Exercise is important. Studies show that regular exercise strengthens our muscles and bones, improves immune system function, lowers overall rates for cancer and heart disease, and extends life expectancy by 7 years on average.

Moreover, exercise can help reduce anxiety, stress and depression, improve memory and mental performance, promote restful sleep, boost self-esteem and help us enjoy more satisfying sex.

In short, we can’t create health and happiness without at least some amount of exercise on a regular basis – unless your work involves physical labor.

Despite all of the wonderful benefits of regular exercise, it can be challenging to create an exercise routine, especially if you’ve had a sedentary lifestyle for a long time – or simply dislike exercising.

From my personal experience, through trials and errors, successes and failures, I’ve learned a few things when it comes to exercising.

• I always feel better after exercising, even if I didn’t want to exercise to start with.
• The more I exercise the more I’m inclined to exercise, and vice versa.
• It’s better to do something small every day than to do something big every once a while. It’s better to exercise for 30 minutes every day than to do an intense workout once a week.
• I’m more likely to engage in activities that I enjoy, and with people whose company I enjoy.
• It’s important to balance aerobic exercise with strength-building and stretching exercises.
• It helps to create a schedule for exercising. For me, it’s usually between 6:30pm and 7:30pm.
• If I miss my routine, I tell myself “No shame. No blame.” I just pick it up and continue the next day.

So far my exercise routine involves a mix of yoga, Qigong, walking, hiking and dancing. It became a bit sporadic recently, because I was time-crunched from work and study. But I’m through the worst of that…

So in July I want to focus on exercising better. Specifically, I want to create a habit of walking for 10-30 minutes daily, and also incorporate some weight training in my routine – important for building lean body mass, which I’ve never really focused on in the past.

I also plan to keep a daily exercise journal on my Mood Runner iPhone App, which I will also share in my posts.

This is the first month of our 30-day Challenge to a Healthier Lifestyle Series. Please join me to create your own daily exercise routine, and share your challenges, learning and triumphs.

1. Sign up for a free account if you haven't already. Your free membership account allows you to comment on our forum and member-only social media page, join/create groups, and more...

2. Sign in. 

3. Join our group "30-day Challenge."

4. Share on member status updates.

Flowing water never decays. Let’s get moving, shall we?