Transmit happiness

I’m having one of those split personality days where my brain says I should go to the gym and my body says I should really have a hot cocoa and a nap.

It’s funny, sometimes when I want to eat something I’ll think (defiantly), “I deserve this, I want it, I’m just going to eat it, I don’t care!” And then I’m wondering if I have multiple personality disorder because really, who am I talking to? It’s the emotional side of my brain talking to the logical side, telling it to f--k off. And then the logical side reminds the emotional side that we need to be a team and think about long term goals. And now I’m really crazy because I’m using the word “we,” except it’s just me.

I think a lot of us experience this struggle, we have competing desires. It’s hard holding contradictory ideals in your brain at the same time. It can be emotionally draining. So I want to go to the gym AND I don’t want to go. Right. Makes perfect sense. 

Today, science is going to help the emotional side of our brains realize why we actually do want to go work out. The reason is happiness. Good old sun-shining, music-playing, Richard-Simmons-style happiness. Because exercise is more effective at making us happy than the best anti-depressants medical science can provide. That’s right, with a little effort, natural body systems can pump out happy juice better than any pill on the market. And there are other benefits to going the natural way, like the fact that medication can treat symptoms but prevent overall recovery.

Food is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and exercise is the most potent and underutilized antidepressant.

-Bill Phillips

Here’s a handy info graphic that explains how pounding the pavement releases neurotransmitters and hormones that can sugar coat our entire life experience: