Manage Emotions & Curb Disease through Exercise: Master Your Body & Mind
Emotions, Disease & Self-talk
Emotional health often connotes privilege and luxury. Minorities especially, at least those from older generations were encouraged to ignore our emotions or simply get over them. When we consider the term health, it’s simply not a priority to most. The goal isn’t to become a victim, but rather to build a larger capacity to manage emotions rather than simply ignore them or toss them to the side. Why is this important? Well, It’s critical to your physical health. Not immediately, but chronic stress is scientifically proven to cause mortality like heart disease and cancer. It also plays a crucial part to our recovery from severe illnesses and injury. Confronting our emotional world can resolve cycles of relational turmoils and improve markers of disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and more. Unfortunately, if you weren’t raised to understand your emotions, they can feel foreign to you as an adult. The key is to first become aware of your internal dialogue.
In the previous blog post, we discussed how self-talk reveals self-belief and is paramount to your mental health. Changing such will impact your actions and feelings. Today’s post will uncover specific practices to apply during your training session, whether your battling anxiety, hypervigilance, depression, or fear. Let’s train your emotional capacity through active learning; quite literally through physical training. Whether through strength training, cardio, or calisthenics, just find whatever mode of exercise works for you. The emotional building principles are the same.
The Physiology: How exercise can help you manage your emotional state
Before we dive into practices, it is important to understand your body’s automatic response to exercise, whether or not you are actively working on emotional regulation while training. When you know the science, it helps to ground your belief in practicing the strategies to better your emotional world through training. It will also motivate you to continue.
Stress Distraction:
Whether you step into the gym or work out at home, you’re able to focus on your body and mind. Making that time for yourself gives you a break from all the other stresses going on in your life. When you start exercising at the appropriate intensity, cortisol (a stress hormone) is automatically reduced in your body. The break from thinking of life’s problems and the chemical reactions from exercising brings you into a calmer state of mind, providing a clear mind to make the best decisions.
Hormone Regulation & Neurotransmitters Released:
Through consistent exercise your brain chemistry begins to change. Your hormones balance as cortisol and insulin become regulated, leading to a stable mood and emotional control. Neurotransmitters are the “feel good” chemicals in your brain that get released during exercise — dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Even after a hard training session, most people will still feel better about themselves because of the reward and pleasure effect of serotonin.
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the plasticity of the brain. Think of plastic and how easily it can fold, bend and take shape—saran wrap for example can be manipulated into anything shape you want. The brain has the ability to drastically change as well, and exercise automatically induces these changes. With at least 90 minutes a week at moderate intensity, exercise elicits substantial benefits. Exercise with the same time prescription, is as effective as anti-depressants without the side-effects of fatigue, skin and organ issues. And particularly, exercise with a focus on mind-body connection increases emotional regulation by increasing the density of gray matter in the brain.
Cognitive Restructuring: Change Your Self-talk During Exercise
Cognitive restructuring simply means to change your thought instincts. We all have automatic scripts in our minds, they can be insecurities and doubts that don’t serve us well in our relationships, career, and life pursuits. These negative thoughts don’t go away just because we want them too. Just like growing muscle, you have to constantly train what you think and how you think about things.
It’s like when you lift weights, your approach to the bar can make or break you. If you go in unsure of yourself it translates to how you perform in the lift: lighter loads start to feel heavier, the lift might not be as smooth, and the grind feels harder. At the worst you can’t lift what you know you can and what you previously have. Think about how you approach your workouts. How do you feel about the exercises you do. What are you specifically thinking when you approach an exercise. Start by becoming aware of your thoughts instead of letting them playing mindlessly.
After you catalogue how you think. Maybe ponder on why you have these thoughts. Investigate your mind a bit. Then consider what would be beneficial to you to change. What’s a different approach of thinking you could have; one that you want. And then try it! It may feel awkward or unnatural to you, but anything new rarely feels “just right” the first time. Everything takes repetition to master. This way we begin to replace our automatic thoughts to be positive.
Sticking the example of how to approach the bar to lift, it’s best to take a step back, regroup, and re-approach the bar knowing you can do it. Hype yourself up by whatever means! What you say to someone else to encourage them? And in the same light, encourage yourself as if your caring for someone else.
Teaching yourself to change your thoughts while exercising if monumentally beneficial because your body is active, your body is moving while you are also training your mind to think differently. When your body and mind are simultaneously moving, both body and mind are more capable of growing. A better mindset pushes your body more, a moving body helps to break cycles of thoughts you may be stuck in. The key is your intentionality.
Knowing the strategy to change your thoughts while exercising, you can now reapply the same lesson to other areas of your life. At times, when you catch yourself automatically thinking negatively about a situation, simply apply the same principle before you go into a downward spiral.
Conclusion
Exercise is a powerful tool to manage stress and emotions, helping you achieve balance mentally and physically. If you’re ready to take control of your emotional health, Drip Training’s virtual personal training is designed to build both your physical and emotional resilience.
About the Author:
COACH DEE | CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER ACE—CPT, PPSC, TIWL
Deborah Park, known as Coach Dee, is the owner of Drip Training LLC and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and Health Coach. With a background in architecture and kinesiology from the University of Virginia, she has extensive experience in personal training and athletic coaching in a clinical (physical therapy) setting. Coach Dee combines her scientific knowledge with years of hands-on experience to create programs that empower clients to regain control over their bodies and minds.
Her journey into personal training was deeply influenced by her personal struggles, including recovering from a life-changing car accident that led to PTSD and pain from scoliosis. This experience gave her a unique understanding of the connection between mental health and physical well-being. Coach Dee is committed to helping clients develop resilience, build strength, and rediscover their confidence—no matter the challenges they face.
