Exercising makes me very anxious. Why is that?

Hi. It’s Jenny at AnxietyBoss.com. Our question today comes to us from Janelle in Maine. Exercising makes me very anxious. Why is that?

Well, if you suffer from anxiety, you must be well aware of the symptoms of anxiety. Increased heart rate, heavy breathing, boosted adrenaline, sweating, pain in your chest, shortness of breath, dry mouth and even nausea and dizziness. And when you think about, all these symptoms that I’ve just mentioned also occur when you exercise.

Unlike what so many people tell you that exercise will make you feel better, reduce your stress and help you sleep better, you are psychologically drawing a connection between your anxiety and exercise because of the similar body reactions. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t exercise. It just means that you should begin exercises that aren’t so taxing on your body.

Some great exercises that you can try are yoga, Pilates, and swimming. These exercises will psychologically help your mind and your body realize that exercising isn’t anxiety attacks. And once you start to feel good about doing these exercises, you can then ease yourself into other exercises that are more vigorous. Instead of just picking random exercises, you need to pick the right ones, and not every exercise will be good for every person.

Go to AnxietyBoss.com to see what exercises work well for anxiety and you can take the anxiety test as well to see what would work best for you.