Want to Be Happy? Train Like an Athlete

“Exercise”

Source: “Exercise” created by the author using Playground AI

Levels of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness have been steadily rising for years. In 2011, 28% of high school students experienced “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” By 2021, that rate had risen 42%. Among the broader population, about 10% of Americans were being treated for depression in 2015. By 2023, that rate had risen to 17.8%.

There are many things we can do to enhance our psychological well-being. Of them, I bug my loved ones the most when I talk about exercise. We all know that exercise provides benefits for our hearts, muscles, bones, blood pressure, and balance. However, physical movement is also one of the best things we can do for our psychological well-being.

Roughly 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates is purported to have said, “If you are in a bad mood go for a walk. If you are still in a bad mood, go for another walk.” Scientists like John Ratey have since confirmed that exercise promotes the release of important neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which are crucial for mood regulation, focus, and overall cognitive function. When we move our bodies in dance or play, these and other chemical processes are triggered to boost brain health, enhancing learning, memory, mood, and stress reduction. Some of the biggest benefits of exercise, Ratey argues, occur “from the neck up.”

However, even having read the research, somehow it continues to surprise when these effects are experienced directly. Ten minutes into a workout and any stress or sadness I have been feeling melts away. Of course, whatever was causing the strain is still there. However, I am more equipped to deal with those things. When I feel too overwhelmed to work out, it is usually a sure sign that it is time to work out.

The Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, who runs and swims every day, talks about that moment during exercise when your mood suddenly shifts: “I run to attain a void,” Murakami says.

And while physical activity can place us in this space where there is an almost immediate change in our mood, making exercise a habit has substantial lasting benefits for our psychological health. Murakami trains like an athlete to build the mental and physical stamina necessary to sit in restrained concentration for hours every day, week after week, writing lengthy novels. It is for this reason that Murakami says “writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.”

Chess grandmasters, who burn as much as 6,000 calories a day during a tournament, also understand the importance of physical training to develop their extreme mental stamina. Champions such as Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are known for their intense workout routines.

School Board

Source: “School Board” by Gerd Altmann generously provided for public use via Pixabay

It is not just novelists and grandmasters who require heightened mental and physical strength. What about the teacher who, after staying up late to grade papers and respond to the demands of parents, must stand for eight hours while being attentive to a room full of children, each with their own separate interests, distractions and needs? There is the salesperson who must remain optimistic and positive after repeated rejections, or the plant manager whose process improvements are continually discounted. There are the servers in a restaurant and workers on an assembly floor. Truckers navigate hours of traffic that would incite the rest of us to road rage. And social workers who, despite low pay and high bureaucratic hurdles, remain caring, watchful, and kind to the people that we love the most.

Of course, there is also the lawyer, who is required to raise the uncomfortable things no one else wants to talk about. The stress, contentiousness and tedium of her work leads to the highest levels heart disease, depression, and job dissatisfaction among any career.

We should train like athletes. Even though most of us will not stand on the podium at the Paris Olympics, it will be our psychological health that collects the gold. We should all act as if this sort of survival training is necessary for our lives. Because it is. And besides, if the poet Charles Wright is correct that “the supernatural travels in the void” we can use exercise as a means to go and find it.