Macon Magazine

December 2024/January 2025| maconmagazine.com 95 Shawn McClendon is an ACE-certified personal trainer and owner of Back to Basics Health and Wholeness LLC, an organization dedicated to empowering people to take control of their health and avoid lifestyle disease. He runs a YouTube health and fitness podcast, writes on health and fitness topics at shawnmcclendon.com, speaks on health and fitness, and has authored several health/fitness books. W e live in an age where mental health has, thankfully, become a front-and-center topic in society. This means that there is significant interest in finding ways to not only manage, but to optimize and maximize our mental health. It just so happens that one of the most powerful things that we can do as individuals to positively impact our personal mental health is also one of the most accessible and easiest: Move. Moving your body works wonders for your mind. Consider what your body is doing when you feel sad, anxious, or depressed. Often, such mental states are associated with a lack of movement. You don't feel like doing much of anything, stuck ruminating on negative thoughts. However, if you've ever engaged in movement during such a state, such as taking a walk or working on chores, you've likely discovered that activity provides a way of escape. For me personally, taking a walk almost immediately helps me to feel better. As an added benefit, I often find that either what I was concerned about was not a big issue, or that I have an answer for how to deal with it. This is the power of movement; it provides an alternative path to feeling good when you're unable to rationalize your way out of a negative mental state. Notice that I have talked about movement up to this point. Exercise, a formal type of movement meant to induce a more significant stress on the body to improve physical health and fitness, can work wonders on one's mental health. One study showed exercise as being just as effective as pharmacological drugs and psychological therapies typically used for depression. Other studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of exercise for reducing anxiety, in part due to how it increases one's sense of self-efficacy, which is the belief in one's ability to take actions to accomplish goals. It's also effective through more physiological means, such as more secretion of specific endorphins ("feel-good" hormones) and calming of the nervous system. How is it that movement can be so powerful for improving mental health? I believe the answer is quite simple: We were made to move! This cliché saying does not just apply to the physical body. As living beings, we often forget that we have many parts that comprise our whole, and that all parts are connected. It's impossible for any actions that we take to not affect every part of ourselves. This is why we may not feel like eating – or we may engage in emotional eating – when we feel sad, or why an emotional fright may cause us to break out in a cold sweat. Just like in the popular children's rhyme, the "body bone" is connected to the "mind bone," the "mind bone" is connected to the "emotion bone," and so on. We're whole beings, and that is why movement is not simply a path to fitness; it is a path to wholeness. In the middle of winter, our mental health can take an extra beating due to the shorter, colder days, the resulting reduction of movement, and any added emotions we may experience during holiday times due to loss. This means that deliberate movement and consistency with exercise is absolutely crucial for your mind and thoughts. Let's move now to easy strategies you can implement to optimize and maximize your mental health. 1 Create a routine – To get results from anything, you have to keep at it. Establish routines around your movement so that moving can become a way of life. Make it your practice to take the stairs, to park further way from the store so that you must walk more, and to take walks after meals. Carve out a certain time every day to engage in an exercise regimen. 2 Go outside – Getting your movement in outdoors gives you extra bang for your buck. Being exposed to nature calms the brain and provides a welcome respite from the endless stimulation of blue screens, chimes, and dings bombarding us from the digital world. Sunlight helps you synthesize Vitamin D, an incredibly important substance for health. Time outdoors indirectly helps mental health by regulating your internal clock, so that you get better sleep at night. If you have to move indoors, no problem. But don't forget you are a natural being, and therefore, need natural settings at least sometimes. 3 Move with others – Take a walk with close friends. Join a group fitness class. Play pick-up basketball or tennis, or join an adult recreational sport. As coined by poet John Donne, "no man is an island," and moving with other people benefits your mental health in a ton of ways. It also increases your likelihood of compliance. 4 Get intense! – When you're able, take your exercise up a notch! Don't be afraid to sweat and work hard. Physically, your body will operate better because of it, and mentally, you will increase your resilience because you are showing yourself that you can overcome difficulty. Let us not forget that moving our bodies is important for the body and the mind. You are literally just one step away from providing your being with the life-giving activity of movement. Get moving! Join Macon Mental Health Matters for Yoga in the Plaza, a free monthly session that takes place on the second Friday of every month in Cotton Avenue Plaza at 6 p.m. "We're whole beings, and that is why movement is not simply a path to fitness; it is a path to wholeness."

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