The Joy Equation: How to Use Exercise for More Happiness, Hope, Connection & Courage with Kelly McGonigal, PhD
Do you exercise? Do you work out? Like, every day? A couple of times a week? Do you love it? Hate it? Or maybe you just don’t do it at all.
No matter, you’ve got to listen to this episode because it’s going to change how you think in a major way.
The Joy Equation: How to Use Exercise for More Happiness, Hope, Connection & Courage with Kelly McGonigal, PhD
This conversation with health psychologist, Kelly McGonigal, is going to change the way you think about exercise in the best possible way.
Kelly specializes in understanding the mind-body connection, so no matter where you’re currently at with exercise, this episode will speak to your soul and give you tactical tips.
Take the Feel Good Archetype Quiz to learn more about your wellness personality and get free resources tailored to you.
On what led Kelly to write, The Joy of Movement:
Kelly feels like this is the book she’s been waiting to write for her whole life.
Most people know Kelly as a psychologist who has published research and written books on topics like stress, compassion, and behavior change, but what most people don’t know is that she’s also been teaching group fitness since 2000.
The best part of her professional and personal life has been teaching movement, everything from yoga to dance and strength to mixed martial arts.
It brings her so much joy and has allowed her to build a community in surprisingly meaningful ways.
It has always been a fuel for her, yet it’s always seemed behind the scenes.
This book is Kelly coming out saying that this, teaching movement, is the most important thing that she does.
It’s what she believes makes the biggest difference in the quality of people’s lives, to move in ways that provide a sense of meaning, mastery, and social connection.
Teaching movement helps both Robyn and Kelly be better in other areas, whether that be writing, podcasting, or instructing.
“When you teach movement, there is general goodwill in the room and it allows you to take on that role of ‘I’m here to facilitate a positive experience’.”
This contrasts with teaching in an academic setting, where everything is a battle.
Having that mindset that her job is to facilitate an experience that is really of value to her participants and to trust that they will be in it with her has helped Kelly with teaching and giving talks.
Initially, when Kelly sent her proposal for The Joy of Movement to her editor there was not an immediate sense of “yes, let’s do this”.
It became a collaboration of figuring out what version of this topic to do.
The book isn’t just about how to like your workout more.
It’s also about why and how movement can help us be our best selves and enjoy the parts of our humanity that many of us really desire more of in our lives.
On the function of movement:
“Movement is joy and movement isn’t just about weight loss.”
And weight loss is not what Kelly is worried about.
The joys of movement are available to you no matter your size or your physical ability.
Some of these joys are a social connection, meaning, hope, a sense of yourself that’s alive and vital.
Even in hospice care, it’s been shown that through the end of life, people are experiencing hope, connection, and meaning through movement.
“Movement will give you access to joy that will dramatically improve the quality of your life and help support mental health and meaning and belonging. It’s not a gimmick to get you to exercise so you and burn some calories. That’s not what it’s about.”
It’s so engrained for people, that exercise = weight loss and that’s the only reason to do it.
What is the benefit of movement beyond weight loss?
Across the board, people who are more physically active are:
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Happier and have more life satisfaction
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At a lower risk for things like depression and loneliness
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Better able to cope with stress and anxiety
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Have better relationships and feel more of a sense of purpose and social connection
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Anything else you could possibly imagine that people would want related to our flourishing as human beings
People who are sedentary and add movement to their lives become more of these things, too.
“Movement is the single best, most effective thing you can do for preventing and relieving depression.”
The literature for this is robust; it is a real effect and none of it is dependent on weight or weight loss.
“There is something intrinsically valuable in being active.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re swimming, running, dancing, doing yoga, walking, or weight lifting– you see these benefits from any type of physical activity.
The standard definition of exercise: movement that is done for the sake of movement.
It’s not what you’re doing because you’re walking to work or the movement you do when you’re dancing at a celebration.
Exercise is doing the movement, but not in service of anything else.
On what counts:
Kelly shares two findings that will counter this idea that only certain things count as exercise:
1 | The Feel Better Effect.
The feel better effect is the observation that if you have been inactive for any period of time and then you become active (for as little as three minutes) you immediately feel more energetic and more positive.
No matter what level of energy or mood that you start with, exercise will help move you toward a more high-energy, positive state (emotions like hopeful, focused, enthusiastic, happy).
It requires a basic state change: you are inactive, then you are active.
Kelly’s tip: put on a song you like and movement for the duration of that song.
2 | Your muscles act like an endocrine organ.
Recent research has found that our muscles manufacturer and secrete chemicals into the bloodstream that affect every system in the body, including the brain.
You cannot access these chemicals unless you contract your muscles.
Every time you contract your muscles, these chemicals are secreting into your bloodstream and have effects such as killing cancer cells, reducing inflammation, helping control blood sugar, and having powerful effects on your brain.
Some of these chemicals work as a fast-acting antidepressant.
