The Joy of Movement How exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection, and courage

Kelly McGonagall, PhD is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University. Her most recent book is called The Joy of Movement.

In this conversation we talk about why she describes her book as a love letter to movement and human nature.

It's a love letter to movement and to human nature which I didn't know when I wrote it, it was going to turn out to be.

She's got a new book called The Joy of Movement which is about exercise and so we're going to talk to her not only about how to get your exercise game improved in a way that will actually succeed and without involving you beating yourself up along the way.

It's a love letter to movement and to human nature which I didn't know when I wrote it, it was going to turn out to be.

The part of me that experiences bliss, hope, joy, connection, that sort of the empowered positive states, I access that best through movement and so I wanted to write this book because I've only ever written books that I really think are about how to deal with the hard stuff, you know, stress, behavior change.

And your newest book, The Joy of Movement, is a testament to that idea.

She's a Stanford University lecturer and a health psychologist. She's a group fitness instructor and she's also author of the book, The Joy of Movement, how exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection and courage.

It's about joy. It's about embracing joy as not something that is frivolous or self-indulgent or out of reach until your life is perfect and free of problems. It's really about embracing the capacity for joy as something that affirms the value of life and helps us connect with others and is a way to find meaning even when life is difficult.