is a famous Latin phrase by the Roman Poet Juvenal, ‘orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano’. It means that we need a healthy body to have a healthy mind. Physical exercise, a healthy and nutritious diet, and general fitness keep your body healthy. It demonstrates the close links between physical activity, mental equilibrium and your ability to enjoy life.
The proverb insists that the mind and body should be healthy and sound. A healthy person can think positively and act instantly in any situation. A sound body is a healthy body, free from diseases, and it does not have a bulky body. A sound mind is capable of good, positive and free thinking.
We receive messages daily about body fitness, but we rarely hear about mental fitness. Yet, being mentally fit is as essential, or even more critical. Visit getdiazepam to keep your mind and body healthy. Mental wellness matters how well-prepared you are, how high your academic level is, and how many connections you have. If the mind decides to stop, the game is over.
What is Mental Fitness?
Mental fitness keeps your brain and mind in good shape, arriving, staying in a state of being well, having a healthy attitude, and exercising your brain to maintain your cognitive functions. So how do you achieve this? By taking time for mental exercises to stimulate the brain and work towards improving the four emotional components of mental fitness: self-acceptance, resilience, self-esteem, and emotion management.
Brain Boost: Some exercises we may try are puzzles, learning a new song, sitting for a moment and using your imagination, using your physical senses (smell, taste, etc.), or math exercises. There are several ways to boost our brains. Eating fatty fish, berries, and nuts is also an excellent way to keep our brains healthy. But the most vital thing that your brain needs is oxygen.
Self: You need to relax, visualise, and affirm yourselves. You require tools not only to cope but also to thrive.
Resilience: Resilience is your ability to recover after trauma. It may be used in every aspect of life, not only after traumatic events. For example, having resilience at work really matters. As there is constant change, we receive constructive feedback. Despite the positive change, we need to use it. For example, if we are promoted and have more responsibilities, there may be a requirement for adaptation and recovery.
Emotion management: Being in control of our emotions at work may be the difference between opening doors or getting fired.
A Sound Mind
A sound mind is not necessarily free of stress. Stress is a cunning and ever-present part of life, from work, family, sports or competing demands. When we experience life stressors, our autonomic nervous system is activated. As a result, we have a flush of hormones and neurotransmitters (e.g. adrenaline and cortisol). We may contend with whatever the demand/stressor is.
Furthermore, this finely tuned system enables us to activate energy and oxygen and quickly transport these to where they are required most (heart, lungs, muscles, and brain). As such, stress helps us to be ready and perform. Therefore, we must embrace it and learn to have a sound mind to navigate it more positively.
- A sound mind is a mind which notices, accepts, and respects the stress response.
- A sound mind can deal with heightened stress before letting it become a problem or leading to a low mood.
- A sound mind isn’t so overburdened that it tips your physiology into exhaustion.
A Sound Body
A sound body is ready and able to handle the physiological demands that your body goes through in times of stress. It absorbs training stress and life stress well, bouncing back to perform again when needed. And most importantly, a sound body also has its needs met. These include sleep, movement, self-care, nutrition, rest and recovery.
How Running Can Help You Achieve A Sound Mind in a Sound Body
Research has proved that running enhances mood and supports brain health, especially outside in nature and with other people.Moving your body by running helps you to calm the mind. It does this by promoting a flow state feeling because you are concentrating on your breath, foot placement and nothing more than navigating people or objects that might be around you as you run.
Running can help us diffuse stress by using up some of the heightened adrenaline or cortisol that may be surging through the body due to life’s demands. When we face a stressor, we may be at our desk, in a car or on email, and yet still our body is in the ‘fight or flight mode’, but we cannot get away. A run later in the day may help fulfil this primal instinct through some of the excess cortisol.
Running also aids in buildingtoughnessso that you are less likely to be stunned when life gets stiff. For example, research has shown that professional runners have better tolerance to cortisol than amateur people. Running also helps us build confidence and strength when faced with long distances or hilly terrain, characteristics that carry over into everyday life.
How Much Running Do You Need?
Not actually too much. The benefits are not just for trained runners. If you aim to run at a slow, comfortable speed or even stop frequently to take a breather, you’ll still benefit in mind and body. Yes, the more competent you are, the more resilient you might be to pressure. But it’s essential to remember that training can have the same effect on our physiology as life stress.
So, slowly start if you want to achieve a sound mind in a sound body by running. Adding a gruelling training schedule to a body or mind already under excessively high stress isn’t what you need to do. Research has shown that little as 20 minutes of moderate-intensity movement is enough to significantly lower pressure. If you’re already an experienced runner training quite hard, try to make room for this stress by focusing on rest and recovery, eating well and doing more low-intensity fun exercises such as yoga or breathwork to make room for training stress.
Conclusion
The Greek philosopher Thales and the Roman poet Juvenal wrote about how physical and mental health is intertwined, seeking the ideal of a sound mind in a sound body.
Sound mind, sound body is the belief that people get happier when they push themselves. It is like a run is more than a workout or a competition. Likewise, sports are more than a game and can improve mental health.
