Feeling A Little Down?

I’ve had a quiet day today mainly because we had a late night last night. We headed off with some friends to Universal City Walk in Orlando for some food, a drink or two and a merry jig and didn’t get home until 2.30am. I would have laughed in the face of 2.30am only 10 years ago. I would have been begging the dj for one last record, imploring my friends to help me find a party and suggesting we all buy a bar and live together forever. It’s not quite like that anymore, in fact it’s nothing like that, it’s not even close. I almost burst in to tears when they told me the taxi wasn’t picking us up until after 2.00am, I was banking on being back to catch the end of the football.

 

Consequently, I think its fair so say that I haven’t been on top of my game today. Not dreadfully so and more through tiredness than excessive alcohol intake, but still I have known I was only ticking over.

 

To try and counteract our torpor Helen and myself reluctantly decided to go to the gym. We did have a very commendable attempt at not getting there by indulging in some world class procrastination on the way by taking way too long picking up a couple of Secret Santa presents, but try as we might to find other things that just ‘had’ to be done we still got there before the gym closed.

 

An hour later and after a good workout we both felt much better. Of course I knew it would have that effect and so did Helen, because it always does, it never fails. I can’t ever remember leaving the gym wishing I hadn’t gone and I’ve never met anybody else that said they didn’t feel better for the experience. Yet so many people myself included, struggle to get themselves to go and workout. Weird huh?

 

Vigorous exercise has numerous beneficial effects that you will undoubtedly be aware of, but the one thing that doesn’t usually jump to the forefront of people’s minds is the fantastic mood enhancing attributes. Bearing that in mind, how many doctors do you think will recommend exercise to somebody presenting with mild depression and/or high stress levels? It’s a rhetorical question because I have no idea of the answer, but my guess would be very few. I don’t want to set off down some conspiratorial path, but do you suppose that has got anything to do with the fact that they don’t make any money out of suggesting a patient join a gym and the pharmaceutical companies actually lose money? As conspiracy theories go I feel confident that it’s not the wackiest out there.

 

If you feel stressed and/or down and currently you don’t do any real exercise make a commitment to do so in 2008. You’ll almost certainly feel mentally better and your physical fitness will improve into the bargain. Now that’s what I call a win/win.

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