Master Your Emotions: A Practical Guide to Overcome Negativity and Better Manage Your Feelings (Mastery Series Book 1)

by Thibaut Meurisse

Studies have shown that exercising can treat mild to moderate depression as effectively as antidepressants. In one study, James Blumenthal, a clinical psychologist at Duke University, assigned sedentary adults with major depressive disorders to one of four groups: supervised exercise, home-based exercise, antidepressant therapy, or a placebo pill. After four months Blumenthal found that patients in the exercise and antidepressant group had the highest rates of remission. In his conclusions, he stated that exercise has more or less the same effect as antidepressants. When he followed up with the same patients a year later, Blumenthal discovered that people who were still exercising regularly had lower depression scores than people who only exercised sporadically. Exercise seems to not only help treat depression, but also to prevent relapse. So, when it comes to mastering your emotions, make sure exercising is part of your toolbox. Fortunately, you don't have to run ten miles a day to reap the benefits of exercise. Simply walking for thirty minutes, five days a week can work wonders. According to research published in PLoS Medicine, two and a half hours moderate exercise a week could add three and a quarter years to your lifespan. Another study of five thousand people in Denmark showed that individuals who exercised regularly lived five to seven years longer than sedentary counterparts.