..this is a story of found happiness...

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

7 mile addiction?

On my way home from the gym today, I wondered if perhaps it was possible that I could develop an addiction to my runner's high? Nothing to worry about, my dinner reading assured me. Out of my 8 half finished books, I once again picked up the right one at the right time (psst! the answers ARE in books!)...

"The positive effect of physical exertion on healthy people is even stronger...As Rousseau wrote, "For the mind's sake, it's necessary to exercise the body." Exercise improves our mood in many ways. Moving muscles stimulates the production of hormones like serotonin and presumably also endorphins that can trigger feelings of slight euphoria...as the body begins to exert itself, the limbs warm up, the muscles relax, and the pulse increases a bit - and it is precisely these responses that reflect the body's sense of well being. By moving, we can gently manipulate the neurons in our brain, coaxing the organism into the condition that it otherwise experiences in moments of happiness - and from the appropriate physiological signals, the brain, in turn, automatically generates positive feelings....

...Physical movement has a two-fold effect on our feelings. First, when it's done right, it always gives a feeling of success...People who don't like physical activity balk at the effort, the sweat, the ordeal of it all - but therein lies its power. There is a guaranteed reward for beating your inner couch potato: just knowing that you've done something for yourself by facing down your sense of lazy comfort can chase away a good deal of sadness.

Second, physical activity has a direct effect on the brain. Movement encourages the growth and even the new formation of neurons...neuroscientist Fred Gage...put rats on a simple treadmill in a cage and observed greatly improved scores in subsequent memory tests. Even the mice that had not learned well were better able to do so after running...that ran had more nerve growth factors and twice as many newly formed neurons as those that had just hung around...
Regular exercise for half an hour three times a week is as effective against melancholy with some people as the best medications currently available."

From The Science of Happiness
Stephan Klein, PhD

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