Humans all go through undesirable events and situations in our lives. Whether if it is a heartbreak, a bad grade, a failed test, etc. All of these are going to affect, depending on the degree of the event that it will affect us. And for people that exercise regularly, the results of these negative events are going to have a toll on us physically and or mentally.

Mindset

Whenever something negative happens in life, trying to understand and resolve the situation would be my first step to getting better. For me personally, I have a series of questions that I tend to ask myself whenever I want to understand something better:

  • Is the situation something that can be fixed? and if yes then how?
  • If it cannot be fixed, then how is this event affecting my life?
  • What are my feelings towards this event right now?

And not all questions can be answered just because that is just how life is sometimes and that is okay. You may have different ways or different questions for yourself when stuff happens but for me this is the basics.

Once you are more aware of how you are feeling, whatever the feeling is, sadness, happiness, frustration, upset, etc. Whatever I feel towards it, I like to embrace it, understand that it had happened, and I have done everything I can towards it.

After this phase, most people, and for me personally, I would try to make myself feel better, and exercising is a great way of doing that, and I am going to explain why in the next section

The Role of Exercising

When we exercise, we help regulates our blood flow, hormone, keeps our head occupied, it can also help boost our confidence, help fight depression, etc. Not only that, but exercising can also help us feel more accomplished about ourselves, because we have successfully dealt with our traumatic event and we are already on our way to get better. There are many research and studies that have been done on the positive effects that exercising can bring to one’s life.

With exercise, we would usually have a goal that we are working towards, and with this goal in mind, we are one step closer to being the person that we want to be, or a better version of ourselves. I understand that it can be hard after dealing with all the emotions and feelings of the situation. All the feelings and emotions that you understand during the previous phase, you can use it towards exercising more specifically. We feel lost, we do not know what to do, we want to start getting better, we know what we should be doing but how do we start?

What I usually do is start whenever we are ready, and wherever we want to start. For me I personally would walk right to the gym, put on my music, and focus on nothing but me and my goal for exercising. But everyone is unique, for some people, getting started can be as simple as going outside in their yard to get a little bit more sunshine, walk your dog, make your bed. Whatever it is, you must really listen to yourself, ask yourself what is within your ability.

Conclusion

Humans are amazing at understanding, adapting, and overcoming a lot of situation, if not all. We are all amazing for all that we have been through and understanding that alone can make a big difference in our way of thinking. And after understanding, we can use those emotions and feelings towards how we can make our lives better. For me especially would be exercising, but for you it can be something else that makes more sense and makes you happier.

Author Bio

My name is Long Nguyen, I am a Vietnamese international student living and studying in Canada right now. I am a second-year student in the Personal Fitness Trainer program at NAIT. The reason I am doing this program because I know that this is what I am passionate about. More specifically, I am passionate about powerlifting and that is the demographic that I want to be training with in the future but I am just enjoying fitness in general and it has been a great journey for me.