The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage

by Kelly McGonigal

This was something of a revelation—how much the individual psychological benefits of physical activity rely on our social nature. How so much of the joy of movement is actually the joy of connection.

My twin sister once told me that her favorite part of a run is “the part when it’s horrible.” When I laughed, she explained, “It’s a primal feeling. I’m doing this thing that is really tough, and I’m still doing it. I’m tough.” Often we are drawn to physical activities that reveal a new side of ourselves.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, “Hope without an object cannot live.”

Humans crave concrete goals and thrive when pursuing specific aims. C. R. Snyder, who conducted the most rigorous scientific analyses of hope, found that this state of mind—so crucial to our ability to persist in the face of life’s obstacles—requires three things. The first is a defined goal, that object on which hope lives. The second is a pathway to reach your goal. There must be steps you can take that lead to progress. The third is trusting that you are capable of pursuing that path. You must believe that you have the inner resources and the necessary support to take each step.

Jerome Groopman defines hope as “the elevating feeling we experience when we see—in the mind’s eye—a path to a better future.” Hope

Natural environments have the ability to instill feelings of 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. Analyses of journal entries written by people during park visits show that the most commonly used words include love, life, time, world, and God.