How Exercise Can Help with Social Anxiety

Plus you're overall wellbeing

Photo by Frame Kings on Unsplash

Living with social anxiety is a struggle. You get swept up in your own head and it’s hard to separate reality from fiction.

People laughing, pointing and judging you. Its all in your head but that doesn’t stop it from feeling real.

There are ways to help control those anxious feelings. The first step is to book an appointment with your doctor.

You may be prescribed medication short term or be referred to a mental health practitioner.

But in the meantime, there are things you can do to help yourself.

Exercise is one of the better natural methods to help control mental health problems. According to the Department of Health and Social Care, people should partake in physical activity of some form at least 75 to 150 minutes per week.

That can be anything from a full blown training routine, or doing things like walking, housework, gardening, jogging.

Exercise Helps Social Anxiety Plus Other Mental Health Issues

Exercise can help to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression or other mental health disorders. It releases endorphins into the brain that will lift your mood.

It can ease feelings of anxiety because when you include exercise into your daily routine you will feel better about yourself. Not just physically but mentally too.

Exercise can give you a structure to your life and a schedule to adhere too. Once you have a routine in your life it gives you a sense of purpose. A feeling that you may not have had when you are in the grip of anxiety.

Without that routine, you would feel like you are stumbling anxiously from one thing to another. When you wake up in the morning and do not know what the day will bring your anxiety can return!

Exercise can help to concentrate the mind and focus on the now. It creates the mindfulness that keeps you present.

Its moments like that which will help to calm your anxieties down. You can finally think a lot more clearly.

On top of clearing your mind, following an exercise routine will improve the way your body looks.

This will help you feel more confident in yourself. When you look in the mirror and see changes happening to your body that will give your ego a much-needed boost!

Sticking to an exercise regime will make you proud of yourself.

This, in turn, will lift your mood and you will start to feel better about life.

Don’t get me wrong though, sticking to an exercise plan isn’t easy. It will take persistence to keep pushing yourself to the gym.

You Don’t Need to Join a Gym

When you suffer from social anxiety the thought of joining a gym can be terrifying!

People staring at you while you do your workout and judging how you look.

The good news is you do not have to join a gym to exercise. You don’t even have to go outside. You can get a great workout in from the comfort and safety of your home.

You do not need expensive equipment to start exercising either. You can do really great by using your own bodyweight.

Plus there are some great mobile fitness apps that will have workout routines that you can follow.

But if you want to work out at home don’t assume it will be any easier to stick too. Yes, you won’t have to make the commute to the nearest gym.

But you will need extra motivation to exercise in your home environment.

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The urge to sit and binge watch shows on Netflix will become too much to resist. You will need an extra dose of grit to ignore those urges and perform a workout instead.

How Exercise Helps My Mental And Physical Health

I try to exercise because I know that it helps with my anxiety and depression. I know that if I miss workouts I will regret it the following day. Exercise helps improve my mood and also helps my body by strengthening it. A workout will relieve the aches and pains I experience on a daily basis.

My body knows when I don’t exercise for any length of time. My back begins to hurt and my shoulders and neck stiffen up. When I’m anxious my whole shoulder girdle and neck get tight which leads to pain and headaches. Regular exercise loosens these areas up and removes the pain, which in turn improves my mood.

I can feel down and depressed and don’t want to do anything or move a muscle. But if I force myself to do an exercise routine I always feel much better in myself. The hardest part is sticking to an exercise routine. What I do is keep the workout minimalistic as possible.

I favour bodyweight exercises because they do not need equipment and can be done anywhere!

The trick to sticking to an exercise routine is to find ways to get started. The hardest part of a workout is before it begins. You will find yourself putting it off until the next day and then the next. Or you will talk yourself out of it.

If you can get past that by making it simple and easy as possible to begin a workout. You will find you have more of a chance of seeing it through.

Humans Are Resistant to Change!

Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong — N. R. Narayana Murthy

Making big changes in your life requires determination plus a good dose of stubbornness!

Our minds and bodies are resistant to change. But they are also very good at adapting to change, so as long as you have the will and desire then you can change your body and then your mind!

You do not have to jump straight in and start killing yourself with a workout. There are better ways to get started that don’t need huge amounts of effort. Start by doing things you normally do like cleaning, gardening or walking.

Those are still physical activities that can release endorphins into your brain.

Walking is especially good because it does not require any equipment and you can do it anywhere! You do not have to turn into an exercise addict to reap the rewards that physical activity can provide.

Start by introducing small changes into your daily routine.

Do that and you will start to feel not only the physical benefits but the mental benefit too!

Exercise is a great way to manage your social anxiety and other mental health conditions. The positive benefits that being active provide are countless!