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Your Life on Endorphins
What are endorphins, how do we get them, and why should we bother?
“You are a seething ball of rage!! You’re just so angry, I don’t understand it. You really need to let all those feelings go, Cosmo.”
My partner Justin was talking to the dog. Justin was kidding, of course, mocking our 14-pound terrier for releasing his rage at the neighbors for their existence. But it so happened that at that particular moment Justin could just as easily have been talking to me. I was MAD.
So, I finished my coffee and went to the gym.
I don’t want to write another “If you want to improve your life, just exercise” story. Not only are there already more of those out there than there should be, it’s also advice we don’t even need to hear anymore. We all know we should exercise. Every single one of us. Some of us do it and some of us don’t. Some of us do it for a while and then stop. Sometimes after we stop we get back to it eventually and sometimes we just sit around feeling bad for not doing what we know we should.
So I’m not gonna write about that.
What I’m more interested in is the bigger picture. Why should I be doing it? What is the physiological reason? There are plenty of answers, of course. But one giant portion of that bigger picture, turns out, has to do with endorphins and the effect…