Running for mental health is not something I set out to do. Today was a bad day. The run did not fix it, but I finished feeling significantly better than when I started. The problems were still there. My state was different.

This is Day 2080 of my daily running streak. I run in barefoot-style footwear, and I film every run. Over 2,080 consecutive days, the mental benefits have been bigger than the physical ones. The main reason I do this is to raise money for children's causes. The mental benefit came as a side effect I did not plan for.

I call this daily run my coping mechanism for stress. Life is stressful for everyone. It does not matter who you are, what you do or how successful you look from the outside. Problems arrive. What I have come to believe is that the people who cope best with daily stress are the ones who are happiest. Success measured by happiness depends less on how many problems you have and more on how you manage them. What feels like everything falling apart to me will look different to you, and that is fine. This is not a contest over who has the bigger problem.

Three things in my daily run do the work.

The first is being outside. Every run happens in nature, whatever the weather. I have run in torrential rain, heat, snow, darkness, wind, hail and sleet. Even in the worst conditions, being outdoors calms me. I cannot fully explain why. I only know it happens, reliably.

The second is the exercise. Moving raises my heart rate and releases endorphins. My mood lifts. If you can use exercise to shift your mood, you have a tool you control. You do not need to wait for a bad feeling to pass by itself.

The third is the vlog. People say a problem shared is a problem halved. I treat the vlog almost like therapy. Nobody replies to me in real time while I am talking. Some comments arrive later, and I value them. But the benefit comes from saying the day out loud. I unload the pressure of the day, and that alone makes me feel better.

Together, these three bring me back to a level playing field. That is the word I keep coming back to. Not happy, not fixed. Level.

This matters more than it sounds. If I did not have this routine, I would dwell on what happened today and carry it into tomorrow. I would start tomorrow in a lower state, and a bad day would turn into a bad week. With the run, I unload the day and start tomorrow from zero.

There is a fourth benefit I do not talk about enough. The run gives me time to think with no distractions. Some days I listen to audiobooks, music or take calls. When I am struggling and need to process what is going on, I use the run to work through the problem. With nobody asking me for anything, my mind moves freely and starts producing options. I do not always solve the problem. I usually come away with several possible solutions, and that keeps me moving forward instead of stepping back. Over the years, that has helped me with some difficult problems.

So what is the lesson for me? A run does not erase a hard day. It changes how I carry it. I get outside, I move, I say what is on my mind, and I think. That combination returns me to a place where I can deal with things clearly.

I am not saying running is the only way. It could be another form of exercise or something else entirely. If you are going through a tough time and you already run, I hope this feels familiar. If you are thinking about starting running to support your mental health and physical wellbeing, start small. Go outside. Pay attention to how you feel at the end compared with the start. That difference is worth noticing.

Consistency is what makes this work for me. I do not run when I feel good and skip when I feel bad. The bad days are when the habit matters most, because the routine is already there when my motivation is not. That is why I measure this streak in years, not weeks. My vision is a 16.5 year streak, and a habit that looks after my head is one I can keep going.

The mission stays the same. I am running 40,075km, a lap of the world, on consecutive days, to raise £1M for children's causes. After today I have covered 16,041.21km. That leaves 24,033.79km. I am just over 40 percent of the way there, with a long way left. The more people who see the vlog, the more I can raise for children's causes, which is why I do this every single day.

If you believe in the mission, please subscribe, share, like or comment. If today has been hard for you, go outside for a while. See how you feel when you get back.

I will be back out there tomorrow.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/igfpwYGktbY