The running fraternity has long promoted the benefits of running. One of its major mooted virtues has been a good run’s ability to clear the head and free the spirit. Feeling confused and conflicted over a major decision? Or are you feeling a little out of sorts? There’s nothing like a good run to clear the head and give your spirits a lift.
Neuroscientists identify runnings near mythical ability to clear the mind. As Monte Davis put it for The Joy of Running (1976), one of running’s foundation works, It’s hard to run and feel sorry for yourself and run at the same time. Similarly, filmmaker Casey Neistat confirmed to Runner’s World in 2016 that, Every major decision I’ve made in the last eight years has been prefaced by a run.
Data Driven Research
Thirty years of accumulated research by leading neuroscientists indicates running’s long promulgated benefits may just be anchored in fact. It seems there’s a physiological link between cognition and aerobically intense exercise like running, which has overturned science’s long-held beliefs about how the brain neurons are produced. Conventional science holds that our brains come fully equipped with a complete set of neurons and that over our lives, those neurons are never replaced.
Recent animal based studies have overturned that long-accepted thinking. These studies indicate vigorous aerobic exercise can stimulate the development of fresh new neurons. In fact, to date, aerobic exercise is the only known trigger for our brain to develop new neurons.
Another cool revelation to emerge from these studies has been the discovery of where those new cells emerge. Numerous past studies have linked exercise to memory improvements. Now those recent studies show the area in the brain associated with learning and memory: the hippocampus is ground zero for the birth of new neurons.
As Karen Postal, president of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology observed, If you are exercising so that you sweat, about 30 to 40 minutes, new brain cells are being born, and it just happens to be in that memory area. You’d never guess Postal is a runner but she may be onto something!
Scientists have recorded other changes in the frontal lobe of the brain in subjects who are physically active. After 30 to 40 minutes of vigorous exercise, studies recorded heightened blood flow to this area of the brain. Anecdotally, this area of the brain has long been connected with attributes such as: clarity of vision, effective time management skills and goal oriented planning. This area of the brain has also long been associated with how we manage our emotions.
A recent study by Emily E. Bernste in a Harvard psychology PhD candidate explored this hypothetical link between emotional state and exercise. Bernstein’s own anecdotal experience as a runner suggested a pattern of enhanced well-being after exercise. Bernstein was curious as to what role exercise was playing in creating that feeling?
Bernstein and a Harvard psychology professor conducted their own version of a classical experiment used to gauge emotion. Participants were played a highly emotional film clip from the movie The Champ (1979). Prior to viewing the clip 80 of the study subjects were asked to jog for 30 minutes. The remaining subjects just stretched.
After watching the clip, the subjects completed a survey recording their emotional state. After completing the survey, the subjects were kept busy for a further 15 minutes then surveyed again. Those who had jogged for 30 minutes recovered more effectively from the film clip’s emotional rollercoaster than those who had simply stretched. In particular, those subjects who initially were scored as feeling the worst seemed after viewing the clip and who jogged, appear to have benefited the most from going for a jog.
Opportunities for Daydreaming
One aspect of running that has eluded scientists is the opportunity for daydreaming running provides. As the miles flow under the runner’s feet, the mind drifts. This shift in attention often stimulates insights to take shape or a key memory to re-emerge.
In a culture that values measurement and metrics, promotes time management as a virtue and celebrates busy schedules and busier lives, daydreaming is rarely seen as a positive use of our time. As children we are criticized for indulging in daydreams and as adults it’s associated with being idle and frivolous. Yet the opportunity to lose yourself in your thoughts is one we should appreciate and cherish and one of the best opportunities to experience this state is when we go for a run. As a an experienced runner once observed, Just because the benefits of losing yourself in a run aren’t easily quantified doesn’t mean they’re not real.
As esteemed writer Haruki Murakami put it in his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, what he thinks about is irrelevant. It seems sometimes he thinks, and sometimes he doesn’t. Murakami summed up his running habit as, I just run. I run in void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void.
That void allows Murakami’s subconscious to do all the heavy lifting, or not as the case may be. Clearing the mind it seems is all part of the very magic of running.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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