The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage

The Joy of Movement: How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage
ISBN-10
0525534121
ISBN-13
9780525534129
Series
The Joy of Movement
Category
Health & Fitness
Pages
272
Language
English
Published
2021-03-02
Publisher
Penguin
Author
Kelly McGonigal

Description

The bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct introduces a surprising science-based book that doesn't tell us why we should exercise but instead shows us how to fall in love with movement. Exercise is health-enhancing and life-extending, yet many of us feel it's a chore. But, as Kelly McGonigal reveals, it doesn't have to be. Movement can and should be a source of joy. Through her trademark blend of science and storytelling, McGonigal draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology, as well as memoirs, ethnographies, and philosophers. She shows how movement is intertwined with some of the most basic human joys, including self-expression, social connection, and mastery--and why it is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. McGonigal tells the stories of people who have found fulfillment and belonging through running, walking, dancing, swimming, weightlifting, and more, with examples that span the globe, from Tanzania, where one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet live, to a dance class at Juilliard for people with Parkinson's disease, to the streets of London, where volunteers combine fitness and community service, to races in the remote wilderness, where athletes push the limits of what a human can endure. Along the way, McGonigal paints a portrait of human nature that highlights our capacity for hope, cooperation, and self-transcendence. The result is a revolutionary narrative that goes beyond familiar arguments in favor of exercise, to illustrate why movement is integral to both our happiness and our humanity. Readers will learn what they can do in their own lives and communities to harness the power of movement to create happiness, meaning, and connection.

Other editions

Similar books

  • The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It
    By Kelly McGonigal

    Drawing from groundbreaking research, psychologist and award-winning teacher Kelly McGonigal, PhD, offers a surprising new view of stress—one that reveals the upside of stress, and shows us exactly how to capitalize on its benefits.

  • Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance, Second Edition
    By Eric N. Franklin

    Franklin provides 583 imagery exercises to improve dance technique, artistic expression and performance. More than 160 illustrations highlight the images, and the exercises can be put to use in dance movement and choreography.

  • The Joy of Walking: Selected Writings
    By Suzy Cripps

    Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning pocket size classics, this edition is edited and introduced by Suzy Cripps.

  • The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World
    By Christina Crook

    Should we, as humans, ever want to be rid of the burden of people? Of the fallibility and hardship and mess of human relationships? What does the billion-dollar pursuit of artificial intelligence say about our humanity? What future will ...

  • Move for Joy: An Intuitive Training Approach to Pursue God in Fitness and Find Happiness
    By Kasey Shuler

    You will:-Identify and overcome any workout excuse-Use the five fitness motivators to drive your goals-Walk away empowered with the knowledge to change your exercise plan to flex with any season By connecting your fitness journey with the ...

  • Body Kindness: Transform Your Health from the Inside Out--and Never Say Diet Again
    By Rebecca Scritchfield

    ... comes to the transformative nature of community, no one knows better than award-winning author Glennon Doyle Melton. Through her popular online Momastery community and her brutally honest memoirs, Carry On, Warrior and Love Warrior, ...

  • Introduction to the Sociology of Sport
    By Otmar Weiss, Gilbert Norden

    Introduction to the Sociology of Sport offers a comprehensive overview of topics, theories, definitions and results of sport sociological research and discussions. A unique approach to the social specificity of sport is outlined.

  • The Art of Movement
    By Ken Browar

    The Art of Movement is an exquisite collection of photographs by well-known dance photographers Ken Browar and Deborah Ory that capture the movement, flow, energy, and grace of many of the most accomplished dancers in the world.

  • The Joy of Weight Loss: A Spiritual Guide to Easy Fitness
    By Norris J. Chumley

    The author who lost 160 pounds and has kept it off for ten years "counsels enjoyable eating and taking pleasure in the process of losing weight."

  • Fit at Mid-Life: A Feminist Fitness Journey
    By Tracy Isaacs, Samantha Brennan

    In Fit at Mid-Life, bloggers and philosophy professors Samantha Brennan and Tracy Isaacs share the story of how they got the fittest they'd ever been by age 50––and how you can, too.