Build your resilence through exercise

3 Tips to building your mental resilience through exercise

1. Own It

We often blame others, and situations instead of taking action and recognising that we are responsible for our own health and wellbeing. Whether it be exercise or focus on better nutrition, or taking time out or what I like to call “mental health time”, is our choice whether we will make time for it or not. Using fitness and exercise as a strategy to hold yourself accountable will not only help increase your self esteem, but boost your mood and keep you living longer.

2. Commit to yourself

Commit to yourself - its the best investment you will make. We so often commit our time and efforts to others, whether they be our family members as we are responsible for dependents, our partners, or social outings with our friends. However we struggle to make the same commitment to ourselves. Commit yourself and invest in your health right now - recognise why this is important to you in the bigger picture, and why you should not compromise your health and well being. Being committed helps create meaning in our lives. Exercise helps our be committed to ourselves and our wellbeing.. If I were to ask you to answer the following… I exercise because… and after exercise I feel… ? What would you answer? Bank those answers and feelings into your long term memory bank and remember them each time you don’t feel like investing time or energy in yourself.

3. Grow your adaptability

Whilst we tend to cope in conditions that are familiar to us - work situations, life situations, many of us struggle to adapt when situations change - we allow stressors to creep in, we lose our focus, and we end up being at risk of poor mental health for at least a temporary period of time. If you throw yourself into different types of exercise, this places a variety of stressors on your body - thus teaching you subconsciously to learn and adapt. This could mean different fitness sessions types, different styles of classes, trying out new activities or sports.

Practice to create new habits

By practicing these steps to building resilience, you will learn things about yourself which will give you the strength to harness that little voice that creeps in every now and again.

If you want to take it one step further, our face to face group sessions at Brighton Le Sands or Penshurst, or check out our online fitness, exercise and mindset programs. These are specifically designed to help you build  your toolkit. This toolkit is what you can tap into to  build your personal resilience to obstacles and handle the stress that shows up in your life.

By committing to a trainer weekly in a group exercise session or to online sessions you will achieve these 3 key principles and will have the support to face any adversities that may arise.

We focus on giving you support, guidance and tools through our holistic approach to your well being to continue to grow and develop your best self.

For more information about health, wellness and exercise tips, please contact the expert contributor.