It's Mental Health Awareness week, so I thought I'd make today's running diary about my take on the relationship between running and mental health.
Of course exercise is, by and large, good for your mental health. But there are pitfalls too. It can become a bit obsessional, a bit too goal focused, we can become too self critical.
So my message is not really "running is good for mental health" (because I believe it is), but "be kind to yourself". There can be a lot of joy in running, surely that's actually more important than always chasing a PB?
Also, I recently talked about losing a bit of weight, and I need to be careful that I don't overdo it and develop a skewed perspective on my own body shape. I'm currently at 71.5kg, 11.7% body fat, that's healthy! It really wont make me a better runner to be any leaner, and probably wont make me any happier either. I should be really proud of my progress!
#mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth #running #runningmotivation #health #weightloss #selfcare #kindness