When the low mood comes in, it comes with the reasonable script to conserve energy. Wait until you feel like moving before moving

The thing is, the feeling is rarely imminent. Waiting to move before moving is one of the classic traps of human psychology.

Many have heard the call: exercise your mental health! But this exhortation is frequently framed in such a way as to make one think that the entire point of working out is to become a certain kind of person: an hour-long cardio class, or a grueling weight session, or an entire lifestyle transformation. When you feel tired or without energy, that’s not medicine, but an unreasonable demand.

Physiology is a kinder judge

The Mechanism: Shifting the Input

A huge 2023 systematic review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, analyzing hundreds of randomized controlled trials incorporating tens of thousands of people, affirmed what small trials have long suggested: that exercise produces demonstrable decreases in the symptoms of depression and low mood, with effects comparable to first-line pharmacologic treatments for the condition.

What’s interesting is that the benefits are seen across most levels of intensity; the steepest drop in symptoms was seen in the immediate jump from zero movement to a modest amount of movement.

You don’t have to run a marathon to influence your neurobiology. When you move, your body talks to your brain in a different way.

When low mood takes hold, it’s characterized by a decrease in physical activity, slowed processing speed, and the inward spiral of self-reflective thought. Moderate movement provokes immediate downstream effects in the neurochemistry of the brain, shifting the entire set point of the system. Specifically, it causes an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a decrease in inflammatory cytokines, and modulation of the monoamine systems in the brain.

In short, moving does not simply burn calories; it changes your physiological relationship to the world.

Exercise as an identity requires motivation, time management, and self-discipline to engage in a behavior that takes a certain amount of time out of your day.

Movement as a state only requires a change in physiology in order to interrupt the default mode network and its associated rumination.

When it comes to day-to-day low mood, the latter is much more useful as a tool than the former. You don’t need to transform yourself to engage in a ten-minute walk. You only need to have the desire to stop being inert.

Movement does not need to solve everything in order to be useful; in fact, trying to transform your life is the most common reason movements fail. It only needs to create a space for your thoughts to breathe.

A Small Experiment: The Ten-Minute Threshold

The next time you feel the tug-of-war between your desire to move and your desire to lie still, give this experiment a try:

Lower the barrier to entry as much as you can. Forget the workout gear and the elaborate planning. Tell yourself you’re only going to do ten minutes of something that raises your heart rate.

It might be walking outside, or even pacing in place if you’re constrained to your home. You want to do something that mildly taxes your cardiovascular system but will not drain you.

Make it a non-negotiable appointment with yourself, but one that only lasts ten minutes. You can always decide to lay down afterwards if you want, but you’ll have to do yourself the favor of getting up and moving.

The hard part is usually in overcoming the inertia of getting started; when you do start moving, the urge to remain totally still will almost certainly diminish.

An Important Caveat

A ten-minute walk won’t fix everything. When mood disorders begin to interfere with day-to-day function, specialized treatment is indicated.

Movement is a useful tool for interrupting the downward spiral of depression, but it is not a substitute for care from a medical or mental health professional. The literature cited at the end of this piece is an excellent place to start when seeking out resources.

The Memorable Close

You don’t have to feel like moving in order to move. In fact, the literature suggests the opposite: that movement is a valuable tool for interrupting and altering mood states

The research

Singh, B., Olds, T., Curtis, R., Dumuid, D., Virgara, R., Watson, A., Szeto, K., O’Connor, E., Ferguson, T., Eglitis, E., Miatke, A., Simpson, C. E., & Maher, C. (2023). Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: An overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 57(18), 1203–1209. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2022-106195