Hi there Ashley

Well at the moment i am in another country, working full time and because i suffer from anxiety and the thought of going to a new gym on my own, so i work out at home 6 x a week and it really does help with my depression too. After a work out i feel great! When i was over at ”home” i used to go to the gym 3x a week though 🙂

Exercise is brilliant, i sometimes need that little bit of motivation to do so 🙂

Blessings

Ashley,

I agree with Valerie on what you may want to consider as exercise.

A walk or other activities that does not have to be at the gym can be exercise.

I believe walking is very underrated as a form of exercise.

Any physical movement can be considered as exercise.

Though meditation is not considered as exercise, it is a very useful “activity” for mental AND physical health.

Mark

Most of the time in the morning. But sometimes I attend the GYM at the afternoon when I have much work and keep myself busy.

Personally, as a third year college student I managed to go to the gym 3-4 times a week. Also, since I don’t have a car, I am forced to rely on a public bus center which is a 1.3 mile walk in order to go anywhere for errands or just to get out of the area.

Hi Ashley,

I have a German Shepherd for exercise, I walk with her at least twice a day for forty minutes. It’s incredibly calming and satisfying and I’m lucky that we are surrounded by rolling hills and woodland glades. I used to belong to a gym, I would exercise six times a week but it actually exacerbated my anxiety so I left and got myself a Dog 🙂

I work out 5 days a week however usually Monday-Friday. If I miss a day it’s no big deal as long as I make it up on Saturday or Sunday. Mostly I’m doing 45 minutes of cardio followed by stretching and light weightlifting, My main goal is to drop weight so far I’ve lost 40lbs this way. To start I made myself a plan to “form a habit of working out” over 21 days. In reality it took me 4 weeks and 1 day to develop the habit. I did not count my off days when I didn’t work out as part of the habit formation process. I also would use visualization to help cement the habit in my mind. I would picture myself running, seeing my legs moving, seeing the body I wanted to make for myself, and picturing the endorphins being released into my bloodstream. Pretty soon I was starting to see small changes all over my body and my mental health as well. Things will still get bad or depressing for me but much like a trampoline stretched tight: I am able to be more resilient and more intellectually engaged with my problems instead of giving into emotions and depression. After that my body and mind felt addicted to working out even craving it when life gets stressful or even boring. Now it’s been over a year. Working out isn’t necessarily self sustaining in my life but if I give myself permission to fail and always pick myself back up and moving forward knowing that each day is a victory waiting for me and it holds one for anyone who is willing to try!

What kinds of physical activity do you do, Emma?

anita