We totally get it – life is super stressful right now! With most of us tucked away in our houses anxious about the future and maybe indulging in not-so-healthy coping mechanisms, a good sweaty workout session is probably the last thing on your mind. Exercise, however, could be the thing that makes your self-isolation more bearable.
We need stress relief
Even during less tumultuous times, we still get stressed out and the worries tend to stack up on our shoulders – literally. When we get anxious, our brain produces cortisol, often called “the stress hormone,” and kicks your mind into “fight or flight” mode. Our heart beats faster, we breathe faster, and our muscles tense up, ready for action. This response is meant to keep us safe, but if it’s firing all the time it can get pretty hard on our bodies. Chronic stress can cause tension headaches and back pain when our muscles get wound up too tight and upsets everything from your stomach to your mood.
When you feel down, exercise is the best natural way to get a dose of feel-good hormones and boost your mood. For over 100 years, scientists have been proving that exercise is a great form of stress relief. All it takes is 30 minutes of exercise every day for at least 10 days and you’ll start to feel better.
Exercise Boosts Productivity
With more and more people working from home these days, it can be hard to stay productive. Pets, social media, and significant others provide plenty of distractions, and it can be difficult to get into the work mindset sitting at the kitchen table in your pyjamas.
When you get your heart pumping, your brain gets more oxygen and blood flow, which improves its function. Exercise also stimulates the growth of new brain cells and causes the hippocampus, which is linked to memory and cognitive function, to grow. Studies have shown that exercising regularly helps you think better, focus better, and have more energy to get stuff done.
A great way to give your energy a boost is to slather on some of our Relief Lotion. With invigorating peppermint extract and energizing citrus oils, your sore muscles and tired mind will feel refreshed and ready to meet the day! The terpenes, cannabinoids, and other nutrients in our Full Spectrum CBD oil work together to create a natural balance in the body, and we slowly extract our Arnica flower for over three weeks to ensure our oil is as therapeutic and soothing to sore muscles as possible.
Exercise Boosts Your Immune System
If you needed another reason to find some stress relief, here it is: stress can suppress your immune function. With lots on your mind and your brain in “fight or flight” mode, sleep doesn’t come very easily. Insomnia, stress-induced or not, can wreak havoc on the efficacy of your immune system. During exercise, we use up a lot of energy, which not only tires us out but causes us to experience a deeper sleep while our bodies recover.
Stress can make your body feel run down, but exercise helps give it a little bit of fight back.
Don’t Forget to Relax, Too!
Taking time for relaxation is essential to stress relief. For the same reason that exercise helps us sleep better, it helps us relax better. It slows down the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, and makes it easier for serotonin and norepinephrine, the good-mood hormones, to do their thing. It helps us breathe deeper, and experience a moment of connection with our bodies free of distractions.
After an intense workout, nothing feels better than a hot shower or bath. Increase the relaxation with pure, consciously-sourced plant oils like lavender and clary sage. You can find both, along with muscle-soothing magnesium, in our Botanical Bath Salts.
Taking time to care for ourselves is always important, but now more than ever. Staying healthy and happy ourselves helps create a healthy, happy world.