Martial Arts For Mental Health

Anxiety and Depression affect everyone at some point and the severity as well as the duration can differ. It becomes problematic when it stops us from having the quality of life we want and sometimes medical intervention may need some assistance to move a person through the threshold to better health; this is where Martial Arts can be effective.

Generally speaking martial arts are excellent for stress as they help burn through the cortisol levels in the body, this can be said about most movement based activities however depending on the type of martial arts you select, there are extra benefits for mental health.

Martial Arts For Anxiety

Anxiety can be seen as a hyper vigilant response of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), to counter this we want to activate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system as much as possible. This can be achieved through Chinese Exercise Therapy (Tai Chi/Qi Gong) as it combines the slowing down of the breath as well as slow intentional movements which creates a feedback loop that relates both to the mind body connection but also the body mind connection.

Martial Arts For Depression

Depression is understood as an issue with neurotransmitter depletion which can lead to an altered mental state made worse by things such as stress. We can counter this using a hard style martial arts as research shows dopamine is released through training and martial arts has the unique capacity to show the results of the training (acquisition of a new skill) almost immediately which helps to release dopamine – the most studied neurotransmitter in Depression.

The additional benefit that comes from training in martial arts for mental health is that it builds a positive habit and this habit is something you tap into daily to hold off the feelings of depression or anxiety but also ensure that any episodes are much more manageable.

Our team now offers these short course. If you are interested you can read more here or contact us.