Walking for Anxiety and Depression
DOES WALKING HELP IN ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Depression is a serious mental illness marked by such symptoms as feelings of hopelessness, restlessness, irritability, and fatigue. When you have depression or anxiety, exercise is often the last thing on your mind. Walking is the cheapest and easiest way to get relief from depression.
John Arden, Director of Training for Mental Health at Kaiser Permanente, explains how walking can be an immediate anti-depressant–without the bad side effects of medication. Walking increases endorphin production and neuron development, helping to reduce depression and anxiety and aids in weight loss.
Studies have shown that patients who walk regularly have a 40% better remission rate of depression.
According to the Mayo Clinic, something as simple as walking can be a natural remedy for anxiety, panic, and depression. Walking can be a great overall mood enhancer and a number of other benefits such as helping the body release endorphins which can serve as a mood elevator. It also helps stabilize mood.
“Researchers analyzed the results of 40 randomized clinical trials involving nearly 3,000 patients with a variety of medical conditions. They found that, on average, patients who exercised regularly reported a 20 percent reduction in anxiety symptoms compared to those who did not exercise.‘
How Does Exercise Reduce Anxiety?
Neurotransmitters are important chemicals that transmit signals throughout the nervous system. During physical exertion, neurotransmitters known as endorphins are released. These neurotransmitters decrease pain and cause feelings of euphoria, among other functions.
The endorphins released during walking and other types of exercise contribute to a physiological response and feelings of happiness.
Exercise also diverts your attention from the issues causing your anxiety. It is a simple fact when you are engaged in an activity like walking or swimming you are focusing on the task and on your body’s movements.
Walking outside forces you to pay attention to your surroundings in order to remain safe, but even something as easy as stretching in the park allows you to take in the sights, sounds and smells around you. With all of this going on, you forget about what was worrying you in the first place.
Here Are 10 Reasons For You To Use Walking As A Natural Remedy For Anxiety:
· Walking doesn’t cost you any money.
· You don’t need to learn any special technique to walk.
· It doesn’t require any special equipment.
· You can do walk at any age. If you start walking now, it’s something you’ll likely be able to keep up into your golden years and beyond.
· Walking makes you feel better.
· Walking makes you physically healthier too.
· You can walk alone or with others.
· It’s a great routine.
· It gives you something to look forward to enjoying.
· Your routine of walking for anxiety, and walking in general, can serve as a great example to others and improve their lives too. It can be a great motivation for others to become physically active.
Mental And Emotional Benefits Of Morning Walk To Reducing Stress And Anxiety
1. Elevate Your Mood to Start the Day
A brisk morning walk release endorphins and endocannabinoids which are hormones that keep you happy and calm. Not only will you feel less anxious and happier, but you’ll laugh more too.
Whether you are going to your office or doing some everyday jobs at home, waking up early and starting your day with a morning walk will surely energize you and get you in the mood to start the day. So, next time, instead of jumping out of the bed and hurrying off to work, start the day early with an easy morning walk.
2. It Freshens Up Your Mind
This is actually one of the best benefits of a morning walk. Whether you had a good night’s sleep or not, waking up for a morning walk is guaranteed to help you start the day with a fresh mind. The morning sun and cool air will boost your mood and prevent stress from setting in before all the worries of the day begin. Walking and enjoying the morning fresh air and scenery, bound to make you forget all your stress or anxiety.
3. Walking Helps Beat Stress
The mental and emotional benefits of morning walk include reducing stress by increasing your body’s production of ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine. To achieve this, try to walk briskly until you feel sweaty. Physical exertion helps release brain chemicals that help reduce anxiety – an effect that is better than all the anti-depressant pills.
4. Helps fight depression
Waling for 30 or more minutes a day can help reduce signs of depression. The endorphins that are released help lift your mood and running also reduces kynurenine. Kynurenine is an amino acid that has been linked to causing depression.
5. Improves Brain Function And Make You Smarter
A good memory helps to reduce stress; as memory is essential to remember, recall and analyses informations properly and do work smoothly in a less stressful way. Walking can help reduce your risk of some brain diseases, especially those related to memory.
When you walk, your brain has to work hard from the body’s demand to be proprioceptive and tactile. Exercise increases your heart rate which gets the blood flowing to your brain, thus keeping your memory sharp. Regular morning walkers have the ability to process information and remember direction or instruction much better than those who don’t walk.
6. Walk to Unleash Your Creativity
Walking in open-air can also open up your creativity to generate new ideas. Whether it’s something related to a project you’re working on, or even a problem or something that’s been bothering you. You will probably have moments of clarity where the solution to a problem just seems to come to you while you are walking. I think that it can be a great way to unleash your creative side for a variety of things.
7. You Get Some Time to Plan Your Day
Plan around the things you find stressful to lessen the effects of stress. The best time to plan your day is when your mind is clear and you feel good physically. You can do this while taking your morning walk. It helps you think clearly during the day. It gives you time to be alone with your thoughts before all the chaos of the day begins. Regular physical activity also allows you to develop a sense of confidence as you achieve your goals.
So instead of rushing to work with no clear sense of direction on how to conduct the affairs of the day, take a few minutes to walk in the morning and layout in your mind which tasks you must prioritize. You will be surprised how well your activities may go on smoothly with a little planning in the morning.
8. Walking Prevents Mental Deterioration
Studies suggest that one long-term benefit of walking regularly in the morning is that it helps prevent mental deterioration as you age. Dementia is common in the elderly, but studies show that regular exercise, such as walking reduces your risk of the disease and helps preserve your brain function as you age.
9. Walking Helps You Socialize
Try to build up an association or community with like-minded people while walking. Walking becomes more energizing and fun if you do it with a friend, a family member, or a group of people. This can help you keep up the habit of getting regular exercise and can give you the chance to socialize before starting a long day at work.
Socializing is the key to develop your support networks that will help you to feel understood, competent and nurtured. Sometimes just expressing your feelings helps lower your stress.Whether you are with a group of friends, you are bound to forget any feelings of loneliness or anxiety when the “feel good” hormones kick in.
10. Walk Helps You Sleep Soundly
Yes, walking helps you start the day right and end it right as well. A regular habit of morning walk helps you get a good night’s sleep. Walking exercises the body while relaxing the mind. With a properly functioning circulatory system, strong muscles, and a positive attitude, it is easy to see why you will undoubtedly get a good quality sleep every night.
Lack of sleep or poor-quality sleep makes symptoms of depression and anxiety worse, and can actually create a vicious cycle: you are stressed, so you don’t sleep, you don’t sleep and you feel more stress.
