Reading "The Real Happy Pill" And "The Real Happy Pill Junior"
Do you exercise? If yes, you are doing a good thing for your brain, not only for your health. According to the books The Real Happy Pill and The Real Happy Pill Junior, physical activities boost our brains. Since reading those books, I've tried running at least 10 minutes daily and seen the benefits. I will tell you what I learned from getting into the exercise habit.
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About the books
The Real Happy Pill (original Swedish title: Hjärnstark) is a book by Anders Hansen, a psychiatrist. This book explains how physical activity positively influences our brains from a scientific viewpoint. We can understand why moving our bodies scientifically is good brain medicine.
On the other hand, The Real Happy Pill Junior (original Swedish title; Hjärnstark Junior) is an easy-to-understand version of The Real Happy Pill, telling readers how moving our bodies is good for our brains and what I can do practically to boost our brains. Although this book is intended for younger readers, adults also can enjoy it.
The author has published other books about the brain. I've also read Insta-Brain, a book about the relationship between smartphones and human brains. That book also stimulated my intellectual interest. If you are interested in how human brains are related to human behaviors, you can enjoy Insta-Brain, too.
Five Impressive Discoveries From "Insta-Brain"
The book "Insta-Brain" says your brain is similar to your ancestor's brain. The book gives you insights into how your brain influences your behaviors.
What I learned from those two books
Moving around was a good strategy for our ancestors.
It was always better for our ancestors to move around than to sit still – unless they were hiding to avoid detection by a lion passing through in front of them. For instance, someone who tends to move around would be more likely to find good things, such as a place more comfortable to live, plenty of water springing up from an oasis, or something to eat no one ever touched. Also, they needed to run when being chased by a predator or chasing prey. Thus, moving around was a good strategy for our ancestors.
Then why does exercise still benefit us living in modern times? That is because our brains reward us when we do something preferable for survival and have not changed so drastically since our ancestors were born. Then how beneficial is it for us? Exercise boosts creativity, concentration, stress tolerance, and so on. How nice it is!
Any kind of exercise is okay.
Okay, we now understand that exercise is good for our brains in terms of creativity, concentration, stress tolerance, and so on. Then what kind of exercise do we need? It is not easy for beginners to run for one hour every day.
The answer is: any exercise is okay. We can begin with what we can do. Just to add, according to the books, modestly strenuous exercise is the most efficient. Jogging is more efficient than walking, and running is more efficient than jogging. But more importantly, the books also say that any exercise, including walking a little fast from home to the station, will do. And that is what the author wants to tell readers.
Make exercise a habit, and you can deal with stress better.
If you feel stressed, cortisol will be released, and your fight-or-flight mode will turn on. Cortisol is necessary for us, but too much cortisol for too long has adverse effects. Too much cortisol makes us overreact to stress. Also, too much cortisol for too long means your fight-or-flight mode keeps on. Since long-lasting fight-or-flight mode is unexpected for our brains, it makes a seriously negative impact on our brains.
This is where exercise comes in. While you are exercising, your cortisol level rises. As you finish a workout, your cortisol level returns to normal. Moreover, exercise habits make it harder for cortisol to increase during exercise and easier for cortisol to decrease after exercise. In other words, by regularly exercising, your body will become good at controlling cortisol release, and you will be able to deal with stress better.
What I found after exercising almost every day for about three months
After reading those books, I made 10 minutes of running a habit. It has been three months since then, and I learned how good an influence exercise has.
One day, I had to do a job I didn't want. My heart rate increased a bit, my concentration decreased, and I started to have negative thoughts. But I couldn't stay negative, so I decided to run for 10 minutes or less.
Then what happened to me? I felt refreshed, and my perception of the current situation turned positive, even though I had only been running briefly. Before running, I was just frustrated, thinking, "What terrible company that makes me do this kind of work? However, during the run, I started thinking, "So what can I do to get that job done?" or "This negative feeling can fuel my motivation for the job change I am about to start."
Since then, I've run for about 10 minutes every day. My one-year-ago self would be surprised to know that. I used to think I didn't want to do such a tiresome thing, let alone make it a habit. But now I know that just 10 minutes of running does not tire me badly at all. Instead, it gives me constructive thoughts about the current situation, interesting ideas that may solve a complex problem, and a pleasant sense of physical fatigue. I didn't need much effort to make running a habit because running is so much fun. As The Real Happy Pill says, I feel I can deal with stress a bit better than before.
I read The Real Happy Pill and The Real Happy Pill Junior and learned that moving our bodies impacts our brains positively. I made 10-minute running a habit, and it benefits me very well. A little exercise routine is making my life better little by little. Why don't you start exercising with what you can do?
