The secret to happiness?

It's moving around, getting some exercise, even moderate exercise, walking, or maybe a jog during the day. Any type of physical activity is linked to a brighter mood in both the short and long term. This is revealed by a maxi-study published in the journal Plos One and conducted by experts from the University of Cambridge in England. The research, which lasted about 17 months, involved more than 10 thousand individuals.

It's not the first time you've linked moods to physical activity. Numerous epidemiological studies, for example, have shown an increased risk of anxiety and depression for sedentary individuals. Furthermore, more studies have shown that sport stimulates the production of protective and mood-stimulating molecules in the brain. But this is the first study to look objectively at the link between physical activity and individual happiness.

To do this, the experts used a mobile app that collected both objective data on the activity carried out during the day (with a simple pedometer that monitors the movements of the person carrying the phone) and data on the person's mood (based on questionnaires that the individual had to answer from quarter of an hour to quarter of an hour). The person also had to indicate what he or she had done a quarter of an hour before answering the questionnaires. Well, it turned out that if in the last quarter of an hour the individual was physically active (activity recorded by the pedometer), his level of happiness at that time was higher.

When the researchers then asked the volunteers to assess their overall (long-term) well-being, it emerged that the most satisfied with their lives, or in other words the happiest, are those who tend to move the most.

Source: ANSA