Get Moving to Maximize Your Mood

Movement not only improves your health but also your emotional well-being. Here’s what it can do for you:

Regulate your mood

At Mind, we refer to taking care of your basic needs as SEEDS (adapted from the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skill “PLEASE”). SEEDS stands for Sleep, Exercise, Education/Executive Functioning, Diet (eating for wellness), and Self-Care. By keeping our SEEDS in balance, we reduce our vulnerability to strong emotions. Each component of SEEDS interacts with the others. For example, incorporating movement into your routine can help to stimulate a low appetite (hey anxiety, we see you) and improve your quality of sleep - all of which can help balance your mood.

Deal with the hard stuff

If you find yourself experiencing an intense emotion that’s difficult to manage, try some intense exercise (“I” in the DBT skill TIPP) like push-ups, wall sits, jumping jacks, extreme chair dancing, or other vigorous movements. The after-effects of intense movement can help you tolerate distress. But any amount of exercise, even for just 60 seconds, can reduce your levels of adrenaline and cortisol, your body’s “stress hormones.”

Get moving to keep moving

You might think you need to wait for motivation to strike, but you can actually stimulate that get-up-and-go feeling by using the principle of Behavioral Activation, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skill that presumes that action precedes emotion. Start small. If you can’t get yourself to go on a half-hour walk, take the small step of standing up from the couch, then putting on your shoes, and then walking outside. This process creates energy and helpful emotions. To write this article, I used behavioral activation by first opening a word document, then creating a title, and then writing an opening paragraph.

Make it work for you!

You don’t always need to exercise vigorously to reap emotional benefits. The best exercises are the ones that are most accessible to you. Meet yourself where you’re at -- if you’ve been horizontal on the couch all day, walking to the store for an errand may be all you need to start feeling a little different!

Be kind to yourself if you struggle to meet your movement goals. Congratulate yourself for whatever you’re able to achieve. Every step toward your overall wellness (whatever that looks like to you and your family) is something to be celebrated.

Authored by Mind Chicago therapist, Graham McNamee, LCSW, CADC