Emotional Fitness: Empower Yourself Emotionally Through Exercise

By Shaun Zetlin

Empower yourself emotionally through exercise. Emotional Fitness is an emotional and physical journey like no other. A collection of bodyweight stabilization and strength exercises are carefully crafted in order of emotional and physical progression, as you learn how to self-soothe and become your best emotional and physical self. Your new “gym bag” awaits, filled with five Master Mantras and five Emotional Guidance Techniques: the sages of your new journey. As a means of coping with daily stresses, fear, anxiety, depression or even trauma – Emotional Fitness can benefit all of us. Gain a deeper understanding of your “why” and subconscious versus conscious behavior. Recognize your wide range of emotions from anger to shame, your emotional triggers, and come to better understand your vulnerabilities. Heal your heart, soul, and spirit while progressing your mind and body! Emotional Fitness has helped Shaun Zetlin discover the best version of himself, from within. Now, he hopes to continue to inspire others to find the same, while influencing the world to embrace kindness and happiness…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Feb 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781642377972

Book preview

Psychoanalyst

CHAPTER 1

What is Emotional Fitness?

Life is beautiful. Life offers the incredible opportunity to learn, laugh, and most importantly, love. Unfortunately, no one in this world is free from daily stresses, while all of us have experienced some forms of fear, anxiety, and depression in our lives. Some of us might have endured unspeakable traumas. Exercise has the ability to give us all life-changing emotional power! Yes, most of us know that the gym can be iron therapy and that we all feel better after working out, however, by doing the emotional work through this program, we have an opportunity to become completely whole emotionally and physically in achieving our emotional freedom!

To be perfectly honest, Emotional Fitness will not fully remove your anxiety and depression (especially if you suffer from chemical imbalances). Even though I made the decision not to take medication for anxiety and depression, I support those that do. Following the techniques in this book will not erase all of your daily stresses where you will never feel them again, as this isn’t a realistic goal for anyone of us. And, those of you who are trauma survivors understand that trauma doesn’t ever fully go away. What my program will provide you however, is astonishing relief and power in helping you live a life of emotional freedom while connecting your emotions and body in all areas of your life.

Emotional Fitness will challenge you to go further emotionally inside your own psyche to help you achieve those stubborn fitness goals that have eluded you for so long! It’s my strong wish that I can help as many as possible to not suffer emotionally anymore while becoming physically healthier. I am truly proud to provide a program that allows everyone to achieve emotional freedom! This is truly the best gift I could give anyone! In fact, there’s no better gift to give yourself!

Imagine having the emotional freedom that you deserve. You are more than capable of becoming the person that you were meant to be or have always been, given your individual path. Emotional Fitness has helped me, from within, to find the best version of myself. I only hope to continue to inspire others to find the same peace from within, while influencing the world to be kinder and happier.

Emotional Fitness Defined

Emotional Fitness to me is best defined as empowering yourself emotionally through exercise. Emotional Fitness has the ability to help you feel your deserved emotional freedom! Movement can produce a calming and exhilarating effect on multiple levels as you begin to release your own emotions, either joyous or sad. When you embrace fitness as a means of feeling more open emotionally, then your workouts (and life) can reach an entirely new level of happiness! You can have the skills to harness your true powers emotionally and physically while shedding those negative and painful emotions that have held you back from achieving your life and fitness goals. Emotional Fitness will help you achieve a feeling of wholeness emotionally and physically in being who you truly are! When you classify exercise in this way, you then begin to live your best quality of life. When you experience what exercise can truly accomplish for you emotionally, you witness the marvel of Emotional Fitness!

Anxiety

Anxiety can be a very painful and crippling mental disorder that can wreak havoc on your mind and your emotions, especially when it becomes chronic. It’s crucial to recognize that anxiety isn’t real and is ruled by unwarranted fear. It’s critical to understand that anxiety can become a disorder and there are a variety of different types of anxieties, panic disorders, and phobias. Anxiety can create obsessiveness, insomnia, avoidance, exhaustion, and absent-mindedness. If you have been struggling with anxiety, whether for months or years, it’s my hope that this program can be a significant help to you.

I challenge you kindly to take out a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the center of the page. On the left column of the page, please write down everything about which you are anxious. Please do not worry about judgment or ridicule while sharing your fears. Next, on the right column of the page, please write down how likely these scenarios are most likely to occur in reality. This form of thinking is much more cognitive and should feel less emotional. You will find that most of your fears are unwarranted and that should be a great beginning in providing some much-needed relief.

