It's been a stressful year. No question about it, one of the most stressful I've had in the last 10 years. No Child Left Behind demands are out the wazoo coupled with a very uncomfortable working environment, albeit a school, have time moving in big slow drops with stress at high tide.
The toll it takes is incalculable, and I am forgetting what should be remembered - - Exercise. And more of it, not less. Yet time on the bike gets further and further away with each demand.
After reading a recent column by NYT health columnist Tara Parker-Pope, I realize just how important exercise can be in rewiring the the ill effects of stress on the psyche. Given new research techniques and knowledge of the brain biochemistry, scientists are beginning to understand how exercise "remodels the brain making it more resistant to the effects of stress." Now that's just what my brain needs, remodeling.
Seventy miles a week on the bike has morphed into ten to twenty miles a week post work. The time change, the change of weather, the demands of work are doing just the opposite of my intentions. The bottom line - - more stress equals more exercise.
According to new research, the positive stress of exercise prepares the neural pathways for handling other types of stress. And while we may not feel immediately less stressed after the first sessions of exercise, molecular biochemical changes are in play and over time, the benefits are "profound" according to lead researcher Dr. Benjamin Greenwood of the University of Colorado.
Now, If I could just remember where my planner is to pencil in those exercise days . . .
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