There’s a lot to like about physical fitness. You feel stronger, look better, and get access to a range of pleasurable activities reserved only for the healthy. But exercise brings another benefit that might be even more important: a proven positive effect on our complicated inner worlds.

I saw this up close and personal after my mom was diagnosed with clinical depression. Through many years of intense struggle, she gradually built a set of healthy habits that gives her the very high quality of life she enjoys today. Exercise is an integral part of this depression-taming lifestyle. In fact, she sees her daily walk as non-negotiable!

In this article, I want to share some science-backed ideas to give the mental health benefits of exercise an extra boost. But first, let’s recap why exercise is just as good for our minds as it is for our bodies.

How Exercise Builds Mental Fitness

It’s amazing to think that exercise could be as effective as antidepressants. For severe cases, it also works wonders alongside antidepressants as a supporting treatment.

The reasons for the positive effect of exercise on mental health are numerous and convincing. On a biochemical level, exercise releases feel-good hormones such as serotonin and boosts brain development by stimulating the synthesis of brain-derived neurotrophic factor. It also improves sleep, especially at middle-age and beyond, which is critical for good mental health.

A boost in self-esteem also follows from the sense of accomplishment and improved body image associated with better fitness levels. On top of that, life is simply more fun when experienced through a fit body!

These positive effects of exercise are great, but apparently not enough to get the population moving. Shockingly, only 23% of Americans achieve the rather modest guidelines for healthy weekly exercise.

Getting started is a big part of the problem. After all, if you’re depressed and out of shape, strenuous exercise is the last thing you feel like doing. That’s why we need to employ every trick in the playbook to deliver the mental health benefits of exercise as quickly as possible, triggering a positive feedback loop between feeling better and moving more.

Enhancing the Effect of Fitness on Happiness

Even though fitness by itself can make us feel better, there are plenty of ways to augment this positive effect on our sense of wellbeing. This is especially true when we compare against the method we most commonly associate with getting in shape: going to the gym.

Picture this scenario: You’re busy, stressed, and badly out of shape. Now, people are expecting you to carve two slices of two hours out of your hectic week (together with a sizable slice of your paycheck) to endure a stressful rush-hour drive into town for the privilege of running on a treadmill like a hamster in front of a bunch of muscular youths who give you intense body shame. Fat chance, right?

I think we can all agree that this is never going to work on any meaningful scale. In fact, this experience will probably cancel out most of the mental health benefits of exercise. So, let’s turn the tables and find practical ways to combine exercise with proven happiness boosters.

Here are seven strategies to help you do just that.

1. Connect with the natural world

Nature has a mysteriously significant positive effect on our wellbeing. A recent study, fittingly published in the prestigious journal, Nature, found that 120 minutes per week spent in nature has about the same positive effect on health and wellbeing as exercise itself.

Although we don’t fully understand the mechanisms driving this effect, its existence is beyond question. Exercising in nature will give you substantial additional mental health benefits relative to the same exercise level in a gym. Untouched nature is preferred, but your local park will also do.

Gardening presents another option. Interestingly, vegetables bring more happiness than flowers — yet another reason for more veggies in your life.

2. Go to the light

Doing your exercise outside comes with another benefit: natural light. Sunlight influences our happiness in two ways: stimulating vitamin D production and impacting circadian rhythms and serotonin release.

The best time to get some sunlight is early in the morning. There are numerous artificial light options available to simulate this exposure, but the real thing is obviously best. So, whenever circumstances allow, take a sunny morning walk, and watch what happens to your mood!

3. Get social

Nourishing relationships are one of the most common prescriptions for happiness. There is broad agreement that quality trumps quantity, so strengthening bonds with a good friend or a significant other is one of the best roads to happiness.

Joint activities, such as exercising together, are a great way to build such bonds. For example, this study found significant marital benefits to joint exercise in older couples. Exercising with a partner also increases accountability to ensure that this healthy habit is maintained. More happiness, closer relationships, better fitness. What’s not to like?

4. Random acts of kindness

Being kind makes us happier. Whenever we purposefully do something nice for other people without expecting anything in return, we get a fun little shot of endorphins.

Exercise offers plenty of opportunities for random acts of kindness. Whether you smile warmly at other morning walkers, compliment your partner on their physique or performance, or play extra unselfishly in team sports, it all counts. If you have the time, any volunteering involving physical activity will also do the trick. Simply be nice while being active.

5. Go with the flow

You’ll have to put in some work before you get to experience this happiness-enhancing effect, but it’s totally worth it! Flow is the state when we lose ourselves in doing something of our choosing that challenges our abilities to just the right extent. Exercise is the perfect example of such an activity.

“Runner’s high” is the most recognized example of fitness flow, but other sports can achieve a similar effect. As you progress, strive to keep the challenge close to the edge of your current skill and fitness level. Do that, and flow will come. And once it does, you’ll keep coming back for more.

6. Knock-on health benefits

When you start getting fit, it’s quite likely that your eating habits will soon follow suit. Such a beneficial knock-on effect has advantages beyond losing weight and feeling healthier.

Have you ever heard of the gut-brain axis? This term refers to the ability of the vast population of bacteria in our intestines to influence our mood and mental health by, among others, producing essential neurotransmitters. The typical Western diet with all its sugars and saturated fats is no friend to this diverse microscopic world inside us. In fact, our unhealthy eating habits are increasingly linked to genuine cognitive impairment.

So, if your increasing fitness levels give you even a slither of extra motivation to improve your diet, grab it with both hands! A better diet will also make movement more fun, creating a lovely virtuous cycle.

7. Make exercise pay

If money troubles are straining your happiness (an all-too-common phenomenon), exercise might offer a solution. Choosing to walk or cycle on all short trips can save you a tidy sum. If you can ditch the car, that tidy sum multiplies manyfold. For example, my car-free life is a key reason behind the financial freedom I enjoy today.

Of course, there are clear limitations. If you live in a city that’s totally built for cars instead of people, this is not a viable option. But anyone who has the option should consider it very seriously. The combination of exercise and increased financial security can give your wellbeing a double boost.

Wrapping Up

The holistic mind-body health benefits of exercise help it stand out among smart lifestyle choices. If you’ve always struggled to get going on the journey to better fitness, I hope the happiness-boosting exercise combos discussed in this article can help. To sum up:

1. Exercise outside, preferably in nature, exposed to sunlight, and with good friends/family.
2. Be on the lookout for opportunities to engage in random acts of kindness.
3. Keep adjusting the challenge level to give yourself a good chance of entering a flow state.
4. Pounce enthusiastically on any new motivation to improve your diet in parallel with your fitness.
5. If walking/cycling is safe and practical, simultaneously boost your financial security and fitness by ditching the car.

May your fitness bring you great happiness and your happiness keep you fit for life!