The 10 psychological benefits of running

The psychological benefits of running they are evident on our body, but running also has a series of psychological benefits that enhances its importance. Below our friends from lovelyrunners take a tour of the top ten benefits psychological of the running.

1. Reduces stress and anxiety.The runner is less stressed by dealing more decisively with his stressors. This is favored by a continuous renewal of managing your thoughts away from the focus of the conflict, which allows you to have valuable time to analyze and reflect in a conscientious way.
2. Improves the mood.When we practice physical exercise regularly, the body secretes biochemical substances called endorphins (the “happiness hormone”) that have the power to reduce pain and increase pleasure, being responsible for keeping us in a good mood and feeling better. and therefore, that we are happier. In the specific case of people who practice running regularly with a medium intensity they cause a pleasant body sensation of placidity3. Relieves depression. Running has proven to be an important asset in combating clinical depression. Exercising serves as a psychotherapy, in the sense that it allows the person to have their own space to connect with their better self. Its therapeutic use has been more than amply evidenced and this is confirmed by being one of the sports activities most guided by therapists (and doctors) both to improve psycho-emotional health and physical health.4. Fight addiction. As running is a natural tranquilizer, many are the therapists who prescribe it to those who are struggling with an addiction. Running encourages the person to become mentally stronger thereby increasing their resistance to the urge to drink alcohol, take drugs or any other addictive substance.
   5. Improve confidence. El running It improves our confidence by helping us to know and, above all, to overcome our mental limits. Achieving the set objectives increases our feeling of control, which causes an increase in our self-confidence. What's more, this prepares us to deal more easily with more complex adversities.
   
   6. Improve self-esteem. El running It makes us love ourselves more by feeling better about ourselves. A regular practice produces changes at more than obvious aesthetic levels, which promotes an improvement in our body image, making us feel better about our physique and approve of our own image.
   7. Develop mental acuity and concentration.Runners are more alert as running forces you to keep your mind in the "now" by exercising it to focus and concentrate. In addition, it improves the ability to solve problems by relieving mental fatigue, sharpening memory and improving emotional resistance.
   8. Improve coordination.There is a notable improvement in the coordination between mind and body, which benefits the performance of multiple daily activities.9. Cognitive processes: The study led by sports psychologist Oliver Martínez and titled “Running: beyond sport”, points out that running can contribute to promoting learning capacity, cognitive performance and slowing the decline in brain function, even preventing dementia and neurodegenerative diseases. The cause of this is due to the effect of several neurobiological mechanisms, such as the increase in levels of BNDF in the brain (a protein that stimulates the growth and longevity of neurons) and norepinephrine (a neurotransmitter that improves attention and concentration).
   These data are in the same line as the study carried out by David R. Jacobs from the University of Minnesota (USA) in 2014 and which concludes that physical exercise improves cognitive health; people who perform intense physical activity learn 20% faster and even improve long-term retention of what they have learned compared to those who had done so under sedentary conditions.
   10. Social relations: While it is true that this depends on each person's personal preference since many runners prefer to run alone, the running “in company” allows the improvement of interpersonal relationships by promoting multiple social skills such as empathy, communication, negotiation, motivation and even persuasion.

Establishing new bonds with those who share the same passion helps our process of change by serving as social support and reinforcement. In addition, the challenge factor comes into play, which encourages our self-improvement.
* And one more bonus benefit… it helps improve the quality of your sleep. How can something that everyone has access to and is so beneficial for holistic health not be a success?