Running to Ease Social Anxiety
3 reasons it worked for me
When I was 21 years old, I started running, and it was purely for physical reasons. I wanted to lose fat. Of course, everyone knows that exercise does wonders for your health, but that didn’t matter to me at that point. On a scale of 1–10, my self-esteem was a solid -5, and I couldn’t care less about the health of my body. I just wanted to look good for others.
Little did I know that running had the power to change my life.
When I started running, I was a loner and suffered from an intense fear of people. I couldn’t point to a single activity I was good at.
Today I am confident about my abilities. I can hold a conversation. I can go out with friends and enjoy myself thoroughly.
Running was the catalyst for me to turn my life around.
Here are three reasons why.
Improved self-esteem
How do you increase self-esteem? By doing things that make you feel good about yourself. For me running was “that thing.” I went from not being able to run for longer than ten minutes to running almost daily and completing several marathons.
My fitness improved, and so did my self — esteem.
