4.1.2020 7:00h EST
od Stephanie O’Neilová
Úryvek od původního članku v angličtině na webovce amerického veřejnoprávního radia (NPR.org):
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/04/790346204/hope-happiness-and-social-connection-hidden-benefits-of-regular-exercise
Překlad: Tereza Soldátová

​Pokud někdy nastal čas vhrnout se více na sport, příchod nového roku a nového desetiletí je tou správnou dobou. Sedavé návyky ovšem pohltí naše předsevzetí o každodenním cvičení hned po tom, co vyprchá nadšení z nové věrnostní kartičky do posilovny. Takhle to ale nemusí být, říká psycholožka zdraví a autorka Kelly McGonigalová. 

Ve své nové knize „Radost z pohybu: Jak nám cvičení pomáhá nalézt štěstí, naději, pocit propojení a odvahu“ představuje přednášející Stanfordské univerzity nové motivace k tomu začít cvičit. Její návrhy přesahují potřebu dobře vypadat i pocity povinnosti. McGonigalová také představuje všechno to, přináší pocity prožívané při pohybu. Se čtenáři sdílí významné, avšak ne tak často zmiňované, výhody cvičení, které jej činní vhodnou celoživotní aktivitou nezávislou na věku, fyzické zdatnosti či zdravotní neschopnosti. 

„Chci, aby lidé začali chápat cvičení jinak, než skrze obvyklé debaty o hubnutí, prevenci nemocí a body shapingu“ řekla McConigallová rádiu NPR. 

Mimo mnoho dalších život měnících výhod, pravidelné cvičení může přinést světu generaci pociťující naději, štěstí, pocit smysluplnosti, větší uspokojení ze života a propojení s ostatními. 

„Tyto výhody můžeme sledovat ve všech fázích života“ píše. „Platí pro všechny socioekonomické vrstvy a fungují napříč kulturním prostředím.“
Tyto výhody nejsou vázané na nějakou specifickou aktivitu, ani nevyžadují vrcholovou úroveň sportování. Nezáleží na tom, jestli běháte, plavete, tancujete, jezdíte na kole, zvedáte činky, cvičíte jógu nebo děláte týmové sporty, říká McGonigalová – přiměřená fyzická aktivita nám přináší mnohem víc, než zdravější a silnější tělo. 
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Toto je pět věcí, ve kterých vám pohyb může přinést větší potěšení ze života. 
    •    Spouštěč štěstí 
    •    Stanete se společenštější verzí sebe sama 
    •    Pomáhá s depresí 
    •    Odhaluje skrytou sílu 
    •    Vzpruha pro mozek

...Právě probíhající výzkum naznačuje, uvádí McConigalová, že při cvičení se naše svaly mění v „lékárnu pro fyzické i duševní zdraví.“ „Pokud jste ochotní se hýbat,“ píše, „vaše svaly vám budou dodávat odvahu. Mozek spustí orchestr radosti. A celé vaše tělo se spojí pro to, aby vám pomohlo najít energii, důvody a odvahu dál pokračovat.“

***
Ahoj lidí, zde piše David Franklin ve svém neformálním stylu. Během čtení tohoto článku, začal jsem brečet. Proč? Hlavně z té věty „Její návrhy přesahují potřebu dobře vypadat i pocity povinnosti.“ Bohužel, je tolik marketingových stragegií kolem jednoduchého procesu cvičení, že můžeme snadno ztratit původní radost pohybu těla, kterou jsme všichni měli přirozeně jako děti. K tomu také můžeme zapomenout další důležitý důvod cvičení, který má souvislost s radostí: lepší povědomí, vnímání a znalost těla. Kvůli tomu, že žijeme celý život v těle, je monhem způsobů jak lepší povědomí o stavu těla nám pomáha -- mnohem více, než mám zde místo uvést.

Excerpted from an article on the National Public Radio website
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/04/790346204/hope-happiness-and-social-connection-hidden-benefits-of-regular-exercise
January 4, 20207:00 AM ET
by Stephanie O'Neil

If ever there was a time to up your fitness game, the arrival of the new year and the new decade is it. But after the allure of the new gym membership wears off, our sedentary habits, more often than not, consume our promise of daily workouts. It doesn't have to be this way, says health psychologist and author, Kelly McGonigal.

In her new book, The Joy of Movement: How Exercise Helps Us Find Happiness, Hope, Connection, and Courage, the Stanford University lecturer offer new motivation to get moving that has less to do with how we look, or feeling duty-bound to exercise, and everything to do with how movement makes us feel. She shares with readers the often profound, yet lesser-known benefits of exercise that make it a worthy, lifelong activity whether you're young, old, fit or disabled.

"I want them to understand [exercise] in a different way than the usual conversation we always have about weight loss, preventing disease and making our bodies look a certain way," McGonigal tells NPR.
Among its many life-altering rewards: the generation of hope, happiness, a sense of purpose, greater life satisfaction and rewarding connections with others.

"These benefits are seen throughout the life span," she writes. "They apply to every socioeconomic strata and appear to be culturally universal."

