Editor’s note: Season 10 of the podcast “Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta” explores the science of happiness. Listen to the episode here: here.
CNN
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Think back to when you were a child: moving your body was an instinctual act, and often filled with pure joy.
Maybe it’s racing to the front door with your sister or dad, or jumping on the bed with your friends at a sleepover, or playing a team sport, or riding a bike in the park.
For many of us, the connection between exercise and pleasure was severed or forgotten somewhere in adulthood, replaced by the realities and responsibilities of everyday life. Exercise may have become more of a chore. Must Many of us exercise to optimize our health or get in shape. Or maybe it just becomes too time-consuming. For some, exercise has become a pain due to injury, illness, or the passage of time.
Yet we are abandoning exercise at our own peril and at the risk of our health. Research shows that exercise, and more difficult, deliberate exercise, exercise — Not only is it good for your physical health, It is closely related to mental state and mood.
“I always say that exercise is like an intravenous injection of hope,” says the psychologist. Kelly McGonigal CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said in a podcast. Chasing life recently. “It’s any form of movement you want, with any part of your body that you can still move.”
McGonigal is The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage.“ The group fitness instructor and Stanford University lecturer has used movement and exercise throughout her life to manage her own anxiety and depression.
McGonigal said exercise allows for the production and release of “hope” molecules. Technically, they are called myokines.which occur during muscle contractions, for example during exercise or simply moving around. Some of these myokines also have antidepressant properties.
“Muscles don’t just move bones and stabilize the skeleton,” she says. “They’re like endocrine organs. They produce molecules and release them into the bloodstream, which travel throughout the body and affect all of the organs. Some of them can also cross the blood-brain barrier and affect the brain, including mood, mental state, and brain health.”
According to McGonigal, exercise helps you see your body as an ally.
“I think this is one of the most amazing things about the science of movement and exercise, especially because it allows us to feel like our body is our friend,” she says. “The body is our partner, not something we’re trying to fix or control through exercise.”
McGonigal said many other brain chemicals are released during exercise that can affect a person’s mental state and cause a runner’s high, for example. Flow State And even euphoria.
“There are so many different brain states you can experience during exercise; it’s not one single ‘thing,'” she says. Full discussion here.
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How can you tap into pleasure in your exercise and movement? McGonigal offers these five tips:
Get out into nature.
“We know that mindful movement, or exercising outdoors in nature, tends to put the brain into a state where people feel more aware of the present moment and feel more energized and connected to life,” McGonigal says. “People often feel a release from internal noise, stress and worry. … It shifts which brain systems are most active, creating a meditative state.”
Cue up your favorite playlist and get moving.
“Listening to high-energy music you love, moving to the rhythm, and doing exercise that gets your heart rate up often puts you in a euphoric state,” she says. “You feel amazing and get your endorphins flowing, and the same brain chemicals help you feel more connected to other people.”
Being social helps with exercise.
“Make exercise social. We know that through exercise, whether it’s strength training or running, people form friendships and communities of support,” McGonigal said.
Who doesn’t need another friend and source of support these days?
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Exercising in a group, such as running, can help you socialize and build relationships with others.
Exercise also makes you more sociable.
“People who exercise report feeling less lonely, having better relationships with others, and being better able to connect with others for biochemical reasons and because exercise triggers brain chemistry that makes us more sociable,” McGonigal said.
“If someone with social anxiety exercises, they’ll likely be their more outgoing self by the end of the session.”
Find something you truly love.
“Think about the positive experiences you’ve had with exercise in your life,” McGonigal says, “and maybe even try returning to some of those favorite forms of exercise or finding new ways to do it.”
When you’re moving, find a way to be grateful for the ability to move, rather than monitoring your body.
“Try to shift your mindset to, ‘Wow, body, that’s amazing!’ or ‘Thank you, body, for the energy that allows me to do this,'” McGonigal says.
We hope these five tips help you unlock the joy in exercise. Listen to the full episode hereJoin us next week on the Chasing Life podcast as Dr. Gabor Maté talks about how past trauma impacts our present health.
