2. Exercise is as Important for Your Brain as it is for Your Body

We all accept that a well-designed exercise program is critical for physical health. But few people fully appreciate the mental and emotional benefits of exercise. Not only does exercise indirectly improve emotional health by releasing stress, facilitating deeper sleep, and building a healthier body which can better support the brain; exercise also directly creates profound changes in brain chemistry and function. Exercise mobilizes energy stores in your body, meaning that both body and brain receive an increased supply of fuel, which leads to an increased sense of energy and wellbeing. In addition, exercise raises the levels of alerting chemicals, leading to an increased ability to focus and think clearly. Finally, exercise elevates the levels of neurotransmitters like epinephrine, serotonin, and endorphins, all of which directly elevate mood. These positive effects don’t only occur right around the time you workout. Consistent exercise establishes lasting patterns, so that your brain functions at a higher level all of the time. Without a well crafted exercise program, it’s impossible to function at your mental and emotional best.

3. Chronic Psychological Stress Tears the Body Apart

In the short term, stress can actually be a good thing. The "stress response" is the way that your body naturally deals with challenges. Whether a challenge comes in the form of bacteria trying to infect you , a workout at the gym, or psychological stressors like a major deadline at work or a test, a lot of the elements of the your body’s response to that challenge are the same. Changes occur in both brain and body. The sympathetic nervous system is activated (read Stress Busting for more info) and the body starts releasing a number of stress chemicals into your blood which mobilize energy stores, help you focus, and prepair you to deal with whatever stress is facing you .

The best studied of these chemicals is cortisol. Cortisol is the primary molecule that puts your body into go mode. It revs up aspects of your immune system, increases blood flow and energy utilization in muscles, speeds up your heart rate, and generally prepares your body to deal with whatever may come.

All of this is well and good in the short term. But serious problems arise when stress becomes chronic. Everyone’s body, no matter how healthy, has a limited amount of energy. The stress response requires your body to expend substantially more energy than it does under normal circumstances. If chronic psychological stressors keep your body in go mode for too long, you can seriously burn out. Systems from your adrenal glands, to your heart, to your muscles, to your immune system can all become run down and stop functioning up to par. At this point, your body’s ability to cope with challenges becomes substantially reduced. You become susceptible to all sorts of damage, from inflammation of joints, to infection, to atherosclerosis (coronary artery disease).

The link between psychological stress and physical disease is well established in medical science. Cortisol is generally believed to be a major player in this link. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol have been found to be correlated with arthritis, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases. As a result, many scientists blame cortisol for directly contributing to these conditions. But a more likely explanation is that chronically elevated cortisol levels (occurring as a response to stress) simply keep the body in go mode for too long. Things like joint damage and diabetes then occur because exhausted cells, having been driven too hard for too long, simply can’t do their jobs anymore. Under this picture, stress doesn’t directly do physical harm to the body. Instead, stress leads to burn out, and a burned out body simply can’t maintain health. To avoid burnout you don’t need to avoid stress entirely. Rather, you simply need to make sure that stressors don’t become chronic. When it comes to work, exercise, play, and every other aspect of your life, be sure to give your body regular breaks, and really take some time each week to chill out and get some R and R (see Stress Busting for more). Commit to breaking the pattern of chronic stress in your life, and more resilient mental and physical health will follow.