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How often has someone told you they craved a jog to clear their head after a long day? I certainly run to combat stress, and there’s a reason many of us tie up our sneakers, blast music, and work up a sweat as our heart rate soars.
When running, the body releases endorphins which reduce stress and can lead to that “runner’s high,” or joyful post-exercise state that improves mood. Over time, running can also bolster focus and memory, and studies trumpet exercise as a protection against physical and mental illness and the development of Alzheimer’s and dementia.
But a new study published Wednesday in the Frontiers in Psychology explores how using running to get “lost” and suppress negative emotions can lead to exercise dependence and a diminished sense of overall well-being.
Escapism, defined in the study as “a habitual diversion of the mind…as an escape of reality or routine,” can improve our ability to manage emotions. “Most people use some escapism every day, whether streaming a show, playing a game, listening to a song, or exercising. It can be explorative and serve as a way to gain a deeper, more nuanced perspective on a problem. It can also enhance motivation.
However, it’s twofold. Dr. Frode Stenseng, an author of the study and psychology professor from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, says to watch out for escapism’s darker side: using activity to suppress negative emotions and thoughts, (in this case literally and figuratively running away from reality).
“You do something that is good for your physical health, but it actually destroys your mental health,” he tells Fortune. “You’re numbing your emotions.”
Self-suppression vs. self-expansion
Using running as an escape is not inherently fraught, but “the mindset of your escapism is more important than the activity itself,” Stenseng says. “You have to be aware of the kind of emotion regulation strategies you bring into your activity,” and whether you are engaging in escapism for self-suppression or for self-expansion.
When running, if you’re aware of your surroundings and open to feeling however you may, you’re more likely geared to self-expansion. You’re more likely in self-suppression mode when running and using all your brain energy to avoid thoughts about negative emotions.
In the study of nearly 230 runners of all levels, participants filled out questionnaires related to their motives behind running, their exercise dependence, and their overall well-being.
The participants were asked if they felt running led them to learn new things about themselves or feel more open to new experiences and perspectives, which determined their level of self-expansion. When participants felt they were more closely correlated with statements like, “when I run I try to forget the difficult things in my life” or “when I run, I want to escape from reality,” Stenseng says it’s a sign of self-suppression.
The study found that running to suppress was most heavily associated with exercise dependence, and was associated with a diminished subjective well-being. Self-expansion, instead, was not as tightly correlated with exercise dependence and instead led to a positive sense of well-being. Suppression exacerbates negative feelings, leading to a harmful spiral where continuing to run only buries those feelings further. Moreso, a decrease in well-being may be both a cause and an outcome of exercise dependence.
It’s no shock that if you want to avoid dealing with your emotions, engaging in the activity that makes you escape can become addicting. This dependence can lead someone to engage in an activity to cover up larger problems, which in the case of running, can lead to physical injury and mental health problems.
“When you try to suppress your negative emotions, research shows that you also kind of restrain your positive emotions,” Stenseng says. “It’s not possible to suppress your negative emotions, and let kind of the positive emotions flourish.”
Stenseng found that the more someone ran to be more mindful and present, the more their well-being improved.
How to balance exercise and escapism?
The bottom line: running or jogging is good for us, but a few miles isn’t going to solve our problems like we may have hoped. Being more mindful of the reasons behind engaging in different forms of escapism can help people be more intentional, Stenseng says.
“We need all these activities where we can explore the more narrow parts of ourselves, or just let our thoughts kind of wander,” he says. “But when you are engaging in this activity, and you use so much energy, to just try to keep all your negative emotions and thoughts away, you actually should stop running and deal with your problems … we have to ask ourselves, why is this? Why are these activities and these kinds of cultural habits so important to us?”
In future studies, Stenseng hopes to find out more concretely how much exercise dependence affects well-being, and how to change mindsets when looking to escape to promote learning and expansion over avoidance.
So next time you head outside on that jog, practice being more mindful of anything that may bubble up.
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