranquility; a means to relax. Research indicates that exercising as little as fifteen minutes a day can cause you to discover a sense of inner peace. This sense of tranquility can improve the overall quality of your life. The gaining of calmness allows the physical and emotional stress to lessen. The tension in your shoulders, neck and stomach will greatly dissipate and even disappear while you are working out. You will discover a glow that takes place inside and outside of you.
3. You can use your time exercising to work through issues that are bothering you. A regular exercise program along with self-questioning can heal emotional pain. Focusing on an emotional pain question during you workout and journaling afterwards can help you resolve troubling issues that may have been upsetting you since childhood.
4. You will gain confidence and increase your self-esteem. This phenomenon will happen simply because you are participating in a regular healthy activity. The sense of calmness that you feel will lead to increased hope regarding your future. Your increased strength, stamina and skill will improve your sense of self-worth. You will find yourself looking forward to your workouts and you will spend time noticing the great results.
5. You will learn to live in present time. Achieving increased calmness, self-esteem and confidence will teach you to live in the present rather that worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. Instead of being preoccupied with what is going to happen next or what occurred previously, you can now take in what is happening right now. The present may include being at a concert, reading a good book or conversing with the one you love. Exercise can teach you the importance of taking the time to smell the roses.

Bob Livingstone, LCSW, has been a psychotherapist in private practice for almost twenty years. He works with adults, teenagers and children who have experienced traumas such as family violence, neglect and divorce. He works with men around anger issues and adults in recovery from child abuse. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Redemption of the Shattered: A Teenager’s Healing Journey through Sandtray Therapy and the upcoming The Body-Mind-Soul Solution: Healing Emotional Pain through Exercise (Pegasus Books, Aug. 2007). For more information visit www.boblivingstone.com.

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