Pounding the pavements, despite what we’ve been led to believe, might not in fact be the best way to run off a bad mood. Academics at Ohio State University compared “arousal-increasing” activities such as hitting a bag, jogging, cycling and swimming with “arousal-decreasing” activities; deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation and yoga. The latter were most effective at calming anger, while (arousal-increasing) jogging was the most likely activity to increase anger.
Is it time we started to think about exercise differently?
Nahid de Belgeonne, an author and somatic movement educator, believes so. “It would be a shame if we only think of movement as exercise to ‘beast ourselves’ or do yoga – but experience no shift in our emotional state – because we’re going through the motions,” she says.
Knowing what type of exercise to focus on when we need it is key. Feeling high energy? A boxing session could be the ticket. Exhausted? Something more restorative might allow the stress chemicals to move through you more effectively.
Here are five stress-busting exercises to try – and you don’t need to move from the room.
1. Shaking and drumming
When we feel stuck emotionally, movement helps loosen things up. So embodied movement techniques, such as shaking and drumming, are about moving a feeling within you, says Meffan.
“These ancient Chinese medicine techniques are great for frustration because they’re quite vigorous,” she explains.
Standing with feet apart, start to bend into the knees at the same time, flicking your hands out at the sides at the same time and then rise, increasing the tempo of your shaking movements. See the above video for a demonstration.
“There’s a literal connection between shaking the body physically and that connecting to shaking something out of you,” Meffan continues. “It gets rid of stagnation, suppressed rage and anger.”
Once you’ve shaken enough, take a moment to stand still and notice how the mind and body feels.
Drumming, again, is literally tapping the body. “Body drumming is to awaken the body energetically and physically you’re moving stagnant energy around.”
Start lightly, with soft fists move down hitting the back of the legs and then coming up the inside of the legs. You can drum up one arm and round to the back of the shoulder, and then the other side.
“Women need to be careful around the womb area. But going quite hard on your lower back and your shoulders is nice,” says Meffan.
If you can, sit or lie down afterwards to allow you to absorb any new sensations.
“Our brains easily go to the physical, but it’s the emotional we’re trying to release,” says Meffan.
Ask at the start and at the end how you feel. “But don’t attach to that feeling. We know emotions ebb and flow; we go through thousands of emotions in a day.”