Nowadays, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle is adopted due to technological developments. However, the correct relationship with the body shapes a person's entire life. Nowadays, many people include various sports or simply moving more at some point in their lives and share their positive feedback about it.
The phenomenon of movement, physical and mental health attracts the attention of many researchers, and psychological well-being its effects on various mental disorders are examined. Findings prove that exercise or a more active lifestyle not only has healing effects on physical health, but also has a healing effect on many mental problems. Its effects on anxiety disorders and depression are particularly remarkable.
So how can exercise be so effective? To get a better answer to this question, we need to go even before birth. We receive our first information about the world, such as the laws of gravity, in the womb. While we are in the womb, we explore our environment through the mother's movements. Elements such as the mother's breathing, heartbeat, and walking constitute suitable examples that will later help us understand patterns related to mathematics, language, and natural sciences.
The relationship that our cells establish with each other in the phase before turning into a body, the fetus's attachment to the uterine wall in the mother's womb. We can describe touch as the first contacts we make with the world through movement to make sense of our existence. Thanks to the movements we make instinctively during infancy, our nervous system develops, as our ability to move increases with the new neuron networks formed in our brain, we begin to make sense of ourselves through the relationship we establish with the environment.
Over time, we will shape movement, our vision, discover the shape of our environment, and the people and people around us. We develop it in a way that interacts with the forces (Hannaford, 2005). The mobility ability that we develop through different stages starting from infancy is decisive in terms of our characteristics when we become an adult.
Scharfetter talks about five layers in the development of the self, starting from birth (Scharfetter, 2003). A human being first feels himself as a living being, then achieves the basic development of the self in the layers where the sense of agency, integrity, limitation and finally identity is experienced, respectively.
As can be seen, in this definition of Scharfetter. The first addition to the vitality layer is agency. In the formation of the self, the baby feels its own vitality through its actions, and from here it turns towards the feelings of wholeness and limitation. In other words, the path to being "one" and "whole" is opened through the steps of taking action.
We will understand this even better when we look at the physical development stages of a baby after birth. A baby in his first year demonstrates extraordinary strength and coordination as he moves from lying still to walking. This skill is achieved by activating a detailed neural network with each new movement.
The first movements made are reflexive movements. The Moro (jump) reflex begins to develop from nine weeks in the womb. The Palmer reflex, which is necessary for survival; These are the reflexes that enable the baby to make movements such as turning sideways, sitting, crawling and standing.
Such reflexes help us to move automatically without having to think about it and to develop all our senses. These do not disappear over time, they are integrated with the brain's sensorimotor system and vestibular and limbic systems, which are higher-level nervous systems (Hannaford, 2005).
All the information we obtain from our environment, whether physical or finds a spiritual response. We have the ability to express human emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger on our face through our muscles. In the muscle/memory structure of our body, not only how to sit, stand, walk and run is recorded, but also where we are in space or how we will move with grace and common sense (Hannaford, 2005).
Movement is not a simple mechanism. The human struggle for survival takes place at the subcortical level, just like in other living things. The main features that distinguish human beings from other living creatures are their ability to make decisions both instinctively and with the help of the subcortical nervous system and to organize their lives. Through movement and as a result of the relationship the nervous system establishes with the cortex region, the happiness hormone is secreted at a superconscious level. Thus, people move not only to survive but also to be happy.
Children either move to improve their mobility, to express a thought or feeling, or just because they are happy. They move freely. Jumping, running, hopping and playing games give them great happiness. As they gain physical control, they find themselves successful and gain confidence. They do not need external reasons to play and improve their skills. Because the motivation required for this is in the child.
At this point, directing children to sports is not only for physical health; I will briefly mention some research results to indicate how important it is in terms of other psychological factors. In a study on the relationship between the personality traits of young people who do sports and those who do not do sports, O.Neumann found that when young performance athletes and non-athletes are compared, those who do sports are more hardworking, more lively, always ready to establish relationships, more persistent, and better able to adapt to difficult conditions than those who do not. determined.
Tiryaki et al. (1991), it was determined that those who do sports are more extroverted and emotionally balanced than those who do not do sports. Tiryaki (2000).
So where does the healing power of this sport come from? The answer lies in the endorphin hormone, also known as the happiness hormone. Endorphin is a hormone produced by brain tissues to reduce pain in aching tissues in the human body.
The function of this hormone, secreted while doing sports, is to numb the nerves to reduce the severity of pain and cause less discomfort to the body. The analgesic effect of endorphins is approximately 30 times greater than morphine. This enforphin hormone not only reduces pain, but also allows us to feel positive emotions.
The conclusion from all these writings and research is that when people find an exercise that suits them, there will be significant changes in their bodies and psychological well-being will occur. subject to pass stop.
Of course, just doing sports will not cure a person diagnosed with depression, but doing a sport that the person likes along with psychological support will help people come out of this process healthier both physically and spiritually. It will definitely help.
For this reason, we can say that you owe it not only to your body, but also to your soul, to find a sport that suits you, not to give up until you find it, and to give up after finding it!
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