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

by Kelly McGonigal

In 1825, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, “Hope without an object cannot live.” Modern psychologists have come to a similar conclusion: 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.

Movement has a potent ability to trigger a sympathetic response in an observer.

“When I watch Kobe glide to the basket for a dunk, a few deluded cells in my premotor cortex are convinced that I, myself, am touching the rim. And when he hits a three pointer, my mirror neurons light up as if I’ve just made the crucial shot.”

I would argue this perception is not so much a delusion as an evolutionary advantage. 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.

In addition to the pleasure such empathy can afford, it is also a way to broaden our sense of wha...

“When we see a human body moving, we see movement which is potentially producible by a human body and therefore by our own.” When you watch others move, you don’t just perceive their action. You proprioceive it. You receive it into yourself. This is what empathy does: It creates, in your mind, a felt sense of what you are observing. When you watch an athlete compete, a dancer perform, or a child play, you sense their actions in your own body, even if you aren’t always aware that’s what’s happening. This makes observing movement more than a visual experience; it’s also a visceral experience. When you sense, empathically, the movement of others, you...

It was inspiration. Not just in some sentimental or cerebral way, but in a deeply embodied way. Allowing yourself to be moved by the actions of others is a way to catch hope.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that so many people are drawn to communities where they can pursue physical challenges alongside others. It is a joy to watch people exert themselves, face their fears, and overcome obstacles.

At Norris’s gym, members sometimes show up just to witness what others are accomplishing. “When someone in the midst of a depressive episode comes in and just sits and watches class because they could barely get themselves out of the door and into the car, that is beautiful.”

This is also how collective hope works. Sometimes you are the one crushing the goal and ringing the bell. Sometimes you get to be part of the crowd that hugs and cheers the person ringing the bell. And sometimes it’s enough to simply i...

after our conversation, Bonilla changed her mind and gave me permission to use her full name. “It’s not fair for me to hide myself,” she said. “I want people to learn from my experiences and be able to contact me if they need encouragement to do something they are scared of.” In her decision to use her real name, she seemed to me to be at the top of some obstacle, reaching out. Wanting to grab a stranger’s hand, pull them up, and carry them over.

Psychologists call physical activity that takes place in a natural environment green exercise. Within the first five minutes of any physical activity in nature, people report major shifts in mood and outlook. Importantly, they don’t just feel better—they feel different, somehow both distanced from the problems of everyday life and more connected to life itself. Taking a walk outdoors slows people’s internal clocks, leading to the perception of time expanding. Simply being in an environment with a variety of plant species increases people’s ability to gain perspective on their lives. Even just remembering a time spent in the presence of natural beauty makes people more likely to say they feel connected to the world around them, unburdened by everyday concerns, and in the presence of something greater than themselves.

The emotions we are most likely to feel in nature—wonder, awe, curiosity, hope—are natural antidotes to worry, distraction, and depression. As one man describes the internal state he felt while canoeing through Canada’s wild rivers, “There were no sharp things inside me . . . not a sense that something was wrong, or I needed to work on something, there was just a peace, there was tranquility, there was acceptance, there was harmony.” Others report finding in nature “a complete sense of belonging” and a feeling of being held, “similar to when you really genuinely hug a person.”

Our tendency to spend most of our days indoors is a relatively recent reversal. The human brain evolved over a long period of history when humans spent most of their time outdoors, interacting with the natural world. Because of this, the human mind responds to nature in ways that bring out many of our cognitive strengths.

Being active outdoors can help us tap into the human capacity for mindfulness, as well as the transcendence of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. It puts us in touch with the innate joy that biologist E. O. Wilson calls biophilia, or love of all that is living.

helps us see our own lives from a broader point of view. Understanding how green exercise achieves these effects can teach us something important about the human mind—both how it can get stuc...

psychological benefits of being in nature are most pronounced among those who struggle with depression. It is also a reminder that making time for physical activity is not self-indulgent. For many, it is an act of self-care, even self-preservation.

Peters’s description of what he experiences in the water captures something important about how nature affects the mind. 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. The senses are heightened and inner chatter quiets. This shift can be a tremendous relief for people who struggle with anxiety, depression, and rumination, for whom the default mode is relentlessly verbal, generating words and phrases that echo in their minds. By flooding the senses with pleasant stimulation, nature draws your attention outward and interrupts the linguistic assault. There is room for curiosity about and appreciation for the world around you.

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. By reconnecting with nature, we refamiliarize ourselves with this other aspect of what it means to be human. This is a big part of what draws people to green exercise. Outdoors, it is possible to rediscover a self that is not solely defined by your roles and relationships with others, or by your past. You are free to be a self that is in motion, attuned to the present moment, and open to what the world has to offer.

The psychological effects of physical activity are often compared to mind-altering substances. The runner’s high mimics a mild cannabis buzz. Synchronized dancing produces a glow not unlike ecstasy. Moving to music provides an adrenaline rush similar to stimulants. I’ve even heard a good yoga stretch described as turning one’s blood into wine. These comparisons, while imperfect, provide a useful framework for understanding both the appeal and benefits of different kinds of movement.

Eighteen percent of the people in the United States say they have had an intense spiritual experience while in nature, and almost half of all mystical experiences take place in a natural setting.

The most common of these experiences is the unity sensation, a feeling of union with something bigger than oneself, accompanied by a wave of love and sense of deep harmony.

In Finding Ultra, Rich Roll recalls such an experience as he ran through the hills of California’s Topanga State Park. “I didn’t just feel amazing. I felt free. . . . For the first time in my life, I felt that sense of ‘o...

“I felt a complete merging with the surrounding environment. Instead of sitting back and observing it . . . it’s like I was moving into it in some way, or rather it was moving into me . . . I suppose what I experienced was transcendence, losing myself into my surroundings. It was expansive and at first I was afraid and then deeply comforted and filled with a sense of complete peace.”

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.

This broader point of view can inspire optimism. In one study, walking in a nature reserve for fifteen minutes helped people feel better equipped to handle the challenges in their lives.

The human longing to connect with nature is called biophilia, which literally means love of life. According to biologist E. O. Wilson, biophilia is a hardwired instinct that is key to human happiness. The human brain evolved in an environment that was defined by constant contact with and reliance on the natural world. The emotions that modern humans tend to feel in nature—awe, contentment, curiosity, wanderlust—contributed to early humans’ ability to thrive as a species that had to find its place in a complex and constantly changing landscape. These emotional responses to nature are still deeply ingrained in us, and the more frequently we experience them, the more fulfilled we are.

Across the planet, individuals who feel a stronger connection to nature report greater life satisfaction, vitality, purpose, and happiness. People who make more frequent visits to natural spaces are also more likely to feel that their lives are worthwhile.

This effect is even stronger than the benefits of being in good health, and equal to being happily mar...

After collecting over a million data points, the researchers concluded that people are happier in natural environments. And yet typical Americans spend 93 percent of their time indoors, creating what some call a nature deficit.

In his 1953 book Man’s Search for Himself, psychologist Rollo May wrote: “When we relate to nature we are but putting our roots back into their native soil.” Although May meant this figuratively, there is evidence that humans need contact with the earth, with dirt itself, to thrive.