If your muscles contract, you are secreting these chemicals (called myokines), and it doesn’t matter how you contract them.
Movement is about moving your body, and everything else is a bonus.
Myokines are also sometimes referred to as “hope molecules” because of the effect they have on the brain in helping people recover from stress, and even trauma.
Kelly thinks about movement as an intravenous dose of hope.
You contract your muscles and secrete hope into your bloodstream.
What could be better than that?
On thriving on movement, then being unable to move:
By making exercise part of her daily routine and shifting her mindset, Robyn has completely changed her perspective from seeing exercise as a chore to thriving from it.
It took a while for her to move from seeing it one way to seeing it as hope, connection, and courage.
Robyn’s recent surgery prevented her from exercise, and it was devastating because movement is now how she thrives.
When people who are regularly active are unable to move in ways that they used to, there are actual psychological consequences.
How am I going to sustain these joys and make movement a part of my life when it can’t look like it used to?
Kelly has experienced this twice before: once due to injury and once due to grief.
For some, just listening to the music they used to listen to gives them some of those same endorphins.
The goal is to figure out a way to move so that you have a sense of being with yourself in a loving way, getting to explore aspects of yourself, to find ways to enjoy the body that you have, even when pain is present.
Questions to reflect on:
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Would I still do this if it wasn’t going to lead to the external outcome?
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What is the form of movement that inspires you?
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What’s the movement you loved as a child?
On the joy of movement:
Movement might not always feel joyful in the moment.
There are forms of movement that you can pursue that will feel good while you’re doing it and you’ll feel good afterward, but a lot of the joys of movement transcend physical comfort.
“A lot of the joys come from the paradox of experiencing pushing yourself to your own limits in a way that is safe and accessible.”
If you push yourself so it’s less physically comfortable, you will get a bigger payoff later.
The joys of movement go beyond feeling good in your body every moment.
“If you’re willing to tolerate some discomfort, often, the deeper joys become available to you.”
On starting (or starting again):
You can set the intention, and infuse your exercise with loving-kindness.
You can also find a community that will work against those instincts of shame and self-criticism.
Exercise doesn’t have to be a do-it-yourself project, neither does self-compassion.
“You don’t ever need to tolerate being shamed; you don’t ever need to tolerate being excluded.” -rcd
On routines and habits:
Kelly has two favorite habits and routines, both of which have to do with meditation or contemplation.
When she wakes up in the morning, she thinks about what the day might look like, and chooses a word that she wants to bring to the day.
To be able to reflect on her values before she even gets out of bed in the morning is tremendously helpful for her.
One of Kelly’s wellness challenges is waking in anxiety, so a lot of what she does to take care of herself is finding ways to pull her out of that.
At night, she goes through the course of her day and thinks about the experiences she had and the people who played a role, and she imagines thanking them.
It helps her feel a sense of gratitude and really healthy interdependence.
“Wellness habits that really take care of you and support you in being the version of yourself that you want to be– that’s what I think are so important, not the wellness hacks.”
“Listen to your intuition and pay attention to your direct experience.”
On what’s lighting her up right now:
Her new book, The Joy of Movement, is what’s really lighting Kelly up right now.
She is so excited about the possibility of bringing the joy of movement into communities and people’s lives.
Kelly really tried to write a book that would make people feel hopeful about humanity because movement and talking to people about movement made her feel that way.
She hopes people find a form of movement that brings them joy and belonging.
Tag Kelly on social media or email her if you want to share a photo of your joy of movement.
On what it really means to be healthy:
“Being healthy means to sense yourself of having some use in the world that makes you feel good about being alive and we know that people who are able to do that, they actually are physically healthier and they have better mental health and they live longer.”
Make it happen:
Move in a way that feels good to you and take a picture.
Whether it’s of you or not, share your picture and tag me @realfoodwholelife and Kelly at @kellymariemcgonigal
Build up social media with joyful movement.
Guest bio
Through her trademark blend of science and storytelling, bestselling author Kelly McGonigal goes beyond familiar arguments in favor of exercise, to illustrate why movement is integral to both our happiness and our humanity. Readers will learn what they can do in their own lives and communities to harness the power of movement to create happiness, meaning, and connection.
Resources
Connect with Kelly on Instagram @kellymariemcgonigal
Visit kellymcgonigal.com for more and to subscribe to Kelly’s newsletter
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LOVED this podcast so much! I purchased 2 copies of Kelly’s book (one for myself and one to put out at my fitness studio) before I even finished the podcast.! Movement saved me from post-partum depression and has pretty much carried me through every challenging moment since. It changed my life so much that I left my first career for a career in fitness. I’m sharing this one widely & hoping to pull together a group to read Kelly’s book with me this month. Thank you for kicking off 2020 with this one <3
Kerry, YAY so glad this conversation resonated. Love hearing you story–the power of movement is really incredible. Thank you so much for sharing the episode and grabbing Kelly’s book. Cheers to an amazing year!