In the past I have been an irregular participant of running and hiking, but presently swimming is my go-to exercise. For me exercise is less about physical fitness and more for quietude; for self reflection and regaining control. When I’m swimming I can’t get overly ambitious. If I swim more vigorously I’ll start gasping for air and my performance drops as my anxiety rises. Swimming laps is both rhythmically monotonous and holistically stimulating. For a neurodivergent brain such as mine that is a sweet combo. Being regular and repeated there is nothing to distract me. The only thing my brain can do is go along for the ride, which is a great meditation. We’ve covered breathing in a previous Mental Health Monday[7].
So what’s with all the swimming? Well at the moment I’m recovering from burnout. A new job coupled with some personal troubles has led to overload on top of overload until I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. The first step is realising you have a problem. The next is dealing with it, and swimming has been one of the ways of combating the anxiety and depression that can come with burnout*.
So what is the broader word on exercise being good for mental health?
In addition to making me hungry, the Mayo Clinic[1] has some comprehensive advice about exercise balancing out depression and anxiety. I know that when I’m depressed, drumming up motivation for exercise can feel impossible. Joining a dance class with instructors shouting “Woo!” is not my thing. I learnt early in life that I’m not much of a “woo” person - even at my emotional peak. But exercise doesn’t mean olympic level training, or filming a TikTok of you over exerting in lycra. It can be as simple as walking. Research from Stanford found walking can increase your creative output by 60%[2].
Any physical activity can be beneficial, including gardening, washing your car, and the covid staple - walking around the block.
Doing 30 minutes or more of exercise a day for three to five days a week may significantly improve depression or anxiety symptoms. But smaller amounts of physical activity — as little as 10 to 15 minutes at a time — may make a difference[5]
Probably one of the most promising finding is that regular exercise of any intensity has a protective effect against future depression and is recommended to prevent recurrence of depression[3]. The Black Dog Institutes info sheet on Exercise & Depression has a lot more information[4].
For a lot of us putting our personal needs first is difficult. Advocating for others is a great way for me to trick myself into doing work for my own good. For example, finding time to swim everyday is hard, but the Laps for Life[6] fundraiser for youth mental health it was a great way to align a cause that I support with my own needs. So far this month I’ve swum over 10 km in 12 days.
So in case you find yourself struggling, changing your scene with some light exercise might help you get back on track. As always though, reach out if you are doing it hard. A health professional like your local Dr is a good first port of call, as are friends, family and your support network.
Let us know what your experience is with exercise and mental wellness.
References
[1] Mayo Clinic (2017) Depression and anxiety: Exercise eases symptoms
[2] May Wong (2014). Stanford study finds walking improves creativity
[3] Harvey, S. B., Øverland, S., Hatch, S. L., Wessely, S., Mykletun, A., & Hotopf, M. (2018). Exercise and the Prevention of Depression: Results of the HUNT Cohort Study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(1), 28–36.
[4] Black Dog Institute, Exercise & Depression | Black Dog Institute
[5] Schuch, F. B., Vancampfort, D., Richards, J., Rosenbaum, S., Ward, P. B., & Stubbs, B. (2016). Exercise as a treatment for depression: A meta-analysis adjusting for publication bias. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 77, 42–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.02.023
[6] Laps for Life charity fundraiser https://www.lapsforlife.com.au/fundraisers/heathwilder
[7] Shelly and Heath (2022) Mental Health Monday: Breathing
* Never fear we are not going to gloss over the thorny topic of burnout, and the 31 flavours that it takes throughout the neuro-diversi-sphere. It is a solid topic that deserves its own conversation(s). Just preferably when we’ve had a bit of repair.
