"Exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind" - Nelson Mandela
"We fly high, no lie, we know this, ballin!!" These lyrics by Jim Jones the American hip-hop artist always stick in my head whenever I think about playing basketball and doing physical exercise. I have been a basketball player nearly my whole life and this has been a substantial help to my overall mental and physical health. But why is physical exercise so instrumental to your well-being and autonomy, let's expound on it.
One of the greatest benefits of physical exercise is what it can actually do to your overall brain health and cognitive abilities. It helps you learn, think, problem-solve, and enjoy an emotional balance. Also physical exercise increases blood flow to the brain which in turn gives your brain more oxygen and energy to perform its primary cognitive functioning. Now all of these benefits are critical especially when it comes down to stress management because stress is tension, pressure, and means to draw tight.
When you are stressed, your cognitive abilities are obstructed and you feel boggled down from the stressors which are incurred on your body. Now when you workout, your body releases endorphins which are the feel-good hormones that are also your body's natural pain killers. This enhances your sense of well-being and it's well known that when your body produces endorphins at a higher rate, then symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress decrease significantly. Also working out decreases your activity of the stress response and your bodily systems work better in harmony in fighting against the incurring of the stress response. Lastly, it improves your mood which is your disposition, mentality, and attitude. This is crucial in terms of stress because we speak a lot about mindset and perception when it comes to stress because by having a positive mood you can cope with stressors that are chronic or acute.
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Now pictured above, is a photo of me during my basketball days in high school. Basketball is such an integral component to my life even until this day. Playing basketball has taught me so many lessons, mental, physical, and at times even spiritual. Whenever I would train and play basketball it would build my self-discipline, internal motivation, concentration, and even help build my physique. This enabled me to learn how to have high spirits all the time so when tough times would arise, it would light a spark within me to keep fighting back until it subsided. It's the same whenever you are in a game and you are down a couple of points with time ticking down and you have to turn up the notch in order to win the game. Also it taught me how to deal with failure because there were many games we wouldn't win, but you have to have short-term memory, pick your head up and keep going. All of these lessons have propelled me to be an entrepreneur and conquer stressors for myself and others in so many ways so I can help make the world a better place. I hope you enjoyed the blog, and have a great rest of the day, peace!! :)
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