HOW RUNNING LIKE AN ANIMAL MAKES US HUMAN

BASED ON THE TED TALK AND ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK, WORK OUT: THE REVOLUTIONARY METHOD OF CREATING A SOUND BODY TO CREATE A SOUND MIND

By Jason R. Karp, PhD, MBA

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN CHASING OTHER ANIMALS FOR FOOD AND CLICKING A MOUSE TO PURCHASE A TOASTER OVEN ON AMAZON, WE STOPPED LIVING A PHYSICAL LIFE.

Instead, we are encouraged to work on our inner selves, to practice mindfulness, to meditate, and to get our minds right. Law of attraction followers say that our thoughts directly change our lives, that we can manifest what we want from the universe. Parents, teachers, Olympic athletes, and practically everyone else tell us we can achieve anything that we set our minds to. Prominent people tell us to start from our why and look inward to live our best life.

But this is incomplete.

We are physical animals, first.

If we focus on making our physical bodies strong, resilient, and enduring, that changes us on the inside. It strengthens our belief in ourselves and what we can do. It fills the hole created by insecurity.

This transformation is not some pseudo-holistic platitude, with false promises that making bigger biceps makes you confident and successful.

It is science.

By working on the outside, you can actually alter your physiology, change your brain chemistry, and change your outlook on life… and on yourself.

Many scientific studies have shown that exercise causes profound changes on the inside that positively affect your creativity, your cognition, and your confidence. From the opioids and cannabinoids released in the brain that cause a perceived euphoria—the “runner’s high”—to the increase in serotonin that makes exercise even more effective as prescription drugs for ameliorating depression, to neurogenesis—the formation of new neurons in the brain—that improves the way we think, including our problem-solving, creativity, memory, and learning. Research has shown that people perform better on tests of creative thinking after exercise compared to when the tests are taken without exercising first. Neurogenesis even occurs across different species—research has shown that mice given access to a running wheel for a few months have more than twice the number of new cells formed in their brains compared to mice with no access to a running wheel. Whether you are a mouse or a human, a sound body creates a sound mind.

Every human has three parts: Body, Brain, and Mind. When they work together and are equally balanced, life is great and hums along the way life is supposed to. The Body would be strong, resilient, and enduring, the Brain would be buzzing with electrical activity, and the Mind would be analytical, confident, and emotionally intelligent, navigating challenges and figuring out solutions to problems.

Unfortunately, few people are blessed with such a balance. Body, Brain, and Mind often work in conflict with one another. They all want to be the boss.

But there can be only one boss. And the Body is the boss.

While the Brain oversees your Body’s entire operation, it works in service to your Body. Your Brain evolved from your Body’s movements to regulate your Body and manage its physiology so that it can efficiently move and interact with the world around you. Walking and running on two legs, which evolved from the anatomical change in the pelvis and is among the most complex and sophisticated of all physical movements, was the basis for the evolution of your Brain. Physical activity is so essential to your Brain that it is imperative for it to function properly.

When we lose the ability to move the Body, we lose our Chief Executive Officer, and mental health— the functioning of the Brain and the Mind—rapidly declines.

To live life fully, you need to see the Body and the Brain being interconnected parts of the same entity, of the same human experience. When you do, you can know all that needs to be known.

The Body and the Brain are two parts of the same physical living being. Just because there is something unique about human cognition does not mean the Brain is independent from the Body. Our efforts to understand the nature of the human Brain should, therefore, be commensurate with our efforts to understand the nature of the Body and, ultimately, the nature of life.

Your heart, your muscles, your Brain, and all your other organs are all parts. They mean little by themselves. You cannot understand the value oflife’s process by separating the parts from the process, or the process from the parts. When you separate the parts from the process, there is no process; there are only parts. Parts without a process have no motion, no purpose. They are lifeless. Instead of being like life, filled with motion and purpose, they are the antithesis of life.

To fully understand the role each part plays in your life, in the way you see and interact with the world, you must see the Brain as part of your whole physical existence, not separate from the whole, not working at your desk, by itself. Your Brain never works by itself. Never.

While the cells in your other organs, like your heart and kidneys, perform their assigned functions and do not represent any other cells or functions, the cells of your Brain represent and even control functions occurring elsewhere in your Body. The Brain works with your heart, with your kidneys, with your muscles, with your lungs, with your blood vessels, with your sensory neurons on your fingertips, and with every other part of your Body to create your physical existence, to enable the whole process to work.

And it works the process by converting inputs from all its neurons, synapses, and neurotransmitters to outputs to create the thoughts, ideas, and perceptions that make up your Mind.

Training the Body changes the Brain, which affects the Mind. Training the Body eliminates the conflict between Body, Brain, and Mind, making all three parts work in harmony.

There are times in your life that will test you, that will throw you on your back. But if you remember where youcame from, if you remember that you are indeed an animal with biology similar to that of many other animals, then you remember that to live life fully, you must fully live physically. And then you can train your Body to change your Brain to affect your Mind, connecting the three parts of yourself that create your earthly existence.

Jason Karp, PhD, MBA, is a coach, exercise physiologist, and visiting professor at Georgia Southern University. He has authored 15 books and more than 400 articles and is a TED speaker. His run coaching certification was obtained by fitness professionals in 26 countries before being acquired by ISSA. Work Out and his other books are available on Amazon.