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

A brain makes such leaps and forms such associations only when the pleasure runs deep.

In 1912, French sociologist Émile Durkheim coined the term collective effervescence to describe the euphoric self-transcendence individuals feel

When you participate in any physical activity—sports, dance, running, weight lifting—your moment-to-moment sense of self is shaped by the qualities of your movement. When you move with grace, your brain perceives the elongation of your limbs and the fluidity of your steps, and realizes, “I am graceful.” When you move with power, your brain encodes

Contrast this to the United States, where the average adult engages in less than ten minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a day, and physical activity peaks at age six.

We are also the only primate to have a nuchal ligament, the strip of connective tissue that fixes the base of the skull to the spine. This ligament—shared by other running species, such as wolves and horses—keeps your head from bobbing when you run. All

The human capacity for empathy is rooted in the mirror neuron system and its ability to observe and interpret the physical actions of others. Your body responds sympathetically to another person’s movement because humans instinctively try to understand one another.

How you feel the first time you try a new form of exercise is not necessarily how you’ll feel after you gain more experience. For many,

You just have to do something that is moderately difficult for you and stick with it for at least twenty minutes. That’s because the runner’s high isn’t a running high. It’s a persistence high.

However, the default state also has a downside. For many of us, the mind’s default has a negative bias. Its most familiar habits are to ruminate on past hurts, criticize ourselves or others, and rehearse reasons to worry. The default state can also become a mental trap.