Magazine_Spring2021_RND3_04.05.21.indd

Mental Health Rates of depression, anxiety, fear and other diagnoses are at an all-time high due to the pandemic. The stimulation and fear-based emotions that permeate our present world have impacts on our mental health. How often do you consider that although your workouts make you feel better, if you have other outlets that allow the mind to recover and destress? Some suggested techniques are talk therapy and psychotherapy, mind- body release techniques, meditation or restful states, and creative projects that utilize our senses of smell, taste, and touch. Would you believe that a 2-minute guided meditation and coloring in that adult coloring book you received over the holidays may actually be directly impacting your performance in the gym? Western Separation of Mind & Body Over the last decade there has been robust growth in exercise science as it relates to our mental health. Not only is it necessary for us to maintain mental resiliency and flexibility to tackle life’s harder moments, it also has been used by clinicians to treat both circumstantial (think, the pandemic) and chronic mental illness. The hardship and confusion surrounding this is that much of our Western culture separates “mind” and “body” approaches as if they don’t impact one another. For clinicians, exercise is often just as good as pharmacological treatments for anxiety, depression, bipolar, dementia and often, can lessen symptomology in more severe mental health diagnoses. Okay, So They Affect One Another? Yes! The brain affects exercise and athletic performance, and vice versa. Through exercise, the delivery of oxygen and nutrients directly impact neuronal health. Think about overall mental ability to do things like concentrate, regulate emotions, and plasticity of the brain to learn new skills and grasp concepts. You may be thinking, “Well, exercise makes me feel a little better, but how does it connect the mind and body?” Our hippocampus is a part of our brain that is responsible for learning, retaining information, memories, and emotional regulation. Studies have shown a strong correlation in how exercise impacts this area of the brain and how strengthening it also conversely will impact someone’s perception of themselves and their relationship to their body. It impacts emotional regulation, which, when considering a fitness journey, we do often! How often do you find yourself engaging with negative self-talk, ambition to start a new exercise program, or changing eating habits? Ever feel scared, or even excited to do these things? Well, those emotions are part of the connection to exercise and brain function, or simply said, our mental health. "Would you believe that a 2-minute guided meditation and coloring in that adult coloring book you received over the holidays may actually be directly impacting your performance in the gym?" Nutrition Quarterly · 2021 – Volume 2 12