Exercise and Mental Health: the Joy and the Struggle
March, 2024
Exercise and its relationship to mental health is a topic that I could talk about for hours, and one that could be broken down into a series of blog posts—not just one! Here, I aim to broadly cover the dichotomy of exercise in mental illness—how it can be both an incredibly useful tool, and/or a detriment, to recovery. I’ll also give you a couple of reminders that I found helpful in my own recovery, when it came to navigating my relationship with exercise and its effect on my mental and physical well-being.
Let’s start with the positives! Moving our bodies in a healthy, mindful way can boost our mental health in amazing ways. The release of endorphins that comes with movement can give us a sense of relief and joy. Exercise can clear our minds, improve our mood, and provide a unique sense of accomplishment. By focusing on what our bodies can do, as opposed to how they look, we can develop a deeper sense of gratitude for our bodies, and foster a relationship centered around this gratitude, rather than around our appearances.
That being said, when exercise becomes a routine intended to shrink ourselves, a punitive practice, something that we feel morally obligated to do, or an addiction that becomes negatively obsessive, it becomes a detriment. I will also note that exercise should be done with the support of our providers/treatment teams—it should not be done in secret. Lastly, I’ll say that it should never be forced upon us, by either ourselves or by others! Exercise should never become any of these things—we should be moving our bodies in ways that make us happy, and in ways that feel good. When exercise is a detriment, not only can it harm our mental health for significant periods of time, it can also harm our physical health in dangerous ways.
As someone who has been an athlete for her whole life, and who has truly experienced both of these extremes—let me tell you, that working towards a positive relationship with exercise is beyond worth it. One difficult workout does not make us “weak” or “failures.” One day off, one week off, one month off, does not mean that we are “lazy” or that we’ve “let ourselves go” (I hate this phrase especially—what that even really means is beyond me). Just because we lack the hand-eye coordination to throw a football (me), or can’t swim long distances to save our lives (also me), etc. etc. it doesn’t mean anything about who we are as people, or what our worth is. I can do many other things that make me, me. I can run marathons. I can speak out about my experiences. I can help others, be kind, try to cure cancer, and so much more. Let’s focus on all of the things we CAN do, rather than what we can’t. Let’s use exercise to build ourselves up, as opposed to tearing ourselves down. Let’s exercise because we want to feel good and build strength, not because we want to punish ourselves or make ourselves smaller. We deserve to do things with whole and happy intentions and outcomes whenever possible. If you are struggling with your relationship to exercise, I urge you to reach out to a professional who can guide you towards a better connection to movement. It IS possible to have exercise be a helpful, positive, healthy practice as opposed to a harmful one.