The Importance of Exercise for Self-Care

Self-care plays an important role in our life. It comprises of the attitudes and actions that 
result into emotional, mental, physical, environment and spiritual health. Unlike other 
aspects of life, self-care does not need any medical intervention or professional 
consultation. It is something you do yourself. In this post, we are going to focus on the 
importance of exercise on self-care. 

Reduced Stress and Depression

Exercise has been shown to reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. 
When you exercise, the body releases endorphins, feel-good brain chemicals. The 
endorphins work to improve your moods and emotional health. In addition to improving 
emotional health, exercise acts as a distraction, taking your mind off your worries. This 
helps you get away from a continuous cycle of worries that worsens the symptoms of 
stress and depression. Research shows that exercise prevents the symptoms of 
depression and stress from coming back. 

Disease Prevention

A lot of research has been done to find out whether exercise has an impact on disease 
prevention and cure. The results from these studies have found evidence that exercise 
actually helps in diseases prevention and cure. Those who tend to do moderate 
exercise for 20 to 30 minutes per day are more likely to stay healthy for a longer period 
than those who barely exercise. Exercise increases the heart and breathing rate, 
strengthening the heart muscles and reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular 
diseases. Exercise also increases the rate of metabolism in the body, reducing the 
likelihood of becoming obese and developing diabetes. The body’s immune system also 
becomes more powerful with exercise. 

Improved Cognitive Function

Exercise not only benefits your physical and emotional health, it also improves your 
cognitive function. A study done at the University of British Columbia found that those 
who do exercises that increase the heart rate have bigger hippocampus than those who 
don’t. The hippocampus is the part of that controls memory and learning. These benefits 
come from the ability of exercise to reduce insulin resistance and promote the growth of 
cells and new blood vessels in the brain. Middle age exercise has been found to reduce 
the onset of dementia in older adults.

Improved Self Confidence

Self-confidence is part and parcel of proper self-care. If you are confident in yourself, 
you will feel happier and satisfied in life. This will in turn reduce the levels of anxiety, 
depression and stress in your life. Exercise can actually improve self-confidence. It 
makes you feel better physically. When you feel better physically, your emotional health 
improves. You become more confident in taking on new challenges and overcoming 
them. Exercise helps you look better. When you are happy with how you look, you free 
yourself from low self-esteem and body image issues. When you aren’t happy with how 
you look, you become more inadequate in life. 

Exercise is an important aspect of self-care. You cannot afford to ignore it if you want to 
live a healthy and fulfilling life. 20 to 30 minutes of simple exercises such as walking, 
riding a bicycle, yoga, swimming and running can really make a big difference. If done 
regularly, you will improve your mental function, reduce depression and anxiety, 
improve your level of confidence and prevent a host of diseases.

