I remember the day Simone Biles announced she wasn’t participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Then I saw Athleta’s Instagram post about supporting her and her decision. I just thought, “Good for her. We should all be able to do what we need, do what we want.” It wasn’t until I watched Netflix’s documentary Simone Biles Rising that I realized the wrath she carried from that decision. Gross podcasters and bully broadcasters streamed negativity about her decision, as did nameless trolls on X. But what really struck me from that documentary was the connection between physical and mental health, how her body wasn’t “doing” what she wanted it to do, and how the path back to the Olympic podium meant relearning the basics. Now, though, the headlines about Biles are like this: “Simone Biles’ winning strategy prioritizes mental health. Here’s how to do it.” And it got me thinking: even though we know mental health is important, do we know why? So I went down a rabbit hole researching the state of mental health and self-care right now.
Mental health is like periods
Friends and social circles don’t just influence behaviour and monthly cycles, but also our genes and mental health. A Swiss study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that the genes of our circle can affect our own, including those responsible for mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety and drug abuse. While researchers didn’t say to abandon friends with disorders (subjects were adolescents), it could point to awareness and self-care. “Individuals at high genetic risk are more sensitive to social genetic effects,” wrote the authors.
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Fitness could be your own personal psychologist
I’ve often thought of fitness as a distraction from daily stress and movement as a way to get rid of something weighing on me. Even if only temporary. One study confirms my thoughts but suggests that working out and eating works as well as psychotherapy sessions.
The researchers from Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, had two groups of subjects with “elevated distress” (minimum of mild depression, but not necessarily diagnosed) based in Victoria: one, under the care of a dietitian and exercise physiologist; and two, under the care of two psychologists using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). Results were similar, and both groups increased their fitness, even when not required for the second group.
And get this. “There was also not much difference in cost,” write the researchers on deccanherald.com. “The lifestyle program was slightly cheaper to deliver: A$482 per participant, versus $503 for psychotherapy. That’s because hourly rates differ between dietitians, exercise physiologists, and psychologists.” They suggest looking at the lifestyle route if psychological care isn’t available. But I think there’s no one or the other – try both if you can.
Living proof walking can impact your mental health.
Need a pick-me-up? Turn on the sports channel
Can you really feel down with your face painted in team colours or when you’re yelling at the TV? A research paper covering three studies, published in the Sport Management Review, found that watching sports is good for mental well-being.
The first one looked at the relationship between watching sports and the well-being of 20,000 subjects in Japan. The second polled subjects after watching sports videos. And the third used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the effects of watching sports on the brain.
The authors concluded: “Findings from the three studies indicated that watching sport was positively associated with participants’ self-reported well-being, as well as increased brain activity and the structural volume in the specific brain regions related to well-being.”
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Being able to do hard things is a reward
We’re always tasked with doing hard things. Sometimes a splurge is part of the goal, whether it’s the bag you’ve been eyeing, a fancy dinner or even a trip. But the proverbial carrot is not always necessary, suggests the article “Why dopamine drives you to do hard things—even without a reward” in National Geographic magazine (email signup required). It looks at multiple studies of humans’ need for dopamine (a.k.a. the happy hormone).
Turns out, we like choosing the harder path just as much as we look for the easy way out, and we’re not as lazy as we might think. It’s why we do crosswords, run marathons, and keep checking the long lists of achievements on our Peloton app.
“People rewarded for choosing a more difficult task (as opposed to rewarded for doing well) opt for the difficult version the next time, even if it no longer comes with a reward,” says the science writer Teal Burrell, who is also a neuroscientist, writer, marathoner.
I connected with Peloton’s Matty Maggiacomo about creating mental commitments, “when you make the conscientious decision ‘to do the hard thing’.” He says to remind yourself that the “easy path” is usually part of an unhealthy pattern, but the harder choice always has a bigger payoff. So, making a mental commitment to a goal is key. “If you want it badly enough, you can achieve it.”
However, he does say that not every “win” deserves a reward, but they can be fun. “I am not so beholden to the [idea] that you need to eliminate all the things that make you happy,” he says. “Allow yourself to live life.”
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Calm body = calm mind
Heart racing. Sweating. Feet moving fast. Is it a treadmill sesh or an oncoming bout of anxiety? Either way, the brain is sending a message: Move.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine look at the mind-body connection and how a calm mind will calm the body. “We’ve found a connection,” says first author Evan M. Gordon, PhD. “We’ve found the place where the highly active, goal-oriented ‘go, go, go’ part of your mind connects to the parts of the brain that control breathing and heart rate. If you calm one down, it absolutely should have feedback effects on the other.”
Gordon and his research team looked at the motor parts of the brain under MRI, discovering a new mind-body network, suggesting that movement is tied with thinking and planning (and vice versa).
Keeping calm while active is a tough ask. But it can be done. Maggiacomo says: “I’ve struggled with this in the past, but I find that if I take a second to stretch and warm up before throwing myself into a challenging workout, the workout is always better for me. Aligning can be done by just taking a moment of silence, meditating quickly and certainly getting rid of any distractions, especially your phone, when you can.”
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So what can you do?
For stigmas around mental health? Be open-minded. More and more research is coming out every day, and what we know now could either be amplified, debunked or sit somewhere between.
For yourself? Take care of yourself physically and mentally, as both impact each other. “The mental health benefits of exercise are just as important as the physical benefits,” says Maggiacomo. “We all want to stay healthy at any age, and the best way to do that is to keep moving.”