Exercise Helps Improve Your Happiness, Study Says

Here is an addition to your list of reasons to engage in an active lifestyle. A recent study shows that aside from helping you stay in shape, physical activity can also improve mental health and increase happiness.

It has already been proven that physically active people are happier and more satisfied with their lives because physical activity increases endorphins and some other feel-good chemicals in the brain. It reduces levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline in the body.

Physical activity releases happy chemicals into your brain.

To back this up and determine the connection between exercise and mental attitude, researchers from the University of Michigan conducted an analysis and published it in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

They reviewed more than 20 studies that analyzed happiness and physical activity. The studies contain health information about thousands of children, adolescents, seniors, adults, and cancer survivors from some countries.

The results showed that those who were very active have a 52 percent higher chance of being happy. While those who were sufficiently active have a 29 percent higher chance and those who were insufficiently active have 20 percent higher chance.

Co-author Weiyun Chen said their statement:

“Our findings suggest the physical activity frequency and volume are essential factors in the relationship between physical activity and happiness. More importantly, even a small change of physical activity makes a difference in happiness.”

According to their reports, happiness levels were the same whether people worked out for 150-300 minutes a week or more.

“As little as 10 minutes of physical activity weekly can make a significant difference in a person’s mood.”

Their study didn’t include the examination of a particular exercise that is more effective than the other but they noted that aerobics, balance movement, mixed activity classes, and stretching were all useful.

Spending 10 minutes of physical activity every week can have a positive effect on one’s mood.

In the future, they want to explore the mechanism of how physical activity influences happiness and determine the optimal dose and best type of physical activity of gaining the benefits of happiness.

Future studies will explore how physical activity affects happiness and determine the best type of activity to gain happiness.

Being physically active improves physical, mental, and overall self-esteem. A similar study shows that setting goals that have the potential to give you a sense of accomplishment will give you the benefits of happiness. Aiming a too low or too high goal might set you off the tracks to a better lifestyle and attitude in life.

However, the more physically competent we feel, the more motivated we are to be physically active so just try to enjoy exercising and find ways to stick with it.