One of the most reliable ways I know to take care of your mental health is to move your body. Any form of movement can help. – walking, lifting, dancing, trail running, or what I sometimes call joyful movement. It activates both brain and body, lifts mood, and can reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and more.
Exercise is something I bring up with nearly every client. I ask about their habits and whether movement actually helps them. So far, I have not met anyone who said it was not beneficial once they found a version that fit.
Even on the days you want to skip the workout and do it anyway, you almost never regret it. You know it is good for you and that you feel better afterward. Skip it without a real reason, though, and the regret, guilt, or “I failed” story often shows up.
This article is not a complete guide to exercise. It is a clear look at the mental health benefits and two approaches that keep goals useful instead of punishing: knowing your “why,” and shifting from “I have to” to “I get to.”
As always, check with your doctor before you start or change an exercise plan. A personal trainer or running coach can also build a plan that meets you where you are.
What the research actually shows
A widely cited 2006 review in the Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Sharma, Madaan, and Petty) laid out the basics that still hold: regular aerobic activity (jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, dancing) reduces anxiety and depression, improves mood and self-esteem, and supports cognitive function.
The proposed mechanisms include better blood flow to the brain and a calming effect on the stress-response system (the HPA axis). The same paper notes practical upsides mental health professionals should keep reinforcing: better sleep, stress relief, improved endurance, and a more stable mood.
Newer evidence is stronger and more specific. Large reviews and meta-analyses find that exercise reduces depressive symptoms with a medium effect size (roughly comparable, in many analyses, to medication or therapy for mild-to-moderate symptoms) and reduces anxiety with a small-to-medium effect.
Aerobic work often shows the clearest benefit, but resistance training, mind-body practices, and mixed programs all help. Benefits appear across ages. Supervised or group formats tend to help depression more; shorter, lower intensity sessions can be especially useful for anxiety.
Consistency matters more than perfection.
Exercise is also a useful adjunct for several conditions I see in practice:
- Anxiety and depression: the most consistent evidence.
- Trauma and PTSD: meaningful symptom reduction as an add-on, with multicomponent exercise often ranking well; it is not a replacement for trauma treatment.
- ADHD: improvements in attention, hyperactivity symptoms, and some cognitive measures.
- Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline: people who stay active have lower risk of dementia in observational data; in mild cognitive impairment, aerobic exercise can slow decline and support other cognitive domains. Effects are smaller once Alzheimer’s is more advanced, so earlier movement is the higher-leverage window.
- Eating disorders: carefully supervised movement, especially strength-focused work inside a full treatment team, can be appropriate for some people and may improve strength, quality of life, and the relationship with exercise. It is not automatically safe. This still needs individualized clinical judgment, and more research is ongoing.
A large CDC linked analysis also found that people who exercise report substantially fewer poor mental-health days per month, with roughly three to five sessions a week in the 45-minute range often linked to the biggest average gain. Household movement and lower-intensity options still count.
The runner’s high (and why you do not need one)
Clients ask me about this. Johns Hopkins summarizes the current picture well: the classic “runner’s high” (a short window of euphoria, calm, lower anxiety, and reduced pain sensitivity) is real for some people after sustained aerobic effort (often 30–60 minutes), but it is less common than the lore suggests.
Endorphins do rise and help with pain, yet they do not cross into the brain easily enough to explain the mood shift on their own. Endocannabinoids (your body’s own cannabis-like molecules) increase in the bloodstream, cross the blood-brain barrier, and are the stronger candidate for the calm and elevated mood.
Most runners never get the dramatic high and still get the benefits: better stress tolerance, improved sleep and circadian rhythm, lower inflammation, sharper focus and working memory, and, over time, measurable brain changes such as new neuron growth and greater hippocampal volume. The high is a bonus. The steadier mental health return is the point.
What’s your “why”?
When people set an exercise or running goal, they usually tie it to something bigger: weight loss, a race, getting faster. Those can work. Your reason for the goal matters most on the days you do not feel like it. Here is what I want you to hear: the why does not have to be deep or impressive. You can exercise because it feels good and makes you happier. That is a complete reason.
A common misconception, especially among runners, is that you need a big performance goal before you “deserve” a coach. Watching other people chase huge targets can make a consistency-and-health goal feel small. Comparison can motivate you; it can also make you feel behind. Notice which one it is doing.
A good running coach or trainer usually only needs a clear long-term direction to build your plan. If your goal is simply to stay consistent, healthy, and glad you moved, that is enough. If you have wanted support and talked yourself out of it, treat this as the sign to book the consultation.
Do not wait and wish you had started sooner. The same logic applies to counseling: the investment in your health is allowed to be ordinary and still worth making.
The “I get to work out” shift
When you skip a workout you know you could have done, guilt and the lazy/failure story show up fast. Before you pile on, ask why you wanted to skip (or why you did) without the criticism. Beating yourself up is not productive.
On the other side, I have never regretted a workout I completed when I felt like skipping it, and neither have the people I talk with about this.
The practical reframe is simple: move from “I have to work out” to “I get to work out.” It is not toxic positivity. It is a reminder that the capacity to move is a resource, not a punishment. Use it on the days it is available.
How this shows up in my own training
Clients know I love lifting and running. I gently encourage them to move a few times a week (whatever form feels sustainable) and I remind them why. I was an active kid (dance, gymnastics, baton) and have spent years in gyms, from conventional boxes to F45 and CrossFit, both of which I enjoyed.
I started running in 2010 because my husband was a marathoner; my competitive side showed up immediately. After plenty of rookie mistakes, I ran my first marathon in 2015… the Marine Corps Marathon. It was fun and also not for me. It turned me off to road races.
A Badwater 135 documentary pulled me toward trails and ultras. I ran my first ultra, the JFK 50, in 2016. After roughly ten 50-mile-plus finishes I could see I was missing the training mark for the goals I actually wanted, so I switched from a CrossFit coach to a running coach.
I have run 100 miles on trail in one push. Preparing for that is a full-time project: nutrition, sleep, and self-care are not optional, and reaching the start line is already part of the work. These days I still compete in ultras.
Along the way I studied the mental side of the sport. Alongside my counseling practice I coach mindset and mental wellness for ultrarunners. Ultrarunning made me more resilient and, I think, a better counselor. The lessons transfer: know your why, train the days you do not feel like it, and treat the ability to do the work as something you get to use.
If you want help connecting movement to your mental health, or sorting out goals that do not collapse into guilt, that is the work I do. Start where you are. Move because you get to.
Related reads
Exercise, Sleep, and Anxiety: Rewire your brain
Amy the Amygdala: A silly way to remember the function of the amygdala and how to calm it
Distress Tolerance Coping Skills (DBT)
Talks & Workshop – The Power of Mindfulness in Trail Running. THE POWER IS WITHIN YOURSELF.
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