When I walked into the gym this morning I was depressed and pessimistic. My outlook on life sucked. It was really an accumulation of many things:
- I was scheduled to do an interview with Oprah.com that got put on hold for some reason
- The More Magazine article on my Rich Habits came out but it did not meet my expectations
- Amazon book sales dropped from as high as 100 a day to 15 a day
- I’m dealing with some family issues at home
- Media interviews are still hard to come by, even after national exposure I received from SUCCESS Magazine, Inc. Magazine, USA Today, and CBS Evening News
- It’s tax season and I’m a CPA. Need I say more
- I’m wondering if I’m wasting my time in trying to share my Rich Habits with the world
I carried all of this with me into the gym this morning. But a miraculous thing happened. At about my 7th set on my bench press, my mind, for some reason, started to shift from negative to positive. I began to think about all of the things that have gone right over the past 3 years with my Rich Habits efforts. A hundred positive thoughts flooded my brain during my 50 minute workout. But why?
Well, I know why, thanks to my Rich Habits research. Exercise increases the production of dopamine, the happiness neurotransmitter. You see, when you’re depressed it’s due to falling levels of dopamine, and to some extent serotonin and oxytocin. Exercise naturally corrects dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin levels in the brain. When those levels rise, our mindsets shift from negative to positive. We go from pessimistic to optimistic. We become happy.
Exercise is nature’s cure-all for depression. This, alone, is why you need to exercise every day. Exercise helps you maintain your optimism.
About Thomas C. Corley
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