Is Exercise More Mental Than Physical?

I was one of those kids that only ever exercised in gym class when I was in elementary school. It's not that I hated the idea of exercise, but it didn't seem worth it to me. It was too boring and required too much work.

I felt like I just was not built for exercise and instead decided to spend most of my energy elsewhere. It's not like I never exercised. I did like to go for long walks at times. It helped me think.

Besides, even if I wanted to exercise, I wouldn't know where to start. I did not know of any exercises, I didn't know how to get into sports, I never could figure out how to ride a bike, and I sank like a brick when I tried to swim.

So my mindset for years was to leave exercise to the health nuts and maybe just go for long walks every once in a while.

It wasn't until I finished my first year of college that my mindset started to change. Mostly because I felt like I was in a rut. My first year of college was the most boring year of college I've ever had, I had no friends, and nothing to look forward to in the summer. TV, books, and videogames could only stimulate me for so long.

I thought about setting a positive goal for the summer, other than just not being bored. So I decided I would give losing weight a try. At the time, I had been gaining some weight through the years so I was somewhat chubby.

I figured to do this by just going for longer walks than usual but in my head, the walks weren't intense enough for me.

So I decided to switch out my walks with runs instead. They were brief runs at first, mostly because it was all I had the energy for.

Overtime, they started to get somewhat longer though. The more I found that I was getting used to it, the more I realized that I actually liked it. Even though my goal was to improve my physical health (and boy, did I do just that. I lost quite a bit of weight) but I feel I improved my mental health even more so.

It lifted me emotionally to work out, and I found that on days when I was moody, running made me cheerful.

When I went to bed on a day that I ran, I felt more satisfied with my life than I did on a day in which I didn't exercise at all.

It made me realize that while exercise has a lot of undeniable physical benefits, it also has mental benefits that I didn't realize.

My brain feels sharper on a day when I have run than it does on a day when I don't run at all. If I'm depressed, working out takes my mind off of it and lifts my spirits. Not to mention the boost of self-esteem I had by losing my excess weight.

Believe it or not, the reason why I continue to exercise is not because I want to stay physically healthy, but because I believe it keeps me mentally healthy. For me at least, it's more mental than physical.