Aerobics, simply put, is a way to get your heart rate up to where you get in cardiovascular exercise. Walking, sprinting and running all help to get the heart beating rapidly so blood can circulate and move oxygen to all parts of the body. Playing basketball, hockey, tennis and other sports are excellent activities for good heart health.

A good aerobics workout makes you stronger and improves mental clarity. Unfortunately, many people live a sedentary lifestyle that does little to improve overall physical well-being and often they don’t find the time or energy to start exercising.

While aerobics is one of the best way to get in some exercise it should be remembered that aerobics alone will not do you much for your health if your lifestyle is filled with stress, a poor diet and habits that promote illness rather than health.

Before any exercise can begin, you need to know the current state of your health and just how much exercise is good for you. A checkup with your doctor will determine how ready you are to start on an exercise program. Likely, you will need to change your diet first as will power alone is simply not enough for many overweight people to start exercising. Your doctor and dietitian can help you set up an exercise program that is right for you.

Once you have the approval from your doctor, the next step is by taking a daily walk. If you are overweight or obese, you can begin by walking to the street corner or around the block. If you feel stronger, you can take an extended 20 minute walk. Whichever method you choose, move your arms as you walk. Moving your arms while you walk gets blood flowing to the shoulders and arms. Once you’re used to walking, you can increase your pace to the point that you begin to perspire. If walking isn’t for you, try Tai Chi or do exercise in a pool, both of which are easy on the joints and can give you a good workout.

Once walking has become routine, you can bicycle.It provides great cardiovascular exercise as it provides more challenges as you must pedal uphill as well as down. If you happen to live close to your job, you can save yourself the cost of fuel and wear and tear on your car by biking to work.

The winter months don’t allow for much walking or cycling. Ice, snow and the cold is enough to keep anyone indoors, but you can continue your exercise regimen by investing in a treadmill or a stationary bike.

The whole point behind aerobics is to exercise your heart muscle. The heart rate of a fit person beats slower than someone who is out of shape. A resting heart rate is a good indication of how easier it is for you to get sick. Healthy people rarely have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, nor are they susceptible to many of today’s modern diseases.

For optimal health, you can combine a daily routine of aerobics along with weight lifting. Aerobics primarily exercises the heart while weight lifting increases body strength, endurance and flexibility.

Once you make a start at exercise, you’ll find it more pleasurable than you thought and you will stick with your routine once you start to see the results of a better physique and a happier you.

one of the key criteria of stress management is managing Thought Attacksâ?¢. A Thought Attackâ?¢ is what happens when your mind turns on itself and attacks any possibility of a positive outlook. It does this by focusing your thoughts on the negative and threatening aspects of a situation.

Once a Thought Attackâ?¢ enters your mind it starts to attract similar thoughts and begins to snowball. It gains further momentum until feelings of stress, anxiety and panic set in.

When you experience Thought Attacksâ?¢ you have given permission for negative thoughts to have free reign in your mind and consequently allowed feelings of stress to enter your body and our stress management ability declines.

Thought Attacksâ?¢ are the biggest disease known to mankind. They infect us all many times a day and affect us in ways we donâ??t even realise causing illness, poor health, low self-esteem and unhappiness. On a larger scale, they can result in intolerance, hatred and conflict.

So what happens when we experience a Thought Attackâ?¢?

This example will help explain how Thought Attacksâ?¢ sabotage stress management:

You decide to enter a 100km cycling race. You have completed a few of these races before but youâ??ve never reached your goal of finishing the race in under 4 hours. Everyday for months you wake up early to train. Youâ??re committed and disciplined. You even lose a few kilograms and go to bed early so that youâ??ll be fresh for each morningâ??s training session.

The day finally arrives. The gun goes off and away you go. Youâ??re feeling strong and positive. The race is going well until you suddenly hit a pot-hole and fall off your bicycle onto the road. Your skin is scraped and bruised but you can still continue the race. You check the damage to your bicycle and discover a tyre puncture. By the time youâ??ve cleaned up and repaired the tyre, 20 minutes have gone by and you realise that youâ??ll never finish the race within your goal time.

Iâ??m sure youâ??ll agree this event has the potential to cause a little stress and derail the stress management process!

So how can you respond?

Response 1: Thought Attackâ?¢ Response (usual default thinking)

While youâ??re busy repairing your tyre thoughts start to churn inside your head. You think to yourself: I canâ??t believe this has happened! Iâ??m such an idiot I should have seen the pot-hole. What a waste of all that training! Why donâ??t tyre companies make decent tyres that donâ??t puncture so easily? Why is life so unfair? Why did this happen to me?

When you choose responses like this youâ??re experiencing a Thought Attackâ?¢! So what can you do to overcome it and whatâ??s the antidote that would make you feel more positive and become better at stress management.

Letâ??s look at what another response to this situation could look like.

Response 2: The Wise Owl Response (suggested stress management technique)

While youâ??re repairing your tyre you think: Thankfully Iâ??m only slightly injured. I hit the pot-hole at 30km an hour and I could have been badly hurt. I can still finish the race but thatâ??s not much of a challenge for me. What other goal can I set so that I can feel that Iâ??ve achieved something?

You decide to reset a new time and challenge yourself to ride at an even faster pace. With this thought in mind you regain your feeling of excitement about the race and donâ??t allow the situation to sabotage your positive state of mind.

The Wise Owl Response is valuable in stress management because it helps you view lifeâ??s challenging situations in a way that benefits you rather than allowing them to create feelings of stress.