Few facts are more universally accepted than the benefits of exercise. But what we must not understand is how important its role is in our creative and productive outputs. We sacrifice exercise for our work, forgetting that it makes our work better.
At the end of today’s workout, be sure to click the Finisher button for an insightful interview from Dr. John Ratey. You won’t want to miss it.
As this month of training comes to a close, we’ll spend the next two days on a quick overview of all we’ve learned.
Together,
kk
Train Your Brain Step 4 – Exercise
The physical state of our bodies can either serve or subvert the quest to create genius. We all know this intuitively. But with rare exceptions, because life seems to value output over the humanity of the process and the ability to sustain genius, attention to health, fitness, and exercise almost always takes a backseat. That’s tragic. Choosing art over health rather than art fueled by health kills you faster; it also makes the process so much more miserable and leads to poorer, slower, less innovative, and shallower creative output.
As Dr. John Ratey noted in his seminal work Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008), exercise isn’t just about physical health and appearance. It also has a profound effect on your brain chemistry, physiology, and neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to literally rewire itself). It affects not only your ability to think, create, and solve, but your mood and ability to lean into uncertainty, risk, judgment, and anxiety in a substantial, measurable way.
“If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century.”
– Dr. John Ratey
Today’s Affirmation:
Today, I will practice feeling the fear and choosing to move forward anyway. I will do one thing that scares me.
Today’s Verse:
Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.
3 John 1:2
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