(¥Y Geeked out DIY (Y Social summer cocktails (¥ The Other Playlist And more! Have an idea for a story? Mlifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca Exercise and mental illness > Why incentives matter Rebecca Peterson Staff Writer Or of the first things they tell you if you're diagnosed with a mental illness, especially a mood disorder, is that you have to exercise. Not only do you have to ex- ercise, but maybe you only have a mental illness because you don’t exercise! If you're sad, you should try walking for an hour and a half every day! Can't tell the difference between reality and what’s in your head? Hop on the elliptical for a while! It'll solve literally every sin- gle one of your problems! This is not too far off what I was told during some of my worst struggles with my mental illness. At my deepest low, when all I had the energy to do was sleep 18 hours a day and drag myself from my bed to the couch and back again, being told that I “just had to exercise” was not only infuri- ating, but deeply disheartening. It felt like I was to blame for my own brain malfunctions. Maybe if | was an avid jogger I wouldn't feel this way. Maybe I was only sick because I was too lazy to take care of myself. Now that I do exercise nearly every day thanks to my job, I can safely call BS on that line of self- blame. While exercise may be the key for some, fora lot of us, our biological chemical imbalances can't be completely cured by a daily hot yoga session. I still expe- rience many of the same mental health problems I did when scal- ing a flight of stairs left me sweat- drenched and gasping for air. However, while it might not bea cure, exercise does help. Taking care of your body does im- prove your mind. It’s just not the end-all, be-all answer, and should never be used as a way to blame mentally ill people for their prob- lems. The problem I had with ex- ercise when my mind was at its lowest, and one I still have, is that exercise can be incredibly boring. I wish I could be one of those people who experience a thrill after a 30-minute session doing squats and crunches with Jillian Michaels, but I’m not. One of the worst things in the world for my mental health is letting my brain idle for too long without a way to keep it engaged, and exercise provides a lot of time for aimless thinking. I can only imagine that many mentally ill people might feel the same way, and prefer to keep the mind occupied with books, games, and tasks that require thinking rather than let it take the back seat to physical pursuits. This is why it’s important to find incentives to exercise. Portable technology is revo- lutionizing the way people exer- cise, from listening to music on an iPod while jogging, to being able to count steps and measure progress in an easy, quantifiable way. The Zombies, Run! app be- came incredibly popular for pro- viding the listener a virtual reality experience while exercising. Jog- ging is far less boring if you’ve got a horde of zombies on your heels chasing after you. Recently in media, Pokémon Go has been lauded for getting people out of their houses and active. There have been accounts from people with major depres- sive disorders who've claimed that Pokémon Go has vastly improved their physical health by providing a fun incentive to walk and run. So no, if you have a mental illness and youre not exercising, it doesn’t mean you're lazy, and it doesn’t mean that youre to blame for your illness. However, if you do want to start exercising and can’t seem to take that first step, there are options to make it fun and rewarding. rie: Getting friendly verge.com he Image via www.t at ae iy with ‘Pokémon Go’ > The social aspect of everyone’s new favourite game Brittney MacDonald Life & Style Editor O n July 12, GQ released an article likening the overwhelmingly popular game Pokémon Go with a dating app. Reader response was mixed, as many players found the article and its intent somewhat insulting and against what they would consider the Pokémon brand. I mean, come on, we are talking about a game meant to be family friendly; using it asa way to pick up women or men doesn’t really fit in with that. However, there are those that found this new and innovative way of using the game to meet a potential mate fascinating—so much so that it has sparked an influx of similar articles as well as the creation of PokéDates, a website specifically devoted to connecting Pokémon Go players on a romantic level. Though, personally, I found the original GQ article a little far reaching and insensitive to the nostalgic connection that many people have towards the Pokémon franchise, even I can’t deny that there is a definite social aspect to the game itself. The release of Pokémon Go has created a strange phenomenon worldwide, and though many people criticize the game for creating an even greater rift between users and the world around them, claiming that people are so absorbed in the game that they’re completely isolating themselves from even the most nonchalant human interaction, I see it from a different perspective. As someone who plays the game, I have come to notice that it is extremely rare to see anyone playing it alone. How the game is played even encourages you to either partner up, or be playing with a small group. It does this in several ways; taking over key locations known as “gyms’ is easier when you have another person fighting with you, and the various creatures you can capture are universal— meaning that the location that they pop up will be the same on everyone's phone, and everyone can try to capture them. It’s not just limited to one person getting lucky. Because the game is set up in such a way, it has created a new social code. “Poké-hunting,” where people will group up and try and catch as many pokémon as they can, is now a common activity. And it isn’t unusual to see strangers conversing over what they caught and where. Taking all this into consideration, I think that it is more fitting to call Pokémon Go a social media revelation, rather than an evolution of something like Tinder. I say this because not only does it meet the majority of the expectations of a social media app, but it actually actively encourages you to interact with other people in a non-digital environment. In the most basic sense, it brings people together—at 2a.m., to look longingly at a fenced-off park because you know there’s a Pikachu in there that you just can’t get to.