Exercise Your Way to Greater Well-Being

Learn more about your affect profile by taking the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule quiz (PANAS) here, and download Arthur’s morning protocol guide to help you start your mornings happier.

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Today, I want to talk about one of the lowest-hanging fruits for improving your well-being: exercise. Most Americans don’t get the recommended amount of physical activity, which means there’s an enormous opportunity to feel better. In this episode of Office Hours, I explain the science behind how exercise helps lower stress, anxiety, and negative mood, and how you can utilize it to improve your life.

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I also cover: 

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• Which kinds of exercise do the most to lift your mood and which calm stress the best 

• The stark reality of how few Americans meet even the basic exercise guidelines

• The 3 key brain chemicals exercise activates to improve your mood

• How to build an exercise habit that sticks

• How to define your emotional objective and build a routine around it

• The red flags that indicate exercise is tipping into addiction 

• Why a simple sunrise walk may be the most effective way to begin

• Listener questions on the effects of rituals on happiness, experiencing transcendence as a skeptic, and finding meaning in life

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We’d love to hear any feedback you have. Please email us at officehours@arthurbrooks.com. And please leave a review on Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening!

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Brought to you by:

• The Pump Club—Finally, fitness you can trust. Join The Pump Club—created by Arnold Schwarzenegger—for custom workouts and nutrition, habit building, and community—all for 50% OFF the monthly price with the code officehours at checkout.

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Referenced:

• Leadership and Happiness course

• How to Build a Life

• The Happiness Files: Insights on Work and Life

• My 6-Step Morning Protocol for a Better Day

• Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 18 and Over: United States, 2020

• Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, 19 August 1785

• The role of BDNF in major depressive disorder, related clinical features, and antidepressant treatment: Insight from meta-analyses

• The Roles of Serotonin in Neuropsychiatric Disorders

• Investigating beta-endorphins: Ways to boost health, conventional and future detection methods

• The Effect of an Exhaustive Aerobic, Anaerobic and Resistance Exercise on Serotonin, Beta-endorphin and BDNF in Students

• Effect of Yoga Practice on Stress, Cognitive Failure and Subjective Happiness

• How Heavy Lifting Lightens Our Lives: Content Analysis of Perceived Outcomes of Masters Weightlifting

• The impact of sports participation on mental health and social outcomes in adults: a systematic review and the ‘Mental Health through Sport’ conceptual model

• Loneliness in sports active and non-active school-age children: Can sport protect children against loneliness?

• The effects of aerobic training on subclinical negative affect: A randomized controlled trial

• Examining the Effect of Increased Aerobic Exercise in Moderately Fit Adults on Psychological State and Cognitive Function

• Exercise Addiction

• Recent insights in the correlation between social media use, personality traits and exercise addiction: a literature review

• A comparative meta-analysis of the prevalence of exercise addiction in adults with and without indicated eating disorders

• Exercise habit formation in new gym members: a longitudinal study

• Go for a Walk

• How to Keep on the Sunny Side of Life

• How to Navigate a Midlife Change of Faith

• The Effect of Walking on Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

• The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions

• Ryan Holiday’s website

• Brahma Muhurta

• Meaning in Life Questionnaire