Relieve Depression & anxiety, Change your Perspective
Change is often difficult, go out and get seem fresh air and some negative irons along the seashore. A healthy mind comes from being balanced and healthy.
If you are depressed, get some exercise, that is what we recommend when you come in for a session. Do you know where this idea of doing 10,000 steps came from?
Is it really a goal worth striving for, or might there be something better?
And where did that figure come from?
You might be surprised to hear it was the result of a 1960s marketing campaign in Japan.
In the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a company came up with a device which they started marketing to the health-conscious.
It was called a Manpo-Kei. In Japanese, “man” means 10,000, “po” means steps and “kei” means meter. So it was, literally, a 10,000 steps meter.
The device was an early pedometer, based on the work of Dr Yoshiro Hatano, a young academic at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare.
Dr. Hatano was worried that the Japanese were busy importing a slothful American lifestyle, as well as a love of watching baseball and wanted to help them get more active.
He reckoned that if he could persuade his fellow Japanese to increase their daily steps from 4,000 to around 10,000 then they would burn off approximately 500 extra calories a day and remain slim.
That, apparently, was how the “10,000 steps a day” regime was born.
Active 10—A Depression Solution
Prof Rob Copeland from Sheffield Hallam University has researched a new method, it’s simpler and takes only 30 minutes a day and works out to 3000 steps a day. 1.5 miles instead of 5 miles!
They ran some experiments in which we would compare the benefits and ease of doing 10,000 steps against something called, “Active 10“.
With Active 10 you don’t need to count steps. You simply aim to do three brisk 10-minute walks a day. Get your heart rate up. Walk in such a way that you can still talk but not sing. Read more about the study in England here.
Make Active 10 a part of your daily routine, make it a habit! We know HABITS ARE HARD TO BREAK, they are also hard to make, like making good new friends.
Here’s more on how my style of blending, Buddhism, Mindfulness and Hypnotherapy together works.