The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage

rumination. Might there also be a very different default mode that reveals itself when we are in nature? Alexandra Rosati, a psychologist who studies the evolutionary origins of the human mind, points out that two pressures shaped the development of the human brain. The first was our need to cooperate in small groups. This pressure gave rise to soc

Another myokine, glial-derived neurotrophic factor, protects dopamine neurons in the midbrain. The destruction of dopamine neurons contributes to a wide range of disorders, including depression and Parkinson’s disease, and is one of the most insidious side effects of drug addiction. By releasing a neurotrophic factor that preserves dopamine neurons

Why were their blood levels of irisin so elevated? The answer lies in both the nature of the event and what the athletes had to do to get there. Irisin has been dubbed the “exercise hormone,” and it is the best-known example of a myokine, a protein that is manufactured in your muscles and released into your bloodstream during physical activity. (My

what researchers call prospect—an elevated perspective and hopefulness, often triggered by natural beauty or awe-inspiring views—and refuge, the sense of being sheltered or protected.

According to Rosati, this need gave rise to mental skills she labels foraging cognition. Just as natural selection favored anatomical changes—like longer legs and powerful gluteal muscles—that helped humans hunt and gather, it also reinforced mental abilities that helped our ancestors find what they needed.

Some of these myokines help your muscles grow stronger, while others regulate blood sugar, reduce inflammation, or even kill cancer cells. Scientists now believe that many of the long-term health benefits of exercise are due to the beneficial myokines released during muscle contraction.

One of the greatest recent scientific breakthroughs in human biology is the realization that skeletal muscles act as an endocrine organ. Your muscles, like your adrenal and pituitary glands, secrete proteins that affect every system of your body.

When the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society turned over two hundred vacant lots in Philadelphia into green spaces by clearing debris and planting grass and trees, the incidence of depression among those who lived nearby dropped by 42 percent.

It is as if what is good in us is most easily activated by or accessed through movement. As rower Kimberly Sogge put it, when she described to me why