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How are people able to control their emotional reactions, especially anger, through exercising? I’ve tried it, but it did not work for me.
Exercise is such a good distraction, especially when you’re been tensioned, triggered or have a lot going on for you. It is also an effective meditative activity. By choosing to exercise as a way to handle difficult emotions, you are providing yourself with a change in scenery, you are doing some different by getting outdoors or going to the gym’s track, and you probably have started to listen to some enjoyable music. All of these behaviors refocuses your attention on to something else, allowing you to mentally shift gears and to distract yourself. Exercising also helps you to physiologically calm down.
When upset, your autonomic sympathetic response switch is flipped on. Exercising is one of the activities which helps you to change from this mental state of emergency back to your more normal mental state of calmness
Other activities can have the same effect. The simple practice of using diaphragmatic breathing is another effective method of switching from a sympathetic to a parasympathetic state.
There are various exercises one can engage in as a form of site action, running is one of the most meditative activities out there. There’s something both calming and energizing about a run; the soft, repetitive slapping of your runners against pavement, the fresh air, the ability to remove yourself from whatever environment is causing your stress, and the opportunity to do it anywhere, any time. It lets you shrug off whatever’s got you down at the moment.
It also takes a certain amount of focus to push through when you begin to hit a wall; and you focus hard on doing it and soon you’re not thinking about the things that are on your mind.
The fight with your friend, the negative thing someone said at work, your worries about school or money or mortgages… none of it follows you on a run. There just isn’t room for those thoughts. Not to mention the healthy dose of adrenaline that your body starts to pump out… It’s hard to stay focused on being sad or mad or annoyed after you’ve drained all you have in you to go that extra mile.