Fill Your Bag of Happiness with a Daily Dose of Exercise

Each Set of Reps Takes you a Step Closer to Happiness

Get out of a tough mental state of unhappiness, a fierce negative state of mind or bury your ebbing emotional trauma with some vigorous activity sessions. We have leaned upon physical activity many a times previously to overcome our emotional disturbances. Physical activity has always been a cure for depression and anxiety. It has saved us many a time from succumbing into mental health conditions. Mental health conditions can take away our quality of life and this is not exaggeration. If you are interested in seeing the inside facts please visit www.firsteatright.com. Staying strong without losing over negativity is great but what about the positive things such as happiness and satisfaction. Can exercising promote positive thoughts, foster positive mental health and bring about joy too?

The Very Act of Exercise Adds Joy to Life
A group of researchers were just curious to know whether exercise promoted a positive state of mind just like how it reduces a negative state of mind. They also got into the details of the different attributes of physical activity that were associated with happiness and also focused on the groups of population that would benefit the most of it.

The review focused on 23 different studies relating happiness and physical activity. While 15 observational studies showed a direct or indirect association between happiness and exercise the other 8 studies did not show any decisive results. The studies were on multitudinous age groups that included kids, adolescents, seniors, adults and cancer survivors too from several countries. The only catch was that happiness levels remained the same regardless of the exercise duration-150 minutes or 250 minutes of exercising made the person feel the same degree of happiness. Results showed that compared to inactivity any degree of activity garnered happiness with only the percentage varying across. Insufficiently active, sufficiently active or very active people were 20%, 29% and 52% happier than inactive people. Another study showed that while a normal weight person who performed exercise weekly once had 1.4 times the odds of being happy, the odds were a tad higher-1.5 times when it was in the case of an overweight person. Yet another study showed that adolescents who were physically active at least twice a week were happier than those whose activity was restricted to once a week. We have another study result showing that college goers who were active had 1.3 times the odds of being happy than peers who did not participate.

Of the 23 studies, there were three of them that focused on special populations such as cancer survivors, cerebral palsy-affected children and drug abusers whose exercise routines increased happiness level to a certain extent. Intervention studies included physical activity in the form of aerobic exercises, mixed activity classes and balancing exercises and the results were mixed here-4 studies showed a positive correlation with happiness while 3 studies did not.

Exercise to Stay Happy
All these studies clearly indicate one point-happiness and exercise are positively correlated. Partying, watching a movie, getting an A grade, salary hike or a vacation are absolute reasons to celebrate. Also, working out in times of distress, anger or sadness diminishes these feelings and brings in serenity. But when you exercise just for the sake of exercising it gives you a feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction and contentment. These attributes are priceless. Why don’t you drop in small drops of happiness into your life by exercising and help it become a huge ocean?