Feeling depressed? Shake it off with exercise!

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, love and happiness is in the air. Unfortunately, the month of February also records the highest increase in mild to severe depression. Holidays like Valentine’s Day often reinforce our insecurities and feeling blue is common among all age groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your teens or in pushing fifty. It’s natural to feel angry and depressed, especially around holidays like Valentine’s Day.

Mostly people try to respond to this depression by ignoring it or taking over-the-counter anti-depressants and sleeping pills. Neither of those is a healthy, long-term solution. Thankfully, studies conducted by Harvard Medical School have proven that exercise actually helps in countering depression.

We’ve all heard about how exercise is good for both mind and body but we never really knew how exactly it helps. We always think that’s just something people say to keep us motivated to exercise. In fact, most of us think of exercise as something like a chore you have to push through and sometimes we do our best to talk our way out of it.

But exercise being the best anti-depressant isn’t just hearsay. The Harvard study actually tested different groups of people by giving one group anti-depressants and the other group moderate exercise 3-5 times a week. Depression levels were lowered in both groups but months after the study, when they checked back with the groups, they found that the people who continued to exercise regularly had stopped suffering from depression entirely whereas people dependent on anti-depressants had multiple relapse[1].

That proves two things. The first, that exercise is an actual, practical solution to depression. Second, that it is also the only long-term, healthy solution.

How does exercise counter depression? When you exercise, your body enhances the action of endorphins, which are basically feel-good chemicals. Not only that, it also helps stimulate something called neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which is directly related to feeling cheerful and optimistic. It reduces immune system chemicals that actually worsen your state of depression and help prevent that from happening.

But most importantly, exercise gives us a goal to work towards and an accomplishment every day. For most of us, it’s difficult to hit the gym on non-depression days so how do we motivate ourselves to workout on days we’re feeling blue?

The study found out that you don’t have to do rigorous exercise to feel good and happy. Its subjects did moderate exercise like walking for 60 minutes three times a week or 30 minutes five times a week. However, any less than 2 hours of moderate exercise a week makes no difference.

It’s suggested that the best way to get moving is to spread it out over the day. Take the flight of stairs instead of escalator, walk around your office, clean up your room or do any activity. Close the day with a short walk or run.

The important thing to note is that you must stay active. This is the toughest thing to do during depression but once you fall into the routine, not only does exercise become a part of you, it also helps take things off your mind.

In fact, there’s no better way to unwind after a long and trying day than jogging or running the stress off. Remember, the point of this exercise is to commit to it, so don’t start with something grand that you’ll have difficulty keeping up with. Start simple. You don’t have to go to the gym. Even walking around in your house or the terrace is good. Skipping in the free space in your home like balcony and verandas is also a good plan.

Remember, it’s natural to feel off and blue. And all it takes is a little push for 30 minutes of no-thinking, only action workout to feel better.

In fact, even without all the science and the studies, exercise is a great way to stay focussed on what’s positive. Like the calories you burn, all that you sweat out and how great you feel having finished something.

So, this Valentine’s Day, if you’re feeling blue, give anti-depressants a skip. You can actually sinfully indulge in tubs of ice-cream because guess what? You’ll be working every calorie off.