Of the three main ways to support personal resilience - sleep, exercise, and socialisation - it is my belief that exercise is the most important one.
Exercise need not be about sweating hard at the gym every day, although that wouldn't be a bad thing, it's about lifting your heart rate above normal level so that oxygenated blood gets pumped around your body.
Blood carries good and bad stuff. The good stuff is distributed around the body to where it is needed while the bad stuff is filtered out through your body's filters, the kidney, liver, etc. It takes a good 30 minutes for blood in your big toe to circulate through your plumbing system up to your brain and back down again enough times for it to be cleansed.
The exercise must be consecutive not accumulative so don't go adding together the time it took you to walk from home to the bus, from the bus to work, and back again. Your heart rate must remain at a medium to high level for a continuous period.
Don't worry about measuring your heart rate as you walk or weighing yourself at the end of the exercise or any of that other stuff, just get out there and walk. If you feel you can, jogging is even better because this will lift your heart rate even higher and you will begin to burn fat and get rid of the build-up of adrenaline in your system.
The benefits of exercise are endless;
- Controls weight, combats poor health, and lifts energy levels.
- Improves mood, sleep, and sex drive.
- Increases self-confidence, brain power, memory, and relaxation.
- Reduces stress levels, anxiety, and cognitive decline.
- Taps into the creative parts of your brain.
Exercise after work to help you solve problems and forget about your day's activities. Ensure you finish 2 hours before bedtime and have hot shower an hour before bed. As your brain cools and the feel-good chemicals produced in your exercise will begin to work you will soon fall asleep.
Do this each workday except Friday and once over the weekend. In just a few weeks you will notice a huge difference. As you become fitter, increase your exercise levels for greater benefits.
Because your psychology and physiology are linked, if you have mentally draining day exercise your body more. If you have had a physically demanding day then exercise your mind (brain) more.
Lastly, don't overdo it. More exercise does not necessarily correlate to more benefits, particularly if you get injured.