Move To Find Your Groove
Maximum Mental Health by Aleks Srbinoski
Smart TMS clinician and clinical psychologist Aleks Srbinoski is passionate about positive psychology and strives to help every patient he sees achieve mental wellness, be it through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), self help techniques or talking therapies. In addition, he is a speaker and author of three books on the Amazon best-sellers list, one being Maximum Mental Health.
Maximum Mental Health focuses on overcoming depression and anxiety. It uses 20 principles for happier and healthier living and includes mindfulness downloads to use whilst reading the book.
Week 2: Move To Find Your Groove
Chapter three focuses on “developing self-confidence, exercise motivation and mental fitness by increasing movement”.
Aleks asks his readers to imagine a depressed person, Person A. What do you think of?
Most of us will envision a person with their head down, shoulders slumped and showing little facial expression. Their thoughts will be negative, restrictive and uncreative.
He then asks us to imagine Person B, who is confident, happy and motivated. He acknowledges;
“You get the opposite answers, don’t you? This person has their head up, eyed forward, shoulders back, breathing full, feeling light, shows a lot of expression and has expansive and creative thoughts.”
The difference between the two perceptions is clear. Person B is much more dynamic and expressive in their movements. In turn, they generate positive energy and emotion through their actions.
Aleks goes on to say;
“The more you move, the greater the flow of serotonin, noradrenaline, dopamine and endorphins through the body, and especially to the brain. The first three are your classic “happy” chemicals, while endorphins also increase the pleasure you feel and at the same time acts as natural painkillers or tranquilisers (notice the word – TRANQUIL-isers)”.
As a result of the flow of “happy” chemicals, you are more motivated. Once you feel motivated, you’ll find it much easier to get out of bed and do a little bit more exercise and a pattern can occur.
Top Tip Of The Week
In day to day life, it can be tricky to fit in enough exercise to keep your motivation. With so many of us working behind desks, it’s easy to slip into the bad habit of not getting up regularly to move our bodies. Aleks suggests;
“Set a timer and set it to ring every 60 minutes. Whenever it rings, spend 30 seconds to a minute stretching and breathing deeply and then adjusting your posture and facial expression before returning to your task. Another option if possible is to vigorously exercise for just 1-2 minutes. Do as many push ups, sit ups, or star jumps as you can in that period. You will feel very energetic afterwards and you would not have been exercising long enough to have become sweaty”.
Try doing this for a week. How do you feel as a result? Do you feel more confident in your conscious choices?
To learn more about revealing the secret of motivation psychology, Aleks’ book is available on Amazon. Alternatively, you can keep an eye on our blog for weekly top tips hand-picked from Maximum Mental Health by the Smart TMS team.
Week 3
In the next chapter, Aleks looks at thinking habits. Next week, we will highlight one of Aleks’ many top tips to help you learn to think positively.