Читать книгу Personal Development With Success Ingredients - Mo Abraham - Страница 43

Our emotional state can affect our food choices, our level of physical activity and our ability to maintain positive social engagement. Foods high in sugar and fat satisfy the pleasure and reward centers in our brains. If we are stressed or unhappy, many of us reach for rich foods to make ourselves feel better. Sometimes this is a conscious decision; many times it is not. Also, feeling angry, unhappy or depressed saps energy, making it more difficult to exercise or pursue some other physical activity; we just don’t feel like it.

There are many ways to combat this cycle. Physical activities like yoga, pilates, tai chi and many others expressly cultivate a healthy mind-body connection for practitioners. Each of these activities use movement tied to breath awareness to focus and calm the mind and the nervous system.

Yoga includes breathing exercises and meditation as well. These activities build fitness and relieve stress. Some mind-body activities, breathing exercises, visualization and meditation, do not involve whole body movement; they focus on channeling mental activity and relieving stress.

It is important to keep the body healthy and the mind in a state of equilibrium to experience a sense of well-being. Equilibrium in this context means you do not experience unrealistic highs or debilitating lows (depression). Being even tempered makes it easier to deal with stress, adapt to change and maintain a healthy lifestyle.