Hello blessed child of God, I hope you’re fine by God’s grace.
As for me, I’m doing great thanks to Him.
As promised at the beginning of Lent this year, we are studying the topic of Depression.
Lent is almost over, and we’re almost through with our posts on depression. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be normal to talk about depression without talking about exercise.
If you’re a Christian, you know that your body is the temple of The Holy Spirit. You should not neglect God’s temple, instead, you have to take care of it.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
You take care of the temple of The Holy Spirit everyday for example I guess by taking a bath (or two), moisturizing your skin and feeding yourself, but another important way through with you take care of the temple of The Holy Spirit (i.e. you) is by doing some exercise.
While you’re exercising, your body secretes endorphins which contribute to making you feel good and relaxed, they improve mood, and actually exercising improves sleep and helps fight depression.
Today we’ll talk about three ways to increase your motivation to exercise.
1. Make A List Of Your Top Ten Reasons To Exercise
Exercising has many advantages, some of which are listed below. I got this list from the Anxiety and Depression Workbook for Dummies.
- For fun
- Improves energy levels
- Decreases risk of cardiovascular diseases
- Relieves stress
- Improves immune system
- Decreases depression
- Decreases blood pressure
- Boosts self-confidence
- Decreases risk of diabetes
- Decreases risk of breast cancer
- Improves lung capacity
- Reduces triglycerides
- Aids weight loss
- Decreases risk of colon cancer
- Improves appearance
- Decreases risk of falls in the elderly
- Improves flexibility
- Improves strength
- Decreases risk of osteoporosis
- Improves sleep
- Improves ratio of bad to good cholesterol
- Increases mental sharpness
- Decreases risk of gallstones in women
- Decreases risk of enlarged prostate in men
- Improves balance
- Improves quality of life
- Relieves symptoms of PMS
- Reduces breast cancer risk
- Improves complexion
- Reduces medical and healthcare expenses
- Reduces varicose veins
- Allows you to eat more without gaining weight
- Reduces addictive cravings
- Reduces tension and anxiety
- Aids digestion
Select the top 10 reasons which you’re most concerned about and for which you would want to practice exercise daily.
Depending on your health status, and your age, you may need on average 30-60 minutes of exercise per day.
Paste the list of your top 10 reasons somewhere right near your bed so you can see it every morning when you wake up or, paste it at your office desk.
Every time you will be demotivated and every time you won’t feel like going for your daily session of exercise, look at that list to remember why it’s important for you, and then get up and do it.
2. Fight Demotivating Thoughts
Every now and then, when someone wants to exercise, a few thoughts can come up in their mind to discourage them. Some of these thoughts are:
- I don’t feel like exercising, I’ll start doing it when it feels right
- I’m not someone who exercises, it’s just not who I am
- It’s not worth the trouble to exercise.
- Exercise is a frivolous pursuit.
- I don’t have the time to exercise.
- I’m too tired to exercise
- I’m too old to exercise
- I hate exercise
- I’m too depressed or anxious to exercise
- I’m too much out of shape to exercise
- I have too much pain to exercise
- Gyms and equipment cost too much; I just don’t have enough money to exercise.
- Exercise just isn’t worth the effort.
As you see, if you listen to those demotivating thoughts you will never exercise.
What you have to do when those thoughts come up in your mind is to develop motivating thoughts which debunk the demotivating thoughts.
For example, “I don’t have time to exercise” is an exaggeration, you have to decide “I will find 30 minutes everyday to exercise. I can cut off 30 minutes from the time during which I watch TV everyday or I can watch TV while exercising ”
The thought “I’m too tired all the time to exercise” can be fought by realizing that exercise usually helps overcome chronic fatigue.
So that’s what you should do, when the demotivating thoughts come replace them (we’ve learned how to replace our thoughts) and then do the right thing.
3. Keep Track Of Your Progress
Have an exercise dairy in which you write down something every day.
Write down when you exercise, what you did as exercise and for how long, and write down how you felt after exercising.
You should do this every single day, even on those days where you fail to exercise. The dairy helps you keep track, stay motivated, and to encourage yourself to keep pushing.
Conclusion
As a Christian, you already know that your body is the temple of The Holy Spirit. You have to take care of your body, and one of the numerous ways through which you take care of your body is through exercise.
Generally speaking, exercising for 30-60 minutes every day will improve your mood, improve your sleep and help you fight depression. In order to remain consistent with your exercise routine, you’ve got to stay motivated.
If you have a specific health condition, it’s better to check with your medical doctor how often you should exercise and for how long.
Prayer
Father Lord God Almighty, I thank You because my body is the temple of The Holy Spirit. Help me to care for my body every day through exercising. Help me to be consistent, in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
It’s Now Your Turn
What are your favorite ways to exercise? How do you intend to exercise these day? (Dance, gym, running, walking etc)
Let us know in the comments section.
You can transform your social media accounts into your exercise diaries. Everyday post about your routine, even if you missed, share about how you feel and what you did. Then add the hashtags #exerciseeveryday #missionfrJesus
Don’t forget to share this blog post on your social media accounts and to invite your friends and family members to join us as we’re waging war against depression. You may save a life by sharing.
If you’ve not done it yet, subscribe to my Newsletter so as not to miss any post on depression and also, make sure to invite anyone whom you know is suffering from depression.
Click here to subscribe to my Newsletter.
Also, please consider sharing this blog post on all your social media accounts.
Invitation
Click here if you’re looking for a church. I recommend Elevation Church to you. A wonderful Christ-centered Church in which you aren’t limited by your location and in which you can see what God can do through you.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog post please subscribe to my Newsletter so as not to miss any new post.
Also, please consider sharing this blog post on all your social media accounts.
God bless you
Victoria Eyog
1 Comment
Procrastination And The Motivation Myth – Mission For Jesus · April 13, 2019 at 10:45 pm
[…] It’s the same principle as with the exercise diary. […]