Anxiety is influential; however, you can make an emotional decision to not only think differently, but to move your body to also safeguard against anxiety. It has been noted that cognitive and emotional health are inextricably linked to our biological requirements for cardiovascular activity, strength training, and flexibility.¹ Therefore, as human beings, we were created to move. We weren’t designed to sit for long periods of time in tiny cubicles or live a sedentary lifestyle at home. Moving and exercising have proven to relieve stress and chronic anxiety! According to the National Institutes of Health, anxiety symptoms and panic disorder also improve with regular exercise, and beneficial effects appear to equal meditation or relaxation.²

Collectively, most of us might understand how yoga and restorative movement can have a calming effect on the body, which would be beneficial to aid anxiety. Yet, it’s critical to understand now that exercise can have equivalent advantages! People who suffer with their mental health increase their risk for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and obesity. A report on CNN recently observed that "having obesity or diabetes increases your risk causally of developing a psychiatric condition, and vice versa."³ A cycle of unwanted weight gain while feeling such unhealthy emotions can be toxic. Therefore, it’s imperative for our mind and body to work as one unit to become our best selves!

If you haven’t personally suffered with anxiety, it’s safe to assume that you know someone who has because anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.⁴ You or your loved ones are certainly not alone when it comes to having a variety of anxiety syndromes and these are only the numbers for individuals that have been diagnosed. Please keep in mind that this number could be significantly higher. It’s my hope that you find comfort in these statistics.

Unfortunately, anxiety isn’t just limited to disrupting our thoughts while making us not present in the moment. Anxiety has a strong influence on our physical state, too. Harvard Medical School notes the following on their website:

Anxiety also plays a role in somatic symptom disorder, which is characterized by physical symptoms such as pain, nausea, weakness, or dizziness that have no apparent physical cause. Anxiety has been implicated in several chronic physical illnesses, including heart disease, chronic respiratory disorders, and gastrointestinal conditions.⁵

Left untreated, anxiety can be life threatening and create real physical damage to our bodies. In his story on CNN, Arman Azad reported that almost one in five people with anxiety disorders misuse alcohol, and those with social phobia report less physical activity.⁶ This is extremely sad to me, yet it makes sense why someone would abuse alcohol and/or not feel comfortable attending a gym since the emotional component remains untreated. Please do not feel defeated by anxiety and its powers. This program will provide proper cognitive learning tools, including Master Mantras coupled with Emotional Guidance Techniques during exercise, to provide the relief you deserve!

Depression

Depression can be equally as toxic to our minds and bodies as anxiety disorders. People with major depression are more likely to smoke and be dependent on nicotine, for example, and have a significantly worse diet than the general population,⁷ according to WebMD. Harmful emotional behavior leads to detrimental physical actions, such as smoking cigarettes and unhealthy eating.

Additionally, depression symptoms may include joint pain, back pain, digestive problems, sleep trouble, and appetite changes.⁸ Much like anxiety disorders, depression has real power physically over our bodies. This information also comes from Harvard Medical School:

Many of the symptoms of depression—such as flagging energy levels and lack of motivation—can make getting regular exercise, eating healthy foods, and sticking to a medication regimen a real challenge. This, too, may help explain why depression makes heart disease more likely.⁹

Consequently, while it can be difficult, creating even small emotional and physical changes can lead to healthier lifestyle changes to prevent heart disease. These small changes could include performing a few exercises weekly, taking longer walks, or cutting out one unhealthy cuisine choice. As a result, these physical changes should affect your emotions much more positively.

Depression also increases your levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Conversely, while exercising, your body produces an increased amount of the brain chemical serotonin; though, keep in mind that three-quarters of serotonin is formulated in the gut (another reason nutrition is incredibly important). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter in your brain that has numerous functions in controlling your mood, appetite and sleep. If serotonin levels are low, depression can occur; while levels of this chemical can increase during exercise and, thus, stimulate happiness. The benefits of strength training and exercise are truly plentiful!

According to Mayo Clinic, strength training has been shown to:

• Develop strong bones. By stressing your bones, strength training can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

• Manage your weight. Strength training can help you manage or lose weight, and it can increase your metabolism to help you burn more calories.

• Enhance your quality of life. Strength training may enhance your quality of life and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Building muscle also can contribute to better balance and may reduce your risk of falls. This can help you maintain independence as you age.

• Manage chronic conditions. Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic conditions, such as arthritis, back pain, obesity, heart disease, depression and diabetes.

• Sharpen your thinking skills. Some research suggests that regular strength training and aerobic exercise may help improve thinking and learning skills for older adults."¹⁰

Wow! That’s a multitude of advantages for your mind and body in addition to aiding your emotional health! These benefits are clearly more than enough reason to begin a strength training routine if you haven’t started one yet!

Did you also know that exercising improves brain function and sharpens your memory? That’s because exercising triggers vast production of neurons, which control nervous system functions including muscle engagement and movement. Another plus of strength training is that it may also prevent cognitive brain decline because exercise produces another hormone that may improve memory and protect against Alzheimer’s disease.¹¹