We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health, we know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection. And we teach you simple, but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity, you are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister, Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery. Welcome back to the podcast, we are really excited because this month, we are starting kind of a new framework for the podcast where we are going to be diving into a particular theme each month, and introducing the theme. And then going into a little bit more detail throughout each episode of the month. So the first month is going to be about how moving our bodies helps our mental health. And this episode will kind of give us a general overview of why movement is positively correlated with better mental health outcomes. And then we're also going to be issuing a challenge and each month, we're going to have a new 30 day challenge so that we can create some actual change for ourselves and our listeners. And so this month, we're challenging each of us, including ourselves, to move our bodies for one mile every single day. And that is going to do a couple things. One, when we are able to take small steps of positive health, it builds confidence. And two, we're going to gain the actual effects of the positive mental health outcomes by moving our body. So this is we're kind of employing a little bit of an action step for now on in the podcast. And that's something that we're really excited about.
I think this is such a great idea, Amy, I'm so glad you thought of it. Yesterday, when I looked at the walk a mile every day or move a mile every day, I was really overwhelmed. And I've been wearing a Fitbit for the last nine months. And so what I did is I figured out the steps I had walked yesterday, and how many steps for me would be a mile. And it's 2300 steps for me for my for my gait or pace. And I thought oh, I can do that I can I can take 2300 steps a day, often I take seven or 10,000 steps a day. So that was helpful for my brain to not be so resistant to the challenge. That's awesome.
I love that. And you know, I was thinking earlier, what is a small enough challenge that would also give our listeners benefits. And for that we looked at some of the research that's out there. And we do see that just moving our bodies for 15 to 20 minutes a day, does a lot for our mental health. And that is about what walking a mile. I mean, a little bit less. But if you walk at least a mile. First of all, if you're feeling good, it's likely you'll go a little bit more. But second of all, it's a great start. And nothing is not going to help. I mean, if we are just listening to information and learning, that's a really great first step of changing our mental health. But when we start taking action, that is very empowering. And it helps build resilience and it helps build confidence. So I'm really excited that we're going to be engaging with our community in this way.
I love it too. I think it's great. And for those listeners who may be find a mile really, really overwhelming. I was talking to a friend this morning. And she said, that happened to me today where I thought I'm not going to be able to take a long walk because I started my walkway. And then she said and I thought to myself, well 15 minutes of walking is better than no minutes of walking. Yeah, even though her goal is 30 minutes a day. And so those of you whose brains are like a mile a day, just do something move for five minutes move for 10 minutes.
And I'm also aware we have a whole cohort of listeners that a mile a day is nothing right for them. And so yay, you keep going. You're doing amazing and send this to a loved one that you want to start same move a little bit more, and get them engaged in the benefits of movement with their mental health. Okay, so what do we know, in general about moving our bodies and our mental health, there are
a few things that I think are absolutely fascinating. And one thing that I learned about when I was doing some my brain training several years ago, is that when you can reach an aerobic state, and you can do that five days a week, you actually, in the robic state, you're actually increasing the blood flow to your prefrontal cortex. So that part of your brain that lies just underneath your forehead, and is the seat of wisdom and logic and accurate perception, so any aerobic exercise that we do, increases blood flow, and helps to strengthen that part of our brain. So I love I loved learning that. The other thing is, as a suffer from depression, sometimes, well, not sometimes actually, when I am in a depressive episode, the hardest thing to do is move. And so that's why throughout our podcast, and in our program, the whole health lab, we talk a lot about many steps and micro steps. Because those are things that are less overwhelming to the brain. And if I say to myself, I'll exercise for one minute, like, I can do anything for one minute. So I like yes, I like that knowledge that we've acquired around that.
Yes. And our next episode will actually go deeper into micro steps, because it is such an important concept that we wanted to give our listeners tools for actually moving. But I think you bring up a really, really good point. And that is, when you're not feeling well, mentally, movement is one of the things you absolutely do not want to do. And so there is some research that shows that acting even when we don't want to, can actually help our brain, and of course, help with building resilience. And so just as a reminder for that, but the other thing is what helps me even when I'm feeling really low energy or depressed or anxious is if I have an accountability partner. And when I have an accountability partner, it is very unusual that I'm going to flake on them. If it is only myself, I will absolutely let myself down when I'm feeling depressed. So one of the I think one of the beauties of this challenge that we're issuing is that we can be each other's accountability partners. And you can do that by, you know, tagging us on Instagram, or Facebook or messaging us. There's so many ways that we can create that large sense of accountability. But also, we want to encourage you to find an accountability partner, and move together have an appointment, so that you, you know, this is part of your day, and you're not gonna just let it slide when things get busy. That's a great
point. I have a couple of friends in California, who have walked on a schedule for 15 years, and they've kept the schedule for 15 years, they usually walk a couple miles every time they take a walk. And I can't remember if it's three or four times a week that they do it. But it's amazing. That's awesome.
