How You Can Reduce Your Anxiety With

Exercise

 Ever heard the saying ‘healthy body, healthy mind’? When it comes to
anxiety treatment this saying has never been truer. Studies have shown
that regular  Exercise  can brighten your mood, reduce anxious thoughts and decrease the
physical symptoms. Along with medication and psychotherapy, regular Exercise should be a key part of your strategy for overcoming social anxiety disorder.

How does exercise reduce social anxiety?

Although we don’t know exactly why, it’s believed there are a range
of reasons why exercise relieves anxiety and chases away the black
clouds of depression:

• Distraction – focusing your thoughts on hitting a tennis ball or
  running around an open manhole prevents you from mulling over your last
  (probably incorrectly perceived) social calamity. Anxiety is driven by
  negative thinking. So using your brain more constructively can give your
  emotions a welcome break.
• Biological – exercise safely releases stored up adrenaline, which is
  what causes you to sweat or feel sick when you’re anxious. This means
  you’ll feel more relaxed and less on edge after you’ve finished your
  run.
• Strengthens your heart – your heart is a muscle and making it
  stronger will help it perform better in stressful situations. As your
  heart strengthens, from regular exercise, it’s less likely to start
  hammering in your chest in anxious situations.
• Improves your mood – the increased blood flow to your brain causes
  mood enhancing ‘endorphins’ to be released. Endorphins are feel good hormones, and when they’re freed they can brighten your mood and
  evaporate gloomy thoughts.
• Self esteem boost – just knowing that you’re doing something
  practical to relieve your anxiety, rather than feeling miserable in bed,
  will make you feel better about yourself. Regular exercise will make
  you feel fitter, stronger and give you a much needed boost to your self
  esteem.

The best way to beat ‘do nothingness’ is to do anything!

Whilst the idea of running through a crowded park or risk losing at
tennis might seem off putting, the only way to beat the bedridden blues
is to start doing more. In my previous article I discussed why you
should 
Be more active if you want to overcome your social anxiety disorder in the long-term.

Lying in bed mulling over your latest (perceived) mishaps is only
going to make you feel miserable and think the world is an unfriendly
place. To break out of the pattern of hiding at home, you need to pursue
activities that will give you a sense of accomplishment and give your
mind healthier stimulation. Exercise can make you feel better about
yourself and will also give you fulfilling goals to pursue, such as
improving your golf swing or being able to jog further.

Exercise should be fun, so choose a type that you’ll enjoy and won’t
feel like a chore. Here are a few ideas you should think about trying:

• Walking or jogging – these will get you out and about so you can say
  hello to strangers (and even smile if you’re feeling brave) to help
  overcome your fears. Gentle, regular exercise can strengthen your heart,
  lungs and reduce anxiety’s physical symptoms.
• Weight lifting or sprinting – explosive bursts of energy will make
  you bigger and stronger. Being physically fit will help you feel better
  about yourself knowing you’re in trim shape.
• Tennis or golf – taking up a skilful sport will give you a
  fulfilling goal to pursue as you strive to improve. Just remember to be
  easy on yourself if you don’t play as well as you’d like. Nobody got
  better at anything without practice.
• Yoga – Ileana at beating   social  
  Anxiety would be able to tell you about the benefits of yoga for anxiety treatment. Yoga will help release some of the strain in your muscles
  from feeling tense, as well as enable your thoughts to drift and
  encourage a more relaxed state of mind.

Whichever type of exercise you choose to do, you should aim to fit
20-30 minute sessions at least three times a week into your schedule.

Regular exercise’s wide range of positive effects, in reducing both
the physical and mental symptoms, means that it should be a key part of
your journey to overcoming social anxiety disorder.