Even when I think I’d rather roll over and sleep some more instead of getting up and taking my morning walk, I know from experience that I’ll feel better after I my dog and I get some exercise.
Dr. John Ratey affirms my conclusion and explains exactly why exercise makes changes in my brain that improve my mood whether I’m just feeling a little blah or a little depressed.
“Overall, I think of depression as an erosion of connections—in your life as well as between your brain cells,” Ratey concludes in his book Spark—The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. “Exercise reestablishes those connections.”
Exercise is not an instant cure for depression, he stresses. “But, if you are depressed, “you need to get your brain working again, and, if you move your body, your brain won’t have any choice.”
–Joy