INTRODUCTION

Close your eyes and try to picture a healthy person. Do you see someone who is physically active and involved in sports? Do you think that a healthy individual gets along well with others and generally feels good about himself or herself? These images are all part of the "big picture" of health. When you are in good health, you have the energy to enjoy life and pursue your dreams.

Every day, you make decisions that shape your health. Some choices, such as what to eat for lunch, may seem fairly small, but over time they can add up to have a big effect on your total health. That's why it's important to develop the knowledge and skills you need to make healthy choices and take charge of your health for a lifetime. Giving you that knowledge is what these lessons are all about.  What can you do to stay healthy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? The first step is to understand the three areas of health. These are:

• physical health

• mental/emotional health

• social health

Physical health is all about how well your body functions. Having a high level of physical health means having enough energy to perform your daily activities, deal with everyday stresses, and avoid injury.

Mental and emotional health is about your feelings and thoughts. It's a reflection of how you feel about yourself, how you meet the demands of your daily life, and how you cope with problems.

Social health, or how well you get along with others, is as important a part of your total health as having a fit body and mind. Your social network includes your family, friends, teachers, and other members of your community. You don't need to have lots of friends to have good social health. Sometimes just having a few people to share your thoughts and feelings with is enough.

When your health triangle is balanced, you have a high degree of  wellness . Wellness comes from making the right decisions about your health—decisions that are based on sound knowledge and healthy attitudes. Maintaining wellness means that you intentionally make daily decisions that aim to balance all three aspects of health. This can be particularly challenging during our current situation.

Many who are physically active learn to rely on movement as a way of  coping with and navigating life challenges.  This is true whether your preferred activity is walking, running, swimming, dancing, biking, playing sports, lifting weights, or practicing yoga. It's important to note that the psychological and social benefits of physical activity do not depend on any particular physical ability or health status. The key is the link to movement, not fitness or athletic ability. [McGonigal, 2019, p.3-4]

The psychological effects of movement cannot be reduced to a simple endorphin rush. Movement influences many other bran chemicals, including those that give you energy, alleviate worry, enhance focus, and help you bond with other people [Doesn't that sound good? I want more of that!].  Movement also reduces inflammation in the brain, which over time can protect against depression, anxiety and loneliness. Regular movement also remodels the physical structure of the brain to make you more receptive to joy and social connection. These neurological changes rival those observed in the most cutting-edge treatments for both depression and addiction. The mind-altering effects of movement are even embedded in your musculature. During physical activity, skeletal muscles secrete myokines into your blood stream that make your brain more resilient to stress and better able to focus on important tasks. [McGonigal, 2019, p.3-4]

There is something wonderful about being outside. It instantly makes me feel good. I could be having a terrible day, and a simple walk outside seems to fix everything.  If I'm exercising or doing yard work outside it seems to amplify the feel good feeling! Is that true for you too? Psychologists call this type of physical activity that takes place in a natural environment green exercise (p. 155). Green exercise is a mindfulness activity. Green exercise is actually a way to create the same brain alpha waves that give yogi's a feeling of oneness with the universe while meditating. 

Researchers at Stanford University sent participants out for a ninety-minute walk.  The post walk MRI brain scans revealed that a simple walk in nature decreased brain activity in an area of the brain  linked to self-criticism, sadness, and rumination (p. 160). This means that participants were less likely to be self critical, feel sad, and perseverate on negative thoughts after they went for a walk. Eureka! This same brain imaging study demonstrated that "green exercise" also has a profound impact on decreasing both anxiety and depression in participants previously diagnosed with these struggles (p. 156-166).   What does this mean for you and me?  When we make the conscious choice to go for a walk, or do some yard work, we are intentionally choosing to feel better. [Read that last sentence again.]

The good news is that we don't have to be an ultra-endurance runner to gain the health benefits of movement. Unlike the the endocannabinoids or endorphins that create a runners's high, the mind-altering effects of  "green exercise" kick in almost immediately (p. 157). Within the first five minutes of any physical activity in nature, people report major shifts in mood and outlook on life. More importantly, they don't just feel better - they feel different, somehow both distanced from the problems of everyday life and more connected to life itself.  That's a good feeling! 

