Sweep Away Your Blues
Did you know that sweeping your floor could make you feel better?
Actually as a little as 20 minutes a week of any sort of physical activity could help your mood, say researchers from University College London.
They examined data from almost 20,000 men and women participating in the 1995, 1998 and 2003 Scottish Health Surveys who had answered questions about physical activity and "psychological distress."
Daily activity -- such as housework, gardening, walking and sports -- was associated with a 41% lower risk of psychological distress. Vigorous activity like sports had the most effect, however.
The take home message? The more active you are the better it is for your mood, so do something -- even if it's just sweeping your floor.
The study was published online on April 10, 2008 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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Photo Credit: Buccina Studios / Getty Images
Comments
Well, if I did not clean myself or my house and garden then of course I would feel worse. I know this in myself. But it is not as simple for me as this “doing the cleaning and feeling better for it” statement suggests/claims. There is no immediacy in the cleaning period that makes me feel better and I actually feel far worse in the period of cleaning and for a while afterwards. I have an aversion to household cleaning but do it anyway.
When I do actually clean I find the actual cleaning depressing, frustrating and annoying - because I hate dust and dusting. Even electric vacuuming, puts more dust into the air. I’m a dust phobic I think. Afer doing the cleaning, the vacuuming, the gardening, etc, all of which I hate doing, I have to or feel a strong need to change my clothes, vacuume up any mess where I change my clothes, put those clothes in the washer then shower and change into fresh clothes. So, no, the actual act of cleaning/dusting/sweeping isn’t pleasing in itself at all for me. Of course the outcome is better - because I like and insist on clean things and to be in the clean and tidy. So, de facto, in the process of doing the cleaning, sweeping and dusting (and even gardening) I get more stressed and depressed. Overal, I only come out about neutral (at best) sometime later after I have cleaned up myself and showered. I say neutral at best because the stress of it is very unpleasant and almost makes me feel sick. So, this article is too simplistic for me - especially with my situation of hating cleaning and of hating dust and of hating getting dust and dirty over my clothes and my body.
I sometimes envy people who can clean without feeling dirty for doing the actual cleaning. Of course it’s probably those people for whom this article will make complete sense.