Running

One of the hardest things to accept when you are diagnosed with a mental illness (especially at a young age) is accepting the changes you must make to your lifestyle. Yes, being mentally ill pushes us to change to a healthier lifestyle; there's no point in fighting it. These lifestyle posts will talk about these changes, sometimes with baby but very brave steps. 

Exercise

Running

A couple of years ago I found a magical book that changed my life. "The psychic power of running" by Valerie Andrews.

I'll just leave a little of Valerie Andrews' wisdom: 

1. The basic synchronicity of the body and the mind: She wrote that about the relationship between emotions and body feelings. Backed by Wilhelm Reich who argues that undischarged emotions are kept hidden in sections of the body, blocking energy flows, which make mental health possible and early emotional insecurities trigger body responses; also called psychosomatic diseases. They're not alone, Austin Gontang is a Gestalt therapist who believes that running makes therapy shorter because it brings out these repressed feelings and it enables people to be more honest about their emotions because the physical effort disables defense mechanisms.
2. Running as body therapy: "Anyone understands how to express him or herself through physical expression is likely to get through therapy faster than their sedentary counterpart; the resolution of every psychological is never purely intellectual-it is a physical and emotional event that demands courage to take risks and an ego capable of enduring pain.Through running we learn to push our limits, endure stress and integrate the responses between mind and body."

But, running sounds overwhelming, right?

Especially for a mentally ill person who tends to put self-love at the bottom of the to-do list. So, here's magnificent news for you:

The amount of exercise needed to receive the chemical benefits is.....

Thirty minutes a day, three days a week, and those thirty minutes don't even have to be continuous (meaning, you can walk 15 minutes in the morning and 15 in the afternoon and you're done!).