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January 14 - February 16, 2022
Physical activity isn’t just another habit-forming drug; instead, it harnesses our capacity to form the kind of bonds that hold together our most important relationships.
in ways that are similar to having a child or falling in love.
helps explain why fitness friendships and sports teams feel like family; why social movements that include physical movement inspire greater solidarity and hope;
individuals feel empowered when they join others to walk, run, or ride for a cure.
rooted in our need to cooperate to survive.
Collective action reminds us what we are part of, and moving in community reminds us where we belong.
Music and physical exertion can play a role in collective joy, but synchrony is the most crucial component.
endorphins, the brain’s natural pain relievers, can produce both euphoria and social bonds among strangers,
collective joy is driven in part by endorphins.
small gestures done while sitting, will also increase pain tolerance and social closeness among strangers.
The feeling of boundaries dissolving is one of the most powerful aspects of collective joy.
not the idea
a physical sensation of c...
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Your understanding of the part of the world that belongs to you expands, too. This feeling can translate into both self-confidence and social ease. You can walk away from a dance party or group exercise class with an expanded sense of belonging and an embodied knowing that you have the right to take up space in the world.
People who are viewed as trustworthy act in more generous and dependable ways.
Because synchronized movement increases trust, it encourages us to share and help out.
In some basic and primal way, when we move together, we tie our fates together, and we become invested in the well-being of those we move with.
Endorphins are especially effective at strengthening ties to individuals we are not related to.
It is the outer two circles that are most likely to get populated and strengthened through the social grooming of collective joy, whether through synchronized movement, singing, or shared laughter. And these outer circles, when robust, provide the kind of social support that can keep us going in small but meaningful ways.
virtual reality can give you the same endorphin rush as authentic social synchrony.
If collective joy evolved as a form of social grooming, those endorphins aren’t released just to make you feel good. They’re supposed to nurture important relationships and help you develop a social support network.
Technology that exploits our social instincts won’t necessarily provide the same benefits as the experience it mimics.
Psychologists call this sense of empowerment through joint action we-agency.
When we move in unison, we become willing and able to give our all to a collective aim.
happy sweat has a different odor than ordinary sweat, and that when you smell someone else’s happy sweat, it can elevate your mood,
people who have a prosocial orientation to life—that is, they enjoy witnessing other people’s happiness and are motivated to help others who are struggling—synchronize more easily with others.
final instinct group exercise harnesses: the desire to step outside oneself and to be of some use in the world.
your brain can’t hear music without recruiting the rest of the body.
Oliver Sacks wrote, “When listening to music, we listen with our muscles.”
The brain responds to music it enjoys with a powerful adrenaline, dopamine, and endorphin rush, all of which energize effort and alleviate pain.
music as ergogenic, or work-enhancing.
The endorphins released by music not only make tasks easier but can also bond a group that works together.
When a piece of music that sounds happy makes us feel happy, so much so that we must move in ways that express happiness—a positive feedback loop that accelerates and amplifies the joyous feelings induced by the song.
the mind-altering effects of green exercise kick in almost immediately.
it’s as if being in nature flips a switch in the brain to transport you into a different state of mind.
Left to its own devices, the human mind holds imaginary conversations, replays past experiences, and reflects on the future.
think about you, your goals in life, and your relationships with others.
default state is essential for functioning in a social world. The brain’s baseline activity is also how we remember who we are. Its inner chatter and imagery provides the awareness that you exist as a specific individual, with preferences, aspi...
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When you are absorbed in your natural surroundings, the brain shifts into a state called soft fascination. It is a state of heightened present-moment awareness. Brain systems linked to language and memory become less active, while regions that process sensory information become more engaged.
Spending time not just indoors, but also on social media, pushes us toward social cognition and, often, rumination. Without regular time spent outdoors, we can lose touch with the default state of open awareness.
The perception of time dragging out when you are near physical exhaustion is not unlike what unfolds during depression or grief, when the pain is so bad and the path forward so unclear that you can hardly believe how many moments of suffering a minute can hold.
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.
Following a single treadmill workout, blood levels of irisin increase by 35 percent.
Muscle shivering—a form of muscle contraction—also triggers the release of irisin into the bloodstream.
Scientists now believe that many of the long-term health benefits of exercise are due to the beneficial myokines released during muscle contraction.
While much of the research on myokines has focused on how these chemicals prevent disease, some of their most potent effects are on mental health.
By releasing a neurotrophic factor that preserves dopamine neurons, exercise may prevent, slow, or even reverse these conditions.
One of the first scientific papers to write about exercise-induced myokines labeled them “hope molecules.”
The very same muscles that propel your body forward also send proteins to your brain that stimulate the neurochemistry of resilience.
you don’t need to run an ultramarathon across the Arctic to infuse your bloodstream with these chemicals.
