Beautiful, Courageous You

Tag Archives: exercise


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Workout for a Good Mood

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While exercise has the potential to transform your body, increase feel good chemicals and keep you feeling confident and healthy, it also does wonders for your mind to be distracted from your worries and negative ruminating. In the very depths of depression I would spend most of my waking hours trying to reason with my unreasonable thinking. Much like a dog chasing his tail, I never caught up with reason. My real turning point was when I put on my running shoes and ran out along an old dirt road to visit some brown cows.

Exercise is much more than getting fit; rather, it’s meditation in motion.

I love to run with the sun on my skin, birds chirping, smells of the countryside, focused breathing and on the lookout for the odd brown snake on my path. With all my senses being stimulated it is hard to think about anything else. Often on days when I am feeling flat or just unbearably grumpy with my loved ones, my husband will point to my shoes and “suggest,” “You need to go for a run!” From experience, he knows all too well that I am a better wife and mother when I have been out for a run, having left my worries behind and fully engaged in the moment, distracted from whatever had been weighing me down. This works for me, and it will work for you also. After a 30 minute jog, a brisk walk, several laps in the pool or whatever exercise you choose, you’ll often find by the end of a session that you’ve forgotten the negative ponderings whilst being focused only on your body’s movements and the surrounding environment! Now go ahead and leave the screen time, get out and move that amazing body 🙂


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How to keep your Brain Happy

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Exercise counters the depressed brain by boosting the production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that helps neurotransmitters perform their function and also promotes neural growth (neurogenesis). Recent research reveals that individuals with depression actually show lower levels of BDNF in their blood than people without.

So how does BDNF help with depression and how can we get more of it? BDNF can be increased by engaging in regular exercise. Research also suggests intermittent fasting, under guidance, and an enriched cognitive environment also promotes BDNF.

Although the focus here is on exercise, the notion of increasing BDNF requires a little more attention. I believe it is important to understand the significant research behind fasting and increased brain function. Most certainly, consult with a medical professional before you undertake an intermittent fast or calorie restriction.

According to a new study carried out at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, fasting for one or two days each week may significantly boost brain function. Professor Mark Mattson, lead author of the study and professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has likened fasting to exercising your brain muscles.

Mattson explained that according to research, chemicals involved in the growth of brain cells are significantly boosted when food intake is dramatically reduced. (Mattson and Wan).

So, how does BDNF help with depression? An increase in BDNF helps to increase neurogenesis (changing of physical matter in our brain, in particular the hippocampus), and this produces antidepressant effects which may help depressed people emerge from their rut.

Now that you understand that exercise is the primary key to the maintenance of healthy BDNF levels, it is most important to note that stress is the primary cause of low BDNF! What do we do with stress? EXERCISE it out! Remember, no fasting without the Doctor’s approval! Want more information on this topic, watch this space for the release of “Beautiful, Courageous You” due out Feb – March 2016.


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Hey Cows… I am Back!

 

My little girl with my 'cow friends'

My little girl with my ‘cow friends’

Passion creates freedom regardless of circumstance, for example; when I was in depression my will every morning was to stay in bed and literally curl up to die, however when I made the choice to get passionate about being well again I began to challenge my ‘will to stay in bed’… remaining a  prisoner to my thoughts.

I recall asking myself “what action would I take if I didn’t have these thoughts?’ my answer ‘I’d put on my shoes and get out for a run’ well, revelation hit me like a tonne of bricks! In that moment I had realised regardless of how I was feeling, regardless of my circumstances, there was freedom to be found in the simple act of putting on my running shoes. I determined to challenge my depressed will, dragged myself out of bed, put my joggers on and went for a run.

I cried every step of the way, a mix of emotions swung like a pendulum, sad with grief one moment then overwhelmed with joy the next. I remember running out amongst the hills where we live, I made my way down a dirt track toward a herd of brown cows. Before my season of depression, I would take a daily run on the same route, the cow paddock was my 20 min turnaround point. Often I would stop at the cows and enjoy the simplicity of chewing the cud and just being what they were created to be, no striving, just being. This run was different, it was almost as though I had found a long lost friend, a friend whom I was convinced would never return… I had found me! When I reached the cow paddock I stood and watched for awhile all at once I felt ‘normal’, even a bubble of joy in my spirit, in that moment, I cried out to the cows ‘I am back’!.

There’s something powerful about rejoicing in the midst of problems, by the simple act of doing what previously (before depression) would make me feel good, something in the atmosphere of my depressed state began to shift. Joy is a powerful weapon, despite how you may be feeling start to take steps to partake in things that use to make you feel good.  Once I had decided to make it my passion to get well I continued to take action by choosing to get into life as I knew it. Gradually the depression lifted I began to experience hours, days and eventually weeks of feeling happy. Often times I would be overwhelmed with thoughts of giving up, ‘joy will never be mine it just won’t last’ then the Holy Spirit would bring to mind the story in Luke 17:12 there were ten lepers crying out to Jesus ‘have mercy on us’. “So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” Vs 14 (NKJV) Healed as they went!

Belligerent faith must become the very essence of who you are, passionate to be well, eager to fight for complete healing and restoration even when nothing much seems to have changed. Just like the ten lepers, you will be healed as you ‘go’, go out and engage in life, go to read your Bible, go run – go!