Do you ever get those days when nothing goes right? You wake up in the morning full of dread and as cross as a bear and the day just goes downhill from there, with the smallest setback making you erupt into an incandescent rage. On one occasion I was so grumpy, that when my teenage daughter loaded the dishwasher wrong, I threw a spectacular tantrum. She looked at me with interest and said, ” Mum, your face is purple and your eyes are bulging. It’s only a dishwasher.” Well, that put it into perspective for me and I started to laugh.
When you are feeling so grumpy that all you want to do is to crawl into a hole and sulk, think about doing some exercise. I know you won’t want to even think about it, but the link between exercise and a better mood has been proven by scientists; in fact exercise is sometimes prescribed by doctors for cases of mild depression.
And the best thing is, you don’t need to pound on a treadmill for an hour for it to work. Just go out for a walk in the fresh air, breathe deeply, march briskly and swing your arms and within about 20 minutes I can almost guarantee that you’ll feel better, the fresh air will clear your head and the ups and downs in your life will shrink back into perspective. In other words, your mountains will become molehills.
I have found that when I am in the worst moods, a session in the gym really helps me as I take out my bad temper on pushing the Pec Deck and hauling on the Lat Pulldown, muttering under my breath the whole time.
I get some really peculiar looks from other gym-goers, who give me the same kind of wide berth that they would give a rabid Rottweiler, but I have to say that after having pulled, pushed and pumped weights for 30 minutes I am hot, sweaty and much more at peace with myself and the world. And the bonus here is that all of this will increase your fitness and tone your muscles, so that not only will you feel better, you will look much better too.