Improved Lives

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One of the most neglected ways in which we can create healthier, more positive minds for ourselves is through our bodies. Our minds and our bodies are very much interconnected, but we in the western world often fail to recognize this.

However, if you are willing to try, you might be surprised by how much you can influence your mind through your body.

Here are two of the best ways to go about this.

Exercise

Exercise is an amazingly powerful tool for bettering your mind. In one study on depression, three groups of depressed people were given either medication, exercise, or a combination of medication and exercise. After 16 weeks, all groups had improved, but after 10 months, over 30% of the two groups taking medication had relapsed back in to depression, while only 9% of those on just exercise had relapsed. Not exercising, it has been said, is like taking depressants.

In addition to fighting depression, exercise:

• Improves self-esteem
• Lowers anxiety and stress
• Improves brain performance

Sleep

Sleep is on here not because you will get a lot of benefits from getting more of it, but because many of us don’t get enough of it, which causes all kinds of problems, such as:

• Reduced energy levels
• Increased stress and anxiety
• Increased depression
• Decreased brain performance

It really is that easy

So to cut off this constant barrage of negative influence on our minds, we must all endeavor to get sufficient amounts of sleep, which is roughly 8 hours for most people.

There are also a few things you can do to cut down on your bodies need for sleep. Exercise has been known to do this, as well as eating healthy (in particular, reducing meat intake, especially the fatty stuff).

The great thing about getting enough sleep and exercising is that they’re both extremely simple, and extremely effective methods of improving a whole variety of different things. Best of all, they’re natural and perfectly healthy things to be doing.

John Ratey has this to say about exercise, and I think it sums up nicely the incredible benefits that I’m talking about here:

In a way, exercise can be thought of as a psychiatrist’s dream treatment. It works on anxiety, on panic disorder, and on stress in general, which has a lot to do with depression. And it generates the release of neurotransmitters—norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine—that are very similar to our most important psychiatric medicines. Having a bout of exercise is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin, right where it is supposed to go.

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