Mind the Beginner

As therapist I often told people who were depressed to just go and take a walk. Preferably with a little bit of fire in their pace. You have no idea how many people have looked at me strangely for suggesting that they take a hike.

If you are a runner you probably know why, but if you are not a runner have you ever asked yourself why these people go through such lengths to run? They actually enjoy running a marathon for instance and beating their body up. Strange behavior, but according to Darwinian beliefs it must have some sort of benefit.

It has got everything to do with certain types of hormones in our body. Something closely related to morphine and cocaine: endorphins.

Receptors

It was back in1972 when scientists began to question how and why opiates influenced the brain. After some hypothesising and experimenting they came to the conclusion that the body must have receptors to handle this stuff and make us feel like we do when getting a morphine shot. After that shot the body wanted more of course. But why would the body have such receptors if the body couldn’t make that substance by itself?

Turns out that the body has these receptors because it does make it’s own drugs. A substance that in the right amount causes pain to subside, moods to lift an give you a general “on to of the world” feeling. Substituting this stuff with i.e. morphine will make the body produce less of it so in time we need more morphine to keep the levels up.

After running for about 10 minutes these hormones start to kick in. The first ten minutes of running are agony but after that the pain goes away and we start feeling better with every step. It’s sometimes called as the “runner’s high” and it’s one of the biggest reason people take up running. The same goes for dancing and meditating.

Agony and discomfort

Meditation isn’t necessarily an eastern invention. It was not so long ago that Christians would kneel on a hard floor for an extended period of time to be alone with their thoughts about God. Muslims pray five times each day with nothing more to sit on than a small rug. Imagine the pain they have in their knees each time.

People do this to feel better about themselves and I can tell you it does work. Why? What do running, prostrations or sitting perfectly still in a lotus position have in common? The agony, the bodily discomfort of this action and at the same time the programming of the body.

If the body is in pain it will react in one of two ways (I’m simplifying here). Either it releases adrenaline, or endorphin. It all depends on what outcome we expect. If fighting and running away is in order we’ll get adrenaline. But if we expect a positive outcome and know the current hardship is just temporary and something we need to get trough we get a shot of endorphins.

The body provides it’s own fix in order to make the hardship more pleasurable. The effect on us is that we feel better and have less pain. The longer and bigger the hardship we endure while knowing things will be alright the more endorphins will be released.

Thus, accomplishing a marathon gives a greater high than a five mile jog.

There are roughly four situations in which the body produces endorphins:

1. In general when we feel good
2. When we are subjected to suffering (physically or mentally)
3. When we sleep or rest
4. When we find ourselves in a new and unusual but non threatening situation

Ritualized self-torture

Say you meditate every day for twenty minutes. You hit a small chime to let everyone in the house know you are meditation, you light some incense and contort your body into a highly uncomfortable lotus position and sit perfectly still while counting your breaths slowly. Your knees will start to hurt like hell, your back will tighten, your butt might start aching from the firm pillow you are sitting on. To sum it up, ritualized self-torture. And then the twenty minutes are up and you unfold yourself and stagger back to the living room for a cup of tea while having a huge smile on your face.

Notice how many things in this ritual hurt you and how many things can be used as cues. After a few months of doing this any one of the cues by itself will trigger a Pavlovian reaction in your body. The smell of incense will get those glands secreting endorphins like there is no tomorrow an the chime triggers a flood. So far so good. And now the real power: Counting your breaths will also trigger endorphin production.

Although you don’t have a chime with you everywhere and people on your cubicle farm might not like you if you start putting up an incense smokescreen you can always count breaths and trigger the response that calms you down and makes you feel good.

Imagine that, when entering a boardroom or waiting in a traffic jam and feeling yourself get irritated. Use the cue and get a quick fix of happy hormones.

Why?

So why do people hurt themselves? To get these happy hormones pumping. Seriously, scientists have administered naloxone to runners (A drug that prevents the receptors in the brain from receive endorphins) and in just a few runs these people no longer felt the urge to run anymore. It didn’t feel good because they didn’t experience the runner’s high anymore.

Although there are many ways to get these hormones to be released into our bloodstream (like eating chocolate) there are few so effective as ritualized self-torture. Every religion on earth has picked up on this long ago and practices it in one form or the other.

If a therapist tells you to take a hike, please do take the hike, and put some fire in your pace. You’ll feel better afterwards.