Why being active is great for your health
Spending the day in the comfort of your couch, while binge-watching your favorite tv show isn’t always a bad idea. Not until it becomes a routine.
Or maybe you don’t even spend time in front of the tv, but you find yourself rather inactive. Do you spend more time sitting at home, in the car and work, rather than being active? Well, it’s probably time to change your habits.
According to some research, many adults in the U.S. spend more than 70 percent of their day sitting. There’s less than 5 percent of adults that engage in 30 minutes of physical exercises each day.
Add the typical diet of Americans, with its huge intake levels of sugar, fats, refined grains, processed foods and sodium, and you have a catastrophe ready to happen.
My aunt used to sit at home the whole day, watching tv, eating, sleeping, and doing nothing active. She thought that she was fine, and that she didn’t need to exercise. One day she felt a bump on her neck. She got really worried and immediately went to the doctor. Luckily, the bump was just a fatty tissue lump, but the doctor said that it could be worse if she didn’t promptly start exercising.
From that time forward, my aunt walks every day for two hours and goes to a fitness class three times a week. She says that she never felt better.
So, instead of trying to find motivation to be more active through willpower, where you encourage yourself by forcing yourself into obedience, take a step back.
Try to understand the long-term consequences of your current situation and the costs you’re going to be paying in the future in regard to your mental, physical, emotional, and social life.
Being active will benefit your mental and physical health. Here are five reasons why you should get out and be more active.
1. Physical health
A passive lifestyle can lead to many problems, and most important, a downturn in your physical health. Many studies show the connection between being active and long-term health. Research shows that having a routine in physical activity will help prevent many diseases, like:
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Cancer
- Obesity
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Osteoporosis
- Premature Death
- Depression
- etc.
Nurturing your physical health will lead to a better position in life, and allow you to enjoy the things you love. Spending time with loved ones, watching the sunset on the beach, or hiking in the mountains is a lot easier if you’re healthy. Being physically active allows your body to fight with life-debilitating diseases.
2. Emotional balance
Studies at the University of Oxford have shown that physical activity is significantly connected with your emotional balance. Being active will benefit you in the avoidance and control of emotional distress, and improve your self-esteem. By being emotionally balanced, you will be able to do better deal with the curve balls that life sends you. You will be more stable, healthy, and supportive to other people.
3. Mental clarity
If you thought that physical activity only affects your physical health, you’re wrong. It harms your cognitive abilities as well. According to research in Harward University, exercising regularly boosts the size of the hippocampus, part of the brain involved in learning and verbal memory. So, staying active will keep your mind sharp.
It doesn’t mean that you have to do challenging and hard exercises right away. Start with exercises that will get your heart pumping, like:
- Walking
- Hiking
- Swimming
- Yoga
- Squash
- Tennis
- Dancing
- etc.
If you don’t have the time, try to level up your household activities. Do your chores faster and more intensely. Mop the floor in your kitchen in less than five minutes, or mow the lawn with a backpack filled with heavy books.
4. Strengthen relationships
Life is always more enjoyable when having people around to share it with. According to some research, social interaction will benefit your health. Loneliness may have a physical effect on your body, like high blood pressure. If you’re inactive, you’re less likely to socialize and meet new people.
Make sure that you go out as much as you can, and meet new people as much as you can. Organize walks with old friends, and try to join different exercising groups. Having a friend to work out with makes the exercising more enjoyable, and give you the motivation to work harder.
5. Boosted creativity
Whether you consider yourself a “creative” type or not, there is some creativity in each one of us. That’s what makes us unique, and what helps us create our life paths. Finding new ways to deal with life, can be difficult if we have an inactive lifestyle.
Get active, and unleash your creativity. It will help you overcome mental blocks and absence of inspiration. Exercising will help you with divergent and convergent thinking, helping you solve problems and find answers. You will see the world differently and have more creative power.
Life gives you so much to love and appreciate, and it’s truly an amazing gift. Take advantage of each moment, and live your life full of adventure, contentment, and admiration. There are many reasons not to succumb to a sedentary lifestyle, all you need is to appreciate life, and take charge of your health. Trust us, you will never regret it.
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We live in a beautiful world, get out there and enjoy it.
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