I love starting my day with either yoga or a brisk walk outside. This morning I enjoyed this wonderful 35-minute Yoga with Adriene video: https://youtu.be/OMu6OKF5Z1k
I used to be a distance runner (and by "run", I mean "moving in a biomechanical running motion" rather than anything to do with speed). I could be out for 3 or 4, or even sometimes 5 hours on a weekend day, and like for you, the rhythmic monotony was calming. Plus, if I had a cry, I could pretend my face was sweaty if i wanted to, lol. But, lockdowns, and then eventually getting covid torched my body and I am nowhere close to being able to do that kind of activity. So I've moved to "snack bites" of activity. Whether it's a rage-walk to the deli for lunch, 5 minutes of fiddling with hand weights and bands, or going really old-school with the Billy Blanks Tae-Bo videos on youtube, I'm learning to reassociate movement with feeling better.
This is such a great reminder! Your post resonates with me so much about burnout especially as a mix of personal and work balancing. I guess I need to add some sort of exercise to my daily routine!
"I am not a woo-person"... more relatable words have never been spoken, lol.
I've been doing really well this entire year (so far) getting on the treadmill at least once a day. A couple of tricks that have helped me stay consistent are that I just walk (not run), but I set the incline to the max level. This means the workout is simple, low-effort, yet it really makes me tired/feel like I'm getting those endorphins.
Also, I have a tremendous amount of kindness and grace for myself when I can't wake up and summon the motivation to do it. It's really tough to be mindful in those situations, but just saying, "it's not happening today, and that's alright, I'll jump right back in tomorrow" has been HUGE in not slipping into the guilt/blowing off cycle that I've found myself in many times before. Easier said than done.
Great post, Heath!
Great call Meredith. There are a lot of great evidence for yoga and mental health. It's a great physical health promoter as well. A recent episode of BBC Crowd had a good examine https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct3j87
It can take a while to get back to feeling ok with running after injury. I love it because I used to do it a lot with my dad from a young age.
Snack bites of activity are great too
I think that a regular excersize that keeps your body stimming but allows you blrain to run is the big help here. It's good I find for particular ADHD profiles especially.
The interesting thing I've found is you can work a lot still but that work needs to give you energy and not take it. But rest time is importat. It's the digestion and the learning consolidation part of life thats inportant
Great thinking.
I'm using the Sunsama app to agregate all the communication methods that I get and create a workflow. But one of the great things is the work blogging and advice. Something that one of the founders put out the other day were along those lines
Don't push to the finish line
Ashutosh Priyadarshy
I used to push hard to finish my current task as the end of my work day approached. I wanted the satisfaction of completion and the joy of starting tomorrow with a fresh mind on a new task even if it meant struggling at my computer a bit longer than expected. In those last couple hours, I’d keep fiddling with a paragraph or cycle over the same lines of code over and over. It felt like I was “just one change” away from being done. I’d fiddle for an hour or two longer than I had planned, never getting what I wanted but getting close. Inevitably, I’d return the next day and finish in 15 minutes what I struggled on for hours the evening before. This happened enough times that I now encourage myself to pull the plug on an unfinished bit of work at the end of my day. It’s nice that I found a hack to do two hours of work in just fifteen minutes but the real benefit was that it improved the quality of my work and helped me work more sustainably. When I’d return the next day and look over my work, I’d often notice that I’d taken shortcuts and made quality tradeoffs I don’t typically accept in my work. I was subconsciously making tradeoffs I was unaware of because I was tired, over-saturated by the task, and getting impatient. I noticed that on days where I pushed a couple hours longer than I wanted, I’d have less energy and focus the next day. It’s like I was stealing brain cycles from the next day. Give yourself permission to leave work unfinished. You’ll feel better, do better work, and might even save some time. Take it easy, Ashutosh
I love that. One of the neat crossovers/intersections in my life has been connecting the dots between some of these unhealthy habits of perfectionism and going to music school. A musician playing 95% of the right notes and rhythm still sounds really bad. Expound that to all the musicians in a group, and so on. Completing something to perfection is literally the goal of the practice and training of music. Not necessarily a healthy attitude to learn in the formative years of adulthood!