ALPHA BRAIN WAVES

 Current research on athlete brains demonstrates that moderate intensity, aerobic exercise helps create alpha waves.  Alpha brain waves are only one type of brain waves  that we experience every day. Brain waves are measured by frequency, and they range from very slow to very fast. Alpha waves fit in the middle of the spectrum, between theta waves and beta waves. Your brain produces alpha waves when you are awake but relaxed and not processing much information – such as first thing in the morning, just before you go to sleep, when you're daydreaming or practicing meditation.  

The 2016 study, "The athletes Brain" found that regular moderate aerobic activity  not only had better cardiorespiratory fitness but they were also to experience states of mind facilitated by alpha waves. Specifically, after a short bout of exercise (20 minutes), the athletes were able to inhibit task-irrelevant cognitive processes ( aka stuff that's not important to the current task) and achieve "optimal inattention" ( not focus on the stuff that's not important) (Bergland, 2019). This means that the athletes were better able able to ignore distractions and focus on the current task after exercising. Researchers also determined that the alpha brain waves generated by the physical activity were responsible for this shift in attention. The brain waves diminished connections between the regions of the brain that process the irrelevant sensory stimuli in the environment; this enabled them to focus better.  The change in brain connections [facilitated by exercise] also  facilitated "aha moments" as other areas of the brain responsible for creativity become more active (Bergland, 2019)(Okonkwo & Pragg, 2019). "Aha!" moments are defined as the experience of suddenly finding a solution to a problem or coming up with a creative idea after experiencing a period of time being completely confused, frustrated, and stuck (Bergland, 2019).  

MYOKINES

So, how does physical movement  facilitate profound benefits on our health?  

In 2012, scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute isolated a muscle hormone responsible for the many health benefits of exercise. The scientists have named the hormone irisin after the Greek messenger Goddess, Iris.  Irisin is released by skeletal muscle after moderate-intensity, aerobic activity.  Isirin is one of many myokines (Myo means muscle, and kine means "set into motion by.") released during exercise (McGonigal, 2019, p. 192). Irisin levels increase by 35 percent when we exercise. Once released, this chemical messenger travels through the circulatory system to other organs, altering the work of those organs to improve our health.  They help us maintain a healthy body weight, and boost our motivation (p. 191).  Irisin is best known  for its role in metabolism by burning fat as fuel. It also has positive effects on our brain because it stimulates the release of dopamine, and endorphins in the reward pathway of our brain. This makes us feel good. The feel good experience acts a biochemical reward priming motivation to keep up with our exercise plan.  Scientist believe. that many of the health enhancing benefits of exercise are due to  myokines like Irisin being from skeletal muscles (p. 192).  

MODERATE-INTENSITY, AEROBIC ACTIVITY

REFERENCES and ENRICHMENT

Berglan, Christopher (Feb. 2020). Brain Connectivity Fluctuates Based on Exercise Intensity. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202002/brain-connectivity-fluctuates-based-exercise-intensity

Bratman, G. N., Anderson, C. B., Berman, M. G., Cochran, B., de Vries, S., Flanders, J., Folke, C., Frumkin, H., Gross, J. J., Hartig, T., Kahn, P. H., Jr, Kuo, M., Lawler, J. J., Levin, P. S., Lindahl, T., Meyer-Lindenberg, A., Mitchell, R., Ouyang, Z., Roe, J., Scarlett, L., … Daily, G. C. (2019). Nature and mental health: An ecosystem service perspective. Science advances, 5(7), eaax0903. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0903

Health Education online Text. McGraw-Hill. Chapter 1

McGonigal, Kelly (2019). The Joy of Movement. Avery - Penguin Random House, NY. https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Movement-exercise-happiness-connection-ebook/dp/B07Q4LY2CV

Ozioma Okonkwo and Henriette van Praag. "Exercise Effects on Cognitive Function in Humans." Brain Plasticity (First published: December 26, 2019)  DOI: 10.3233/BPL-199001

Michael Duncan, Neil Clarke, Samantha Birch, Jason Tallis, Joanne Hankey, Elizabeth Bryant, Emma Eyre. The Effect of Green Exercise on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate and Mood State in Primary School Children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2014; 11 (4): 3678 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph110403678

Schmitt, A., Upadhyay, N., Martin, J. A., Rojas, S., Strüder, H. K., & Boecker, H. (2019). Modulation of Distinct Intrinsic Resting State Brain Networks by Acute Exercise Bouts of Differing Intensity. Brain plasticity (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 5(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-190081 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6971822/