Have you ever thought about how exercise might help if you’re grieving? Could physical activity really help with grief? Angus, Content Creator, found that exercise was an escape for him and really helped with his grief and mental health after his mum died while he was at university.
Researchers and scientists have conducted a number of studies to prove that physical activity has enormous potential to have a positive impact on our mood and our mental health, so why not on our grief too? No, it’s not going to magically cure your grief or bring your person back – of course! However, it may lift you up or even serve purely as a temporary distraction if you’re having a day where you’re not feeling so great.
If you’re reading this thinking, ‘I don’t even feel like getting out of bed… reading this isn’t going to make me exercise’, we feel you. You don’t have to get up early and out of the house to run a marathon or even a 5k, you can start with something much more simple. What about taking a walk around the block? Or doing some stretches? You could even stretch whilst lying in your bed if that’s what you feel would suit you best! If it could help to motivate you, maybe you’d like to set a goal to work towards… but don’t put pressure on yourself if you think that could make things worse and stress you out.
One of our Youth Team, Angus, found exercise was an escape for him after his mum died while he was at university. Running is Angus’s thing, and he spoke to us following his Saturday morning run:
So, if you feel up to it, why not give it a go? Start by trying one of these: take a walk, stretch out, or follow along a YouTube tutorial for yoga or something similar.
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