Is There Really a Link Between Physical Health and Mental Health?

I'm not a doctor or an expert, but I sincerely believe there is a link between your physical and mental health. If you look after one, the other will improve without you even noticing. I didn't believe it at first either. How can running on a treadmill fix my anxiety? Or how can lifting weights help my mind find peace?

Well, the main source of my anxiety was my health. And since I was overweight, I kept falling sick until it reached a point where I needed to make a drastic lifestyle change if I ever wanted to get better. But the weight didn't just affect me physically, it also led to a lot of insecurities about how I looked, and my body image. There were days I didn't even want to leave the house, or come downstairs when we had guests over because I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin.

Signing up for a gym membership was the best thing I've ever done for myself. Because I've had so many false starts on my journey to getting healthy, from fad diets to barely eating the nutrients my body needed. Even now I'm not super thin or fit, with curves in all the right places, like a Kardashian, but I no longer look at myself and want the ground to swallow me whole.

There are even weeks when I don't go to the gym at all. But I don't berate myself, and I don't feel like crap because I know I'm working hard, and I'm getting healthier, and that missing a day or two isn’t the end of the world. I don't even have to actively tell myself to stay positive, or to be nice to myself, or that taking a day off from the gym every once in awhile only makes me human. One day I was sitting in my therapist’s office and as we were recapping the week, I came to the astounding realization that this week, I didn't feel bad about my body, or my weight, or how I looked, even though I had missed all three days of cardio for the week. For once, I was happy with my self-image. It was the most liberating feeling ever.

My favorite part about exercising is the natural high it gives me. Like I have the energy to accomplish anything and everything afterward. Also, for the hour a day that I'm at the gym, my mind is so occupied with what I'm doing that it forgets to be anxious! Imagine that! A way to turn off the constant stream of debilitating thoughts. An anxious person’s dream come true.

So in my humble, non-expert opinion, there is definitely a connection between our bodies and our minds. If we look after one, the other will eventually follow. Just take that first step. It doesn’t have to be as big as joining a gym. It can be as simple as taking a walk around the block with your headphones in and your favorite song blasting through them. Just get out of the house, get a change of scenery, breathe in some fresh air. I know it’s not as simple as any of those things. But it’s a start. It will be worth it, you'll see.