Find Psychological Motivation
Use Your Mind, Get Healthy & Stay Motivated to Exercise!
Finding the psychological motivation to exercise is as simple as reminding yourself daily why you want to get healthy and stay motivated - and what the exercise benefits are. Maybe you want to reach your healthy weight; maybe you're recuperating from surgery or a frightening diagnosis. Whatever your reason for getting healthy, here's some research to help you stay motivated.
Psychological motivation is powerful stuff!
In the April 2007 issue of O magazine, Oprah revealed the secret to being healthy, happy, and wise: exercise. The idea that exercise benefits are huge isn't earth-shattering news. We know how important exercise is to our minds, hearts, and souls – but we don't know how to start a healthy lifestyle or stay motivated once we get healthy. This is why psychological motivation is key to not just knowing the benefits of exercise, but living it in our daily lives.
The following list of exercise benefits can act as psychological motivation to jog around the block, go to Yoga, or hike up a nearby mountain. Knowing exactly how exercise helps you stick to a healthy diet and improves your life may be the secret to staying motivated.
Note: these exercise benefits aren't taken directly from Oprah's list of reasons to exercise, but they do provide psychological motivation.
The benefits of exercise:
- Sleep better & reduce fatigue. A healthy lifestyle wards off insomnia and helps you sleep better. Once you get going, exercise gives you more energy and makes you feel less sleepy.
- Improve your psyche. Not only can exercise lift depression, it also helps in the treatment of schizophrenia, developmental disabilities, substance abuse, and psychosomatic disorders. If this isn't psychological motivation, what is?
- Feel less anxious. Your sense of well-being and feeling good is enhanced. Personal tension and stress are eased by exercise; you can burn off feelings of anxiety, frustration, and anger by running, rowing, or romping through the forest.
- Reduce risk of cancer and other diseases. Exercise benefits include increasing heart health and decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, breast cancer, and Parkinson's disease. Your chances of developing colon cancer decrease by almost 50% when you exercise regularly.
- Prevent dementia-like illnesses. Your mental activity is sustained with exercise: a six month exercise program can reverse the loss of brain tissue. Diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia become a little less risky, and mental processes are improved. Definitely some psychological motivation here!
- Improve your sex life. Vaginal response, self-esteem, self-confidence and body awareness are increased with exercise. More psychological motivation.
- Lose weight. Exercise burns calories, builds up your muscle and bone density, and boosts your metabolism. It's hard to lose weight - and here's why.
- Look great. No matter how much you weigh, regular exercise improves your appearance by giving you that healthy glow, bright eyes, and a happier disposition. You'll look and feel gorgeous; who could ask for better psychological motivation?
- Live longer. A healthy lifestyle can increase your life span by almost four years – and they'll be good ones if you're active and strong. Exercise slows the effects of aging.
- Strengthen your relationships. When you work out, do yoga, or walk with your family and friends you'll get to know them better and strengthen your bonds. If you're gonna live longer, you might as well be loved! Perhaps this is the strongest psychological motivation of all.
Psychological motivation will go a long way in keeping you motivated. Check this list of exercise benefits daily, until you know them off by heart…and then wild horses couldn't keep you away from your daily run, walk, or yoga class! That is how powerful psychological motivation can be to make exercise benefits real.
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