With today’s increased understanding of the interdependence of the mind:body system, we now know how crucially our physical health impacts on our mental health, and thus how regular physical exercise is hugely beneficial to emotional health.
It is equally true that our emotional state impacts on our physical fitness.
However much physical exercise or training we undertake, full health and fitness and top levels of performance cannot be achieved if we are suffering any mental or emotional distress. In physical terms, this is because stress invokes the fight:flight responses, including release of cortisol and adrenaline which, when released repeatedly and regularly, impact on our cardiovascular and immune systems.
In short, stress is a physical response with physical impact.
Positive emotional states have corresponding positive impacts on our physical performance, due to the stimulation of the relaxation response, and the release of oxytocin (our warm, caring, wellbeing hormone) and endorphins (our feel-fantastic factor!). Happiness helps us to perform better – it’s a win:win situation!
So it is vital that we work on both our body and our mind health and fitness in conjunction, to solve any injuries or distress and to build capacity, suppleness, power and resilience with which to meet all of life’s challenges.
