Bounce Away Stress
We’re smack in the middle of Stress Awareness Month, an annual campaign to help educate us all about the causes and cures of what the organisers call “our modern stress epidemic”.
Everyone gets stressed from time to time. But people with prolonged stress can suffer from a range of emotional and physical problems, from self-doubt and “brain fog” to heart disease, hypertension and high blood pressure.
You can’t avoid stress completely, but you can manage it. And one of the best ways to manage your stress levels is simply to move more.
A caveman’s guide to stress
Can simply moving more really help you combat stress? The world renowned Harvard Medical School thinks so. It says:
“Regular aerobic exercise will bring remarkable changes to your body, your metabolism, your heart, and your spirits. It has a unique capacity to exhilarate and relax, to provide stimulation and calm, to counter depression and dissipate stress.”
The reason for that goes way back to our evolutionary past. When our caveman ancestors got stressed, it was usually because they faced real and present danger, like a hungry predator or an unfriendly rival tribe. Their bodies expected to move, and stress hormones primed them to fight or run away. Physical exercise had the effect of reducing stress hormones and, when the danger had passed, aiding relaxation.
Today we get stressed over things that don’t require fight or flight, from work to relationships to what people are saying on Facebook. But in these instances stress isn’t automatically followed by exercise, so it hangs around for longer than it should.
Move your body, free your mind
So that’s why experts say that one of the best ways to combat stress and all its symptoms is to take regular exercise. You’re giving your body what it expects - physical movement as a response to stress.
In fact exercise gives you a double whammy of good mental health. Here’s Harvard Medical School again:
“Exercise reduces levels of the body's stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. It also stimulates the production of endorphins, chemicals in the brain that are the body's natural painkillers and mood elevators.”
In other words, exercise not only reduces stress, it makes you feel good at the same time. You might have heard of the ‘runner’s high’. Well, you can get the same mental lift from any kind of aerobic exercise.
Inflata your way to less stress
At the same time, the wrong type of exercise for you, or unrealistic targets, might actually add to your stress levels. The best exercise is the one you will stick to, which is much more likely if you enjoy it.
Inflata Nation is a fabulously fun way to bounce away stress. A session in our inflatable theme park produces all the advantages of aerobic exercise with the added benefit of being gentle on your joints.
As far as stress-busting is concerned, Inflata Nation has another thing going for it as well. Our inflatable arenas ring to the sound of laughter, as people chase their friends to the top of the Inflata Wall, plummet down The Inflata, and bash each other with giant inflatable cotton buds.
And guess what? Laughter is another proven stress buster (and that’s no joke)! Combine aerobic exercise with guffaw-inducing fun and you have an activity that might have been designed to combat stress and aid relaxation.
Why not see for yourself? Book yourself a session at any of our UK-wide Inflata Nation arenas and we’re confident you’ll jump for joy - and feel the pressures of everyday life ebbing effortlessly away.