So who is exercising in the US? So what research shows is actually only 60% of us, slightly over half of adults have regular physical activity. So there's a good chunk of us that are not engaging in regular movement. So that's the first thing we know that statistically then about 40% of US adults are not moving regularly. So this is for all of us. But we also know that regular physical activity is absolutely correlated with lower rates of depression, and lower rates of anxiety in adults. And so one of the challenges over the last few years is we have seen a major increase in reported incidents of anxiety and depression among American adults and children. And this would be a free and simple I'm not saying easy but it is simple way to elevate your levels of hormones, serotonin, endorphins, all of the processes in our body that contribute to better rates of mental health, lower rates of depression and less anxiety.
Yeah, that's that is something that has been known in the mental health field for years. And I loved that use Then I'm talking simple not easy. Because myself as somebody who's whose expertise is in depression and anxiety, I oftentimes feel myself in getting myself moving, even though I have all this cognitive knowledge. And so finding ways to make my brain less resistant is the key for me so that I will do something instead of none thing.
That's great. We are also aware that certain mental health disorders are not necessarily affected by movement. And so we want to be clear that when it is major depression, as opposed to a dysthymia, which is a low grade depression, or a depression that's based on outside factors like environment or even circumstances, we're not saying that if you move a mile a day, all of a sudden your major depression is going to be cured. In fact, the research shows it does take more than physical activity, of course, to work through major depression, panic attacks, social phobia, and agoraphobia. So those those mental health issues are a little more complex, and require some other interventions, but physical movements specifically will help with depression and anxiety. So just to be clear on that, okay, and then going deeper into how physical health helps anxiety since anxiety is the number one reported symptom of toxic stress and trauma. And that's something we focus on quite a bit in our work. How can we help our listeners with anxiety, and the data shows that there is strong evidence to support that moderate to high intensity exercise is sufficient to reduce our occurrence of anxiety. And so perhaps one mile at a walk is not moderate to high intensity, but this is the beginning. And this is how we start, we have to start somewhere.
Yeah. When I think about anxiety, and depression, the things that I have read and studied over the years, indicate that physical activity at a moderate or high intensity actually is really effective for anxiety. And so I will oftentimes find in my office that my adult clients are runners or swimmers or soccer players, and they have found ways to mitigate some of their anxiety a lot of times, just instinctively, they find these ways, and they find those ways to mitigate anxiety. And it really has benefited them.
That's wonderful. I've seen that as well in my own life. And in my work, that there's lots of adaptive ways to deal with anxiety. And I think exercise is one of them. One of the things I want to point out about anxiety in movement is that when we move our body, it's not simply that our we're getting more blood flow to the prefrontal cortex or that our endorphins are raised. There's actually evidence that shows that it helps us overall with regulating our nervous system. And for those of you who have been listening for a while, you know that the nervous system is what controls all our autonomic responses, including breathing and our heart rate, and so forth. And so when we find something that will actually regulate our nervous system consistently, what that is doing is it's widening our window of tolerance. And so when we have a stressor come in, or, you know, we start exercising more that same stressor is going to affect us less. It's not that it won't be there. It's that we're increasing our regulation of our nervous system. And that is free. Yes, and it's accessible, and it is doable, but we do need to start somewhere we do. Okay, well, thank you so much. And next week, we'll be going more into micro steps and how to get off the couch and start moving. Great. Looking forward to it. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you want to go deeper on this subject or any other subjects we've covered in the podcast. We are so excited to be launching our signature membership program at mending trauma.com This is a trauma informed mental health membership where we combine clinically effective practices courses and mentoring while putting you in the driver's seat. We teach you how to heal your trauma with the latest research combining mind body and spirit. We want to walk you through a healing journey while also empowering you if you have felt this episode is helpful. We would absolutely love if you would go to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your pods and give us a review. We'd also love it if you would share it with someone you think it might help tag us on social media at mending trauma.com Or at Amy Hoyt, PhD, we would love to reshare and also, if there's anything we can do to help, we would love to hear from you email info at mending trauma.com Give us your suggestions or topics you want to hear about. We would absolutely love to be of more service to you. We're so excited because we have so many good episodes coming up in season two, and we can't wait to go on this journey with you
