The Front Desk

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers are prioritizing mental health resources for employees, according to the American Psychological Association’s 2021 Trends Report. The immense toll that the pandemic took on our collective mental health has been well-documented. Two-thirds of employees report that their mental health suffered during the pandemic and negatively impacted their work performance, according to a 2020 survey. At least 40% of employees say they are struggling with burnout.

Breathwalking is a form of meditation in motion originating from the ancient Kundalini Yoga practice. The benefits of breathwalking are plenty. Breathwalking increases energy levels, improves mood and mental clarity, and inspires feelings of connectedness between your body and the earth. Similar to other yoga practices, breathwalking revitalizes the body, mind, and spirit to relieve stress. However, while contemporary yoga classes may be intimidating or unappealing to some, anyone can get into breathwalking.

There is an abundance of research demonstrating that a sedentary lifestyle has a negative impact on our overall health. Prolonged periods of sitting increase the risk of developing type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal disorders, and even some cancers. However, less is known about how a sedentary lifestyle affects our psychological well being, cognition in particular. The negative consequences of sitting at a desk all day should be carefully considered, especially now, as many employees continue to work from home.

Is exercising outdoors better for our sleep habits than exercising inside? If we do get outside and get moving, does the time of day affect how well we will sleep that night? We know that there is no substitute for natural sunlight. Research shows that our internal clocks simply do not respond to electric lights the same way we take cues from the sun. For this reason, a group of researchers sought out to determine how the combination of exercise and time spent outdoors could benefit and/or influence our sleep cycles.

A wealth of research supports the finding that regular exercise is linked to brain health, and some studies suggest that aerobic exercise can even improve memory. However, much of this research has been conducted on animals, not humans. Until recently, less was known about what precisely occurs in the human brain to trigger this process.

Research shows that exercising in green spaces (a.k.a. outside) improves our mood, attention span, and mental health significantly more than exercising indoors. Being surrounded by nature restores our cognitive ability to focus on a single task without getting distracted, which is one reason it feels so good. Attention is an essential mental resource as we navigate the constant overstimulation of our online lives. But what about our social lives, IRL? Research suggests that exercising outside improves social experiences too.

Overcome the spotlight effect to exercise outside with confidence. Anyone with social anxiety can tell you that exercising outside is not always a walk in the park, so to speak. Namely because there are other people outside and your every move is on display. It may seem as if all eyes are on you, waiting to watch you trip or gawking at how much you sweat. Concerns like these about how others perceive us can become so overwhelming that we may forgo the workout entirely.

Running is perhaps the most popular form of exercise, but that doesn’t mean people enjoy it. The fitness-tracking app Strava recently conducted a global survey asking 25,000 people how they feel about running and the results were… staggering. Only 8% of respondents said that they run because they love it. Apparently, everyone else just kind of suffers through. Half of the total respondents said they flat out hate running, or “can barely stand it.” Yikes. And the people who took this survey are runners!

What motivates us to stick with a diet or healthy eating regimen? How do we make healthy eating become a habit and not a chore? All too often, we use fear of what might happen in the future to try and change our behavior in the present. We think, “I can’t have dessert because it will make me fat.” We try to bully ourselves into dieting using negative self-talk and threats. We punish ourselves for failing before we even begin. This method of fear-based motivation is unpleasant, damaging, and it usually doesn’t work.

Does consuming caffeine before exercise help or hinder your performance? The verdict is in. Earlier this year, the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) published their official report on how caffeine affects exercise performance. They evaluated all of the available literature on the subject of caffeine and exercise, analyzing information from 420 different articles.