Moving Towards A Whole New You - Transform Yourself Through Movement

   There are so many benefits to moving your body! Of course, many people tend to focus on weight loss first, and I'm not saying that it isn't a worthwhile path to walk, if that is what you want. However, there are numerous other advantages to getting your body moving than just seeing the numbers on the scale decrease. In fact, you can read all about the most important ones in my detailed post below.

Mental Wellbeing

   Whatever activity moving your body means to you, one of the biggest things you can benefit from is the boost in mental wellbeing that it can provide. Yes, that's right whether it's going to the gym, or dancing around your living room, movement is one of the best things you can do for your mental wellbeing.

   That right moving your body can actually make you feel happier because exercise releases happy hormones known as endorphins. In fact, as you can see from the meta analysis at psychiatryonline.org many studies by scientific types have been done on this topic. With most of them demonstrating that regular aerobic exercise such as running, aerobic DVDs, or a dance class can be just as effective in raising and imitating mood as some medications.
   Therefore the next time you feel a little down, and you like to be able to transform your mood, why not try hitting the gym? It may just be the quickest way to feel like a whole new you.

Mindfulness

   Another excellent benefit of mindfulness is that it can promote bodily awareness. After all, even if you are moving fast, you'll need to be aware of what your body is doing and how it is feeling to prevent injuries and collisions.
    Of course, you don't have to move super fast all the time to get the benefits of mindfulness from movement. In fact, many people find it much easier to get in touch with their body when they are exercising and moving it more slowly. That is why there are so many forms of moving meditations like yoga, tai chi, Qigong and the like.

   In particular, as the post at theyogaspace.co.uk confirms, yoga can be an excellent choice for combining movement and mindfulness. This is because it is an activity that is made up of many different poses or asanas designed to allow the body to stretch, twist and unwind.
    In fact, while many people think that the aim of yoga is to force themselves into the positions and contort the body as much as possible, its real purpose is to become more aware of your own physical limits and slowly and with awareness expand these over a period of time. Something that can really help to promote a more positive and understanding relationship between the person practising it and their body.

Fitness

   It's pretty obvious, but moving your body more regularly is also going to improve your fitness. In fact, even a little exercise every day can work wonders here. However, if you want to fast track your route to being the fitness individual possible, there are some ways to optimize your experience.
    One of these is to find a site like expertpt.co.uk and work with the professional personal trainer you will find there. The advantage of this being that they can create bespoke training and nutrition plans that will help you reach your goals much quicker.

   The real kicker is that you can do all of this online and from home. Therefore even if you aren't a fan of the gym, you can be sure of effective and fast results.

Confidence

   Another way that movement can transform you if you let it is by fostering a much higher sense of conviction. I'm not talking about the confidence that sometimes comes along with losing weight or building big old biceps either. Although they can feel pretty good too.
    Instead, the type of confidence that I am talking about is that sense of surety that comes with knowing you can set a goal for yourself and follow through and achieve it. That is you know you have the courage and commitment to persevere, even when things get tough.

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   In fact, as the post at 366daysofrunning.com suggests, exercise has a beautiful way of showing up our limits and that with time and application, we can push through these. With many long term exercisers finding that while the mind may be screaming for you to stop it is still possible to carry on. Something that demonstrates mental strength and endurance and can be carried into other areas of our lives.

Balance

   Finally, when it comes to transformation, exercise can do one more wonderful thing for us - improve our balance. After all, many activities require not only strength and effort but also agility as well.
For example, you may experience balance training in movements that work your core and legs. This being something that can have a knock-on effect on improving posture, breathing, stability, and gait.

Image sourced at Pixabay - Licence CC0

   It's also an excellent idea to work on your balance because it can really make a big difference to how well any of your other workouts go. That is, if you have a strong core and good bodily awareness, you can complete the other movement activities you do in the safest way possible.

Final thoughts

   Many posts on movement and exercise will claim that by engaging in fitness activities, you can transform and be a whole new you. However, they often focus only on the physical weight transformations involved and neglect to discuss all the other benefits there are to include more movement into your regime.
   Benefits such as developing confidence in your own abilities and resolution, and refining your sense of balance. Then there is the increase in bodily mindfulness you can benefit from when exercising regularly. Not to mention the boost in mental health that is well proven in the scientific literature.
   Finally, while weight loss can be crucial to many, increasing your level of fitness and mastery can also be hugely beneficial as well. So what are you waiting for? With so many incredible benefits, we can all improve our lives and make significant transformations by fitting in even a little more movement today!