Happy Walking Could Help with Depression

By Sondra Forsyth

Want to improve your mood? It can help to walk as if youΓÇÖre happy, according to new research.

A study from Canadian researchers showed that people who were prompted to walk in a slump-shouldered style experienced worse moods than those who were prompted to walk in a happier, bouncing style.

Nikolaus Troje, of QueenΓÇÖs University, Kingston, Ontario, a co-author on the paper, has shown in past research that depressed people move very differently than happy people.

ΓÇ£It is not surprising that our mood, the way we feel, affects how we walk, but we want[ed] to see whether the way we move also affects how we feel,ΓÇ¥ Troje said.

Troie and colleagues from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research had subjects read a list of positive and negative words, and then asked them to walk on a treadmill. The walking styles and postures were measured via a gauge that prompted participants to walk either in a depressed style or a happy style. Afterward, the subjects had to write down as many words as they could remember from the list theyΓÇÖd been shown. People who had been prompted to walk in a depressed style recalled more negative words, indicating that the depressed walking style led to a more depressed mood. But people who had been prompted to walk in a happy style remembered more positive words.

Researchers said that the study amplifies our understanding of how mood affects memory. Clinically depressed patients remember more negative than positive life events. ΓÇ£If you can break that self-perpetuating cycle,ΓÇ¥ Troje said, ΓÇ£you might have a strong therapeutic tool to work with depressive patients.ΓÇ¥

The study was published in Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry