Destressing Strategy: Physical Activity

Anything that moves the body can help with stress and anxiety. Sports, workouts, walks, yoga, dance-a-thons, running games, jumping rope… the list goes on and on. Moving - especially when the heart rate goes up and there’s some sweat involved - is proven to help with stress, anxiety and depression. If you don’t believe us just ask the folks at Harvard:*

• Exercise reduces the body’s stress hormones - these natural chemicals (like cortisol and adrenaline) produced by the body that don’t always make us feel so great because they are designed to get us out of stressful situations, not to be floating through our bodies all day, every day.
  
  
• Exercise stimulates the body to produce endorphins, natural chemicals in the brain that make us feel good and feel less pain.
  
  
• Endorphins from exercise can make us feel relaxed and optimistic, even if you are a glass-half-empty type of person! 

Click here to learn more about Coping With Stress and Anxiety 

Information from this article was taken from: *https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax