Does working out make you feel better?

Day 27 / 365

It’s a cliche how people say that if you feel bad, you should exercise. That if you move and make a deliberate effort, it will make you feel better. Ever since I started working out regularly, I realized that just like many other cliches, this one is true as well.

I had read a book a while back called The Upward Spiral. It talked about the biomechanics of depressions. When you are depressed, it doesn’t just affect you mentally, it has physical effects as well. You will lose your appetite, you might develop a headache by thinking too much. The muscles of your forehead will become tense. You will feel like you don’t have the energy to do anything.

But what the book suggests is that the reverse is true as well. Just like mental changes can have physical effects, physical changes can have mental effects as well.

This is why if you just look in the mirror and fake smile for a few seconds, after a while you will start smiling naturally. Or if you just try and relax the muscles on your forehead, you will feel less stressed.

And this is where exercise comes in as well. You feel bad, which makes you lazy, so you just sit and do nothing, which makes u feel worse. But if you deliberately get up and work out, you will start to feel better, and you will see that your energy comes back. And with that, you will be able to work out even more.

These are little things that I find helpful when I am going through a rough phase. While they won’t just fix everything, it gives you just enough push to make it through the day.