this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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Mental Health
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Nobody wants to hear it: exercise.
Walk up a steep hill for an hour or two a day. Rate your mood every day. Watch the results form clear as day.
I used a mood tracker for over 5 years. Every May I would hike a nearby trail every morning. Looking at 5 years of mood tracking data, I was always happier than average every May. It lasted into June. Was gone by July. Every year.
If you push your cardio to the point where all you can think about is your next breath, it forces you to meditate. It forces presence. It trains you to break the ruminative thought cycles.
So, again, no one wants to hear it. But exercise is by far the best solution to anxiety. Plenty of research backing this up.
I know the article says depression. It's a meta analysis. Anxiety is also covered in some studies analysed here.
Edit,: literally the reason I prefaced this post was for all responses received this far. We've found the folks that don't wanna hear it. I would t have opened with what I opened with I'd the rough percentage of naysayers weren't the exact humans I am talking to.
Get a clue. Go walk up a hill. I'm not here to argue. Write something to the folks the conducted the hundreds of studies that contributed to this meta-analysis.
Or don't, and continue to insist you're special.
It's all you.
You are right, I agree with the results but there is also nuance.
From an anecdotal perspective, I have first hand felt the benefits of exercise on my anxiety. Yes it works. However, from this same perspective (and also my mental professional and research), exercise, especially cardio or high intensive training put your body in the same state of a panic attack. Elevated pulse, sweat, rapid breathing, etc. This in turn can be very taxing on your motivation to continue doing so if you have anxiety. I don't say that to say "lazy" but you brain will simply not rewards you for what you are doing.
Also, the physical strain on the body afterwards, combined with the experience of the effort itself can (and it was the case for me) spike you anxiety levels higher than they were before doing the regular exercise.
Of course, these effects will correct themselves with time for most people and regular exercise will for most people help them manage their anxiety.
Please, be kind to people, I understand the frustrations when people seems to resist this seemingly easy solution. Of course they are people wear a mental illness like a badge of honor, but they are also people with commorbidity (depression, PTSD, social anxiety, obesity, physical handicap, etc.) which make these first step and their challenge even harder.
It's extremely hard to put yourself in very uncomfortable situation, make an effort, get bad outcome and doing it again, for weeks, fighting your own brain chemistry, pain, your powerful emotions (fear, shame, sadness, etc.) to finally get results.
I'm not saying it's not working, I'm not saying to give up, I'm only asking for empathy. Shaming people who are already suffering will not help. And, for a portion of the population, this will not work unfortunately. I'm not speaking about me. It's my current challenge to get back to the gym, I have experienced the benefits of it so I know it's good for me, but life is hard right now and I'm doing my best.
I hope you get my message, I'm not trying to scold you or anything. You are right about the message and I'm sure it comes from a good place of trying to help people. No doubt in my mind. But please, if you care, be also nice about the people who might resist it. Maybe they tried and failed, maybe they can't right now or never. These people also exist, it is not only people that want to feel special.
Have a great day π
In my experience, it hasn't helped reduce anxiety, and it only provides multiple new vectors for the anxiety to manifest: performing a mindless task that leaves me in my own head with few distractions, and trying to force myself to keep up a routine that I generally despise
You call it meditative, but it's never worked out that way for me, no matter how hard I push myself
That's great that it works for everyone, but I get annoyed when it is peddled as a cure all.
Most forms of exercise simply magnify my current mood. Feeling good? I'll feel fantastic. Feeling shit? I'll feel even worse.
That's how it works for me, personally. I need an activity that much more intently involves both my body and brain. There are exercise forms that do this, but you have to search for them.
I just get a bit sore about the subject because I went on a journey where I exercised more and more and harder and harder over a span of about 1.5 years. All the while my mental health kept declining...ending up quite severe.
What "fixed" me wasn't continuing to go harder and harder into my exercise mode. For me, I needed intensive therapy and medication combined with trying to fill my schedule more with activities. I'm actually in the best headspace I've ever been now after I stopped fruitlessly and endlessly trying to exercise away the pain.
I'm glad it worked for you. And I think it's worth a shot for many. But for those who keep diving further into it never finding relief, it's time to look elsewhere on what to try next.
I canβt exercise because it feels futile and unrewarding. I need a big plot of land to maintain. Mowing a couple acres or fixing a roof or something works for me.
Think I can get a doctor to prescribe me 40 acres?