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Unwind with Endorphins

People who exercise regularly are better able to deal with stress than those who don’t. People who exercise aerobically recover from a stressful event faster. Exercise has also been shown to alleviate anxiety and depression while elevating moods.

Details Please: Your body has the ability to produce natural opiates or morphine-like chemicals. When they are released in the brain they inhabit cells that deal with pain, behavior, pleasure, and emotions! During exercise your pituitary gland releases more of one of these agents called beta endorphin. The “exercise high” has been traced to more of this chemical traveling through your bloodstream. Exercisers often refer to it as a euphoric feeling. So, exercising aerobically not only benefits your heart and lung system, it gives your brain a workout, too! The blood flow to your brain increases up to one-third more than at resting states. Exercise can also stimulate creativity by creating an alpha or relaxing state in your brain-wave activity Thus, creative blocks can be destroyed simply by taking a thirty-minute spin on your bike! So you see, unwinding with endorphins released through exercise can enhance many areas of your life!

A Few More Endorphin Facts:

• People who are “wound up tight” were found to have less
  electrical activity or “sparks” that cause tension in their
  muscles following a workout.
• The average result of an exercise session is a euphoric or
  endorphin high for up to two hours per workout.