Does anyone else believe that those who engage in regular exercise notice an increased positive mood and well being. This does not just stem from one's self image but more so from the feelings invoked by working your body aerobically and anaerobically.

Here's an interesting article about the "Runner's high" and the chemistry behind it.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f02/web1/sfrayne.html

Does anyone else believe that those who engage in regular exercise notice an increased positive mood and well being. This does not just stem from one's self image but more so from the feelings invoked by working your body aerobically and anaerobically.

We are so disconnected from our bodies many of us engage in 'excercise' almost as a form of discipline. For many reasons including these feelings of well being.

But really our bodies (or we) love to move and do and be creative at least sometimes closer to the limits of our abilities. we like physical challenges and if you watch children they challenge themselves all the time WITHOUT ONCE ENGAGING IN DISCIPLINE.

The first responder refers you to an article about chemicals. To me this seems as much a distraction - though you may find it useful and interesting and so might I. To say: here's why and list some chemical that are released in the blood is to view ourselves through an unneccesarry abstraction and I think has a similar tendency to distance ourselves from our own urges adn desires.

Bodies (we) love to move and move with force and passion. Why not let them do this, following desire, perhaps you can feel it when you see others engage in some activity - I guarantee it isn't when you see someone jogging on a treadmill. Maybe that's the activity your body yearns to participate in.

In other words - to think in terms of exercise, dislipline and chemicals can all be useful. But not first and not primarily.

we don't need to step outside to solve the problem
We need to accept what's inside.

This may seem like preaching and it is. But primarily I want to point out the odd and culture based habits we have developed for talking about ourselves.