A charity collaboration called the National Charity Partnership is encouraging people in Scotland to take part in more active lives to fight back against low moods that commonly occur through January.
The National Charity Partnership is comprised of the British Heart Foundatio, Diabetes UK and Tesco. The group’s urge for Scots to be active through January is in response to a survey they ran that showed that 80 per cent of respondents had low moods or depression through January.
The survey also showed that 40 per cent stated that walking or jogging improved their mood but less than one in four were taking part in exercise. Another finding was that nearly three quarters of the people surveyed said they’d like to do more exercise with 60 per cent stating that getting motivated was a problem.
In response, the National Charity Partnership has developed an app and website called Let’s Do This to help people set goals.
Alex Davis, head of prevention at the National Charity Partnership, states: “Any kind of moderate exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming, cycling not only boosts endorphins leaving you feeling calmer and happier, but will also improve your general health.”
Whilst the National Charity Partnership is focusing on exercise to beat the January blues, there are also other ways to improve mental health which can be used in addition to exercise.
Diet can be effective and home prepared meals are more nutritious and therefore better for you than ready-made, processed foods. Another helpful option is mindfulness which the NHS notes as being able to improve mental wellbeing.

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