Why do active people tend to be happier?
More and more studies conclude that “the happiest people are active people” (Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, 2014), but why?
We all know that when you engage in moderate physical activity, there are a number of benefits with regard to fitness:
-Improvement of physical qualities: endurance, speed, flexibility, coordination, strength …
-Enables a healthier life
-Improvement of body composition (higher percentage of muscle and lower fat)
-Increases defenses, helping to protect against viruses and bacteria.
Now, are the advantages of sport reduced to a physical point of view? The answer is no, there is a long list of benefits at the mental and psychological level that are of equal or greater importance than the physical ones, and are the fundamental reason why most amateur athletes perform physical activity.
In any activation situation, the nervous system releases chemicals called endorphins . Endorphins have a analgesic effect that produces a momentary sensation of well-being and reduces pain . That is why, after performing a session of any type of activity that activates the body, we are going to experience that feeling .
If a physical activity is carried out with some constancy, this transitory feeling will last over time, becoming a lifestyle. Performing moderate sports in a persistent way gives us more energy and allows us to be at ease with ourselves, feel more healthy and more secure. Overcoming personal challenges at the sporting level improves confidence in oneself as well as the personal vision that each one has about himself and the ability to make decisions .
There is no doubt that maintaining an active life transmits happiness, but what happens if we take sport to the extreme, forget its nature and become obsessed with a goal? When happiness is determined by the sports result and not by the path traveled, the chances of achieving happiness through sports are reduced and a problem occurs. The activity transmits happiness by itself, it is an “end” that should not be used as a “means” to achieve the “end” that we believe will bring us happiness. Of course, sport helps us achieve certain personal goals, but not at any cost.
From Personal Running we encourage you to choose a physical activity that motivates you and that you value in itself, so that each day of practice is a day of enjoyment and that the achievement of the objective becomes secondary, implicit in the activity itself . In this way happiness is guaranteed and therefore the goal will be much more viable.
In the same way that sport favors the feeling of happiness, feeling the emotion of being happy improves sports performance, so the happier we are in carrying out a certain activity, the higher the percentage of success we will have in our sports goals.
Just as we take care of training, nutrition and rest, it is essential to work on emotional intelligence and put our emotions at the service of our goals, since the events happen, but in our hands is the decision of how to interpret them.