Exercise & your Mental Health
The latest twist in the mental health and exercise movement is to exercise while talking through problems.
Evidence supporting movement as a treatment for depression and other mood disorders is compelling. In fact, many psychiatrists and 
psychologists urge their patients to get more exercise and make other lifestyle changes.
Here’s how it works:
1) When people are put on a treadmill, they begin to see, via their physical accomplishments, that they are capable of “self-bettering behavior.”
2) People talk more freely when we’re moving. If we’re just sitting and talking, we’re not as stimulated as we would be when moving.
A chemical reaction inside our body:
There is an increase of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine levels, neurotransmitters that affect mood. So, in a way it rewires the brain. These are the same brain chemicals whose levels are controlled by antidepressans like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft.
Positive thoughts, including those derived from the “getting fit” experience, reinforce the positive neural connections.
We have to be careful because the converse is also true. Negativity fans the fire for more negativity.
This concept of exercising for positive mental health has been around since the early 1970’s.