Exercise promotes neuroplasticity in both healthy and depressed brains
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
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It certainly is.
It’s a lot easier to take a pill than it is to put your body through physical stress, but exercise is so much more rewarding.
In the scope of humanity’s history, the pharmaceutical industry has only been around for a fraction of a blip.
We made it this far without them.
Humans aren't, and are still not, designed for sitting in an office staring at a fucking screen for hours a day. Before there was anything, we were all hunters / gatherers, and thus, daily and routinely partaking in some form of physical activity.
Real world, recent example: Wife and I are very active / involved with candle pin bowling here. A LOT, in fact, most of the seniors in my city / area bowl regularly. There are men who bowl, who you would swear are 20 years OLDER than my father, yet they are actually 10+ years younger than him.
I ask these guys what they did for a living. Most worked at the shipyard / VIA rail / sugar refinery. The worked their shifts, came home, ate, and sat in front of the TV with some beer.
My dad ran the economic development / management field for the phone company here. Sat at a desk all day, staring at a screen. Came home every night to supper, and then out in the yard, redoing a bedroom, building a deck, etc. He, even now @ 77 and triple by pass 5 years ago, does not stop.
I've been to a lot of bowler funerals over the last 10 years.
Proof is in the pudding they say.
And there is this philosophy as well:
To be truly pure to yourself, you must master both the mind and body. The Fibonacci Sequence applied to yourself.
You can be a body building, non fast food eating, 2% body fat, bill of incredible health person, and be a racist fucktard.
You can have the heart of gold, help anyone whenever you can, have a higher intellect, give the shirt off your back ; but you eat McDicks 3 times a week, and your fridge is all processed crap.
Excellent takes.
If you want to be more effective in changing your world, you must first change your self.
Start small.
You don’t need equipment or a gym membership.
Body weight exercises can be done in just about any space you occupy.
Eliminate the “i’ll start tomorrow” mentality.
You can do 10 push ups right now and if you can’t, do 5.
Even just going for a walk outside is good. Get some fresh air and sun. Be out in nature, even if it's just a city park.
Anything you can do now will build on itself like compounding interest.
My non-gym thing is just a little hiphop dancing. Stepping side to side for 20 minutes and doing arm movements and slides and shit. I suck at it, but my heart gets like 100bpm in about 2 minutes and requires no equipment other than shoes.
darebee.com is an amazing resource.
Worth noting is that most psychotropic medications were only tested for 4-6 months and not for long-term use. The "chemical imbalance" narrative is just a marketing move - the actual biochemical mechanism of SSRIs is unknown and only hypothesized.
This is the only thing Tom Cruise ever said that made sense to me.