By the way, if you’re still skeptical about the interconnection of stress, thoughts, emotions, movement, and energy, consider this little biochemistry factoid (feel free to drop it into cocktail conversation; it will dazzle your friends):
The major stress hormone in the body – cortisol – actually shuts down the BDNF factories in the cells. The more stress you’re under, the more unrelenting it is, the less BDNF you make. That translates, ultimately, to a “closing off” to the world.
Mice with decreased levels of BDNF can’t find their way out of a paper bag, either because they can’t think will or because they don’t have the energy to explore.
Exercise – because it beefs up the BDNF factories – improves the infrastructure for learning, thinking, and relating to our environment.
“Exercise improves learning on three levels”, Ratey explained. “First, it optimizes your mindset to improve alertness, attention, and motivation. Second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information. Third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus”. IF that sounds a little heavy, allow me to break it down to the essentials: Exercise invigorates you mentally and physically. It increases your energy.
What’s the obvious conclusion? Seems to me – and to other observers – that going for a ten-minute run might be the best thing you could do before tackling a mentally challenging task. It will not only energize you body, but it will also stimulate your brain.
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