Read Free Yourself from Anxiety for Free Online Page B

usually find a type of exercise that is within their capacity – your doctor should be able to advise you about this. Many forms ofexercise are taken outdoors, in the fresh air and in natural surroundings, and there is some evidence that this is good for our mental health (but see below for exercise tips for housebound people).
    Set your sights as low as you need to. If you have been spending all your time in the armchair, locked into Anxiety, then start by walking about the room a little at regular intervals. Or if you are active but don’t take exercise, start with something gentle like a walk in a park. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to reach the 20 minutes three times a week target – just make a start.
Exercise options
    It’s surprising how many Anxiety sufferers say that they ‘always hated games at school’. If that’s you, then you have an extra level of challenge, but remember, there’s plenty of things you can do that are nothing like school games.
    If you’re an exercise hater, then try some lateral thinking. Any vigorous activity counts, as long as it makes you breathe hard – scrub a floor, run up some stairs, swing your arms about. You don’t have to do sports, and you don’t have to join a gym. You just have to get active. You could also try:
    • walking, especially in the countryside or a park
    • jogging
    • line dancing
    • swimming
    • aerobics (there are special classes for the over-50s)
    • social dancing
    • country dancing
    • cycling.
    Start with one activity once a week, and add others so that you don’t grow bored.
What if you’re housebound?
    It can seem impossibly hard to take exercise if your Anxiety has made you housebound, but in fact there are plenty of options. Tell yourself that one day you will be able to go out and take part in other activities, and exercising in the house is part of your training for that goal. Here are some suggestions:
    • walk round the house or flat
    • go up and down stairs, if available
    • do housework
    • use an exercise video or DVD
    • use an exercise bike, or treadmill.
    If you are using an exercise video or DVD, try to find one that is not too challenging. They always start with a warm-up session, and at first that is all you should attempt. Slowly increase the amount of time you are able to exercise and don’t attempt anything that is too much for you. If you open the window while you are exercising you’ll benefit even more.
Establishing a personal exercise programme
    It doesn’t matter how active or inactive you are, you can start improving your fitness with a structured exercise programme. Look at the graduated exercise ladder below and decide where you are on it. Be honest with yourself, no one else needs to know about it.
Exercise ladder
    Stand up, walk round the room
   Walk up and down stairs
      Exercise video or DVD – warm-up
        Exercise video or DVD – complete
           Exercise machine or activity of choice – once a week
              Exercise machine or activity – twice a week
                 Exercise machine or activity – three times a week
    When you have placed yourself on the ladder, use your goal-setting skills to work out how to move on to the next rung of the ladder. You may not feel able to make the move in one jump – that’s fine, you can break it down into a series of small steps.
    Here’s an example for someone who is trying to move on to 20 minutes of exercise once a week but whose chosen activity doesn’t quite fit with that.
    GOAL: join Beginners Ballroom Dance class.
    PROBLEM: class lasts an hour, I don’t feel fit enough for that yet.
    SOLUTION: further repeats of exercise video/DVD until I can exercise for an hour, plus a graded series of walks outside building up to an hour.
    GROUP MEMBERS TALK ABOUT EXERCISE
    ‘Exercise helps me a lot, at first I was too ill to do much but now I walk every day, between 2 and 6