Hello! Welcome to Day 11 of the 2022 First Responders Are Human event. The event hopes to encourage mental wellness in first responders through physical fitness. Participants should engage in one deliberate physical activity each day of the event. We will also be sharing a daily resiliency tool that can help first responders be resilient on and off the job. While many of the stressors first responders face are systemic, it is still important that we be able to maintain our own mental health.
Today’s Tool: Physical Activity
Day 11’s tool is physical activity! Physical activity has been shown to have multiple benefits for mental and physical health. That is why one of the main aspects of this campaign is encouraging people to deliberately engage in physical activity each day of the event.
Physical Activity Versus Exercise
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Physical activity refers to any activity involving physical exertion, including casual and unplanned activities. Exercise is a specific type of physical activity. It involves planned activities done for the benefit of physical fitness. We are deliberately using the term physical activity instead of exercise for our skill. Research has shown that physical activity in general is beneficial for mental and physical wellness. While there is evidence that the benefits of intense exercise can be more pronounced, even engaging in short episodes of physical activity each day and help improve your wellness.
How Does Physical Activity Help Mental Wellness?
Physical activity can help our mental health through a number of different ways. For example, it directly helps our mental health by affecting endorphins and neurotransmitters. It can also indirectly help by improving our quality of sleep (the importance of which we talked about on Day 3). Physical activity has additional benefits, such as:
Giving us a sense of accomplishment
Improving self-image
Inducing a meditative state
Regulating our breathing
Providing an outlet for our emotions
Encouraging social connections through group activities
I’m Not Sure About Telling People to “Just Be Active”
We get that there can a certain feeling of “wow thanks, I’m cured” when it comes to discussing physical activity and mental health. We get that when you’re exhausted, anxious, or depressed it can feel insurmountable to exercise. As mentioned before, that is one of the reasons we are using physical activity instead of exercise for this tool. Increasing your physical activity can be as simple as parking in the back of the grocery store parking lot. Or taking a lap around the block when you check the mail. Or doing 5 jumping jacks every time you walk into your kitchen. Evidence has shown that some people feel uplifted as soon as five minutes after doing physical activity. This can create a feedback loop that makes it easier to engage in physical activity.
Final Thoughts
There are almost unlimited ways to be physically active. You don’t have to run 100 miles a week to feel an improvement in your mental health. Taking your dog on a longer walk, doing physically active volunteer work, or walking in circles around your rig are all valid ways of increasing your activity level.
Helpful Links & Sources:
To Do:
Follow the event on Facebook, Instagram, and join the Strava group.
Download the daily posters to use on social media.
Reflect on today’s tool and how you’ve incorporated it into your life or how you might incorporate it.
Post your reflection and physical activity on social media or the participant’s group to help spread the word and to encourage accountability and camaraderie.
Use the hashtags #movementismedicine and #firstrespondersarehuman on social media.