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Galvan

Zujey Galvan

Ms. Nelson

ENGL 1302 104

09 September 2021

The Importance of Mental Health

How can exercise help humans improve their mental health? It has been claimed that

mental health in both clinical and nonclinical populations Is positively affected by vigorous

physical activity. Some of these proposed psychological benefits are improved confidence well-

being, sexual satisfaction, anxiety reduction, and positive effects on depressed mood and

intellectual functioning. (Taylor 196). Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important for your

mental health, exercise can help humans forget about their problems and sometimes humans will

think that is the least thing that would make them feel better, however it ends up motivating

them. Exercise can help humans deal with depression or anxiety by allowing their mind to focus

on something else, rather than worries. Exercise comes within many psychological and

emotional benefits for human beings such as, gaining confidence in their body because the

exercise finally showed good results, it could also help humans by letting them meet new people

at the gym and motivating each other to strike for better results. Often times humans rely their

depression on alcohol or drugs, because it makes them feel better and this can only lead to

worsening symptoms. The benefits of exercising could help individuals maintain a better mental;

indeed, they will start focusing on the gym when they start seeing better results.

Explaining the Experiment

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This experiment will last a week to conclude if exercising can help humans get rid of anxiety

and depression. Anxiety is an anormal and infrequently healthy emotion. However,

when someone regularly feels disproportionate levels of tension, it becomes a medical disorder.

Depression is a medical illness that affects how a human may feel or the way they think about

life. The experiment will go on from Monday through Sunday, they will be exercising a different

body part to see if their mental health gets better, this gym session will consist of two hours,

depending on their availability. At the end of the experiment, they should notice a slight change

in their body that will keep them motivated to keep working on their body and this will also help

them not rely on drugs or any alcohol because they will now have the gym as a distraction.

What is mental health?

“Mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities,

can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a

contribution to his or her community”. (Felman 2020). Mental health can affect the choices

humans make, how they tend to talk to other people and how well they handle their stress.

Mental health also affects how humans think, often times humans make mistakes that harm

themselves, such as cutting themselves, not eating their meals and using drugs or drinking too

much. There are various warning signs that contribute to depression in humans, for instance,

feeling numb, sleeping too much, having no energy at all, taking out the anger at everyone, and

always thinking of harming themselves.

Self Esteem

Self-esteem is the way a human being feels towards themselves, it is basically you view yourself.

It refers to a person's global appraisal of his/her positive or negative value, based on the scores a

person gives him/herself in different roles and domains of life (Rogers, 1981; Markus and
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Nurius, 1986).  Self-esteem will develop in humans once they start exercising because that will

give them confidence, humans mental health goes way more than just being physically okay.

However, feeling okay with their bodies will make them have a better mental health. When

humans focus on self-esteem, it is considered that their mental health would most likely get

better. Self-esteem not only helps with an individual’s mental health, but it is also a protective

factor for their success and achievements. As a result, self- esteem is a significant factor for both

mental and physical health. The participant was able to feel prettier from the inside and outside

because her self-esteem was terrible, every day she would wake up feeling ugly and that affected

her mental health as well. After all exercising from Monday through Sunday for a week straight

allowed the participant to feel better about herself.

Better Connection with Family

There are many factors that contribute to human’s mental health such as traumas they had in

their childhood, family problems and biological factors. The participant would get home every

day and would take the anger or sadness out on their siblings and parents.

Conclusion

The research experiment concluded that exercising improved the participants mental health, self-

esteem and was able to build a stronger connection with their family. The participant would get

home before the experiment was conducted feeling very sad, not feeling pretty, and would take

out that sadness out on her family. The study showed that after this experiment of going to the

gym Monday through Sunday for a week, allowed her to feel better about herself and started

treating their families with respect and created an amazing bond with them. As a result, other

humans can see this as an example to prove themselves that exercise can help them achieve all

these things.
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Works Cited

Mann, Michal (Michelle), Clemens M. H. Hosman, Herman P. Schaalma, and Nanne K. De

Vries. "Self-esteem in a Broad-spectrum Approach for Mental Health Promotion." OUP
Academic. Oxford University Press, 01 Aug. 2004. Web. 10 Sept. 2021.

Raglin, John S. "Exercise and Mental Health." Sports Medicine. Springer International

Publishing, 25 Nov. 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2021.

Taylor, C B, J F Sallis, and R. Needle. "The Relation of Physical Activity and Exercise to Mental
Health." Public Health Reports (Washington, D.C. : 1974). U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 1985. Web. 10 Sept. 2021.

"Mental Health: Definition, Common Disorders, Early Signs, and More." Medical News Today.
MediLexicon International. Web. 16 Sept. 2021.