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[–] 11 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

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.

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  • [–] 0 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

    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.

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  • [–] 5 points 17 hours ago

    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

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