And they aren't activity-specific and they don't require you to be a superathlete. Whether you run, swim, dance, bike, lift weights, do yoga or participate in team sports — it doesn't matter, McGonigal says — moderate physical activity does far more than make us physically stronger and healthier.

Here are five of the ways movement can help you enjoy life.
1) Activate pleasure
2) Become a "more social version of yourself"
3) Help with depression
4) Reveal hidden strength
5) A boost for the brain
​
... Emerging research, she says, suggests that when exercised, your muscles become "basically a pharmacy for your physical and mental health.""If you are willing to move," she writes, "your muscles will give you hope. Your brain will orchestrate pleasure. And your entire physiology will adjust to help you find the energy, purpose and courage you need to keep going."

***
Hi folks, David Franklin here with his informal writing style. I started crying while I was reading this article. Why? Mainly because of the sentence ",,,the Stanford University lecturer offer new motivation to get moving that has less to do with how we look, or feeling duty-bound to exercise, and everything to do with how movement makes us feel." Unfortunately, there are so many marketing strategies surrounding the simple process of exercise that it's easy to forget the original joy of movement that we all experienced as children. What's more, we can also forget another important reason for exercising, which is connected with joy: better awareness, knowledge, and perception of the body. Since we live our whole lives in our bodies, there are many ways in which improved body awareness can help us -- many more than I have space to mention here.

These photos from the Shintaido practices during Amanda Palmer's No Intermission tour show the beginning of an amazing several months in fall 2019. An old friend, Amanda Palmer, was on tour (she’s a musician), and suggested we organize a Shintaido practice in the afternoon before her concert. Her fans are amazing beautiful people who showed up and put heart, mind, enthusiasm, and sweat into a new situation, knowing pretty much nothing about Shintaido or David Franklin. This act of trust made me feel so honored. And it’s almost visible in the pics how they let their voices out. This is what I found myself saying to everyone: “Your voice doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be loud or quiet, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter exactly what it sounds like to others. It’s about the feeling of letting your voice come out.”

​This is surely one of the unique points about Shintaido. Letting your voice come out and radiate from your body without being much concerned about how it sounds is both physically and psychologically liberating. In this regard, the way we use our voices in Shintaido is quite different than singing: other than making the vowel sounds “A / E / I / O / U,” there are not many limitations. Most of the time we use our voices to communicate verbal information, or we sing. In both cases, there is usually a concern about what is “right” and “wrong” — we can say the wrong words, be understood or misunderstood; we can sing well or off-tune. Then there is the territory beyond vocal sounds that are socially acceptable, which we can explore in Shintaido.

The voice is like a sonic fingerprint: the human voice is quite individual, and no matter what sound you make, it will always be uniquely yours. When you don’t worry about what it will sound like and just let your voice out, it is almost like letting your individuality and identity come out and imprint itself onto the world. There is a truth to this that is not only metaphorical: when you use your voice, the molecules of the air around you, the physical objects within earshot of your voice, do in fact vibrate in a unique pattern that is representative of your individual “voiceprint.”
​
In the arts, including visual art, music, and writing — and in the social world generally — we can talk about “finding one’s voice,” meaning discovering a way of expressing yourself that has nothing to do with being egotistical (or trying too hard to be zen-like and non-egotistical). I think it just means recognizing the aspects of your expression that an undeniable part of who you are, your mental and physical condition, your history and experiences that form who you are. This is how I understand “authenticity,” and it declares itself in the fact that we are all authentic beings in this universe.

​Sorry (not) to get philosophical, but my interpretation of the contemporary angst is that it is partly panic based on solid facts about our relationship with “nature” as we commonly understand it (the natural environment, you know — the one that we’re polluting, damaging, and playing violently risky games with). While feelings of anxiety and panic about the global environmental crisis are logical and maybe appropriate, “panic” might not be an adaptive, effective, or practical response in a crisis — as anyone with experience in martial arts can tell you.

Shintaido, however is not a martial art. You are not required to “keep your cool” at all times in Shintaido practice. There are parts of the practice, in fact, when the best thing you can do is “lose your cool,” let your hair down, look up at the sky (or imagine you have x-ray vision and can see the sky through whatever non-sky roof, ceiling, or other obstacle is above you), scream your lungs out, and let whatever feelings you have come out with no expectations of what they will be. If you feel shy, then “yell” quietly in a shy little voice. That’s you, too. Having no expectations about what will come out, I guarantee that whatever sonic expression comes out, it will be yours. You are a unique combination of flesh and blood, made from the dust of stars. Your body, your mind, everything around you, and everything you are capable of experiencing, every thought, every feeling, grows from the universe like apples grow from the branch of an apple tree. You are not an alien visiting “your life.” If you have feelings about that, using your voice can be a great way to ventilate them.

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine such mystical ideas like “let your inner light shine” or vague almost abstract “energies,” “qi / ki,” etc. But opening our mouths, letting the air flow out over the vocal chords, and making a vibration that is uniquely ours — most of us can do that.