Endorphin Surge (Exercising Makes You Feel Great)

Hmmm, i think i had an endorphin surge today today :D
(surge here means sudden increase, not fluctuation)  

What is endorphin, you may ask? 

Endorphin is one of many substances found in our body that acts as neurotransmitter. Means, endorphin's function is to deliver nerve signal in our body. If endorphin binds with its specific receptor, it creates effect resembling opiates' effect. Yeah, i talked about opiates that includes morphine and heroine. Similar to those two opiates, endorphin creates an analgesic effect and a "feel-good" feeling in our body. The name endorphin itself comes from two words: ENDOgenous and MORPHINe, means endorphin is a morphine-like substances produced by our own body. Thanks to Allah the Merciful, it doesn't create an addiction like any exogenous opiate does.

Endorphin's production in human's body are influenced by few things, some of them are exercise, pain, loving someone, sex, and eating spicy food. Pain? Yes. According to Wikipedia, immediately after injury happened, endorphin is released to the blood stream to stop nerve cells from releasing more pain signal. This allows the organism to be in control with him/herself and continues with his/her activity for a period of time. Hmmm, let me think...I remembered a few days ago when some skin in my hand was burnt by my motorcycle's tailpipe and immediately after the burnt i didn't feel anything. I just reflectively pulled my hand from the tailpipe and the first thing i could think is to cool my hand, so i put my hand below a running water. After a ten minutes or so, i began to feel the stinging pain T,T 

So, i think i believe that for a minutes after the burnt happen, the endorphin takes control, therefore i didn't feel any pain for the first few minutes.

The easiest and simplest way to achieve increasing endorphin production for me, though, is by exercising. With a serious exercising, i can feel great with no obvious reason but endorphin surge. The last endorphin surge i can recall before today is the afternoon when i did yoga for the first time. Mmm, i know most yoga's poses for beginners look easy to do because they are so light and seem relaxing instead. The instructor tell us not to force our body, just do the pose as our body can afford it. If our body can't, just do as what we can. With regular exercise, our body's ability will be increased. But, after about one and a half hour of doing yoga, i was drenched in sweat. And in the last minutes of yoga, the relaxation part, suddenly i felt great. I don't know why, my body felt just great. Like i got an awesome present or achieve something great, but i didn't. One word to describe that: Endorphin surge.

The "feel-great" feeling after doing that yoga session lasted quite long, even after i slept on it overnight. The morning after that, i still felt kind of great, although not as intense as the day before. The endorphin must had been metabolized by my system and the "feel-great" feeling slowly diminished. Too bad, my second and next yoga sessions didn't generate the same effect. Maybe because i didnt' enjoy the poses practiced, or because i didn't go with my friend, i don't know.

Today, though, i feel the endorphin surge again. So, after come to an event in my campus, i went to mechanic to get my motorcycle checked and the oil lubricant changed. Turned out i had to wait for a quite long time because the mechanic had many works to be done. I decided to have a walk to a supermarket to buy some fruit. In a lazy days, i would use public transportation and sit in the seat nearest to the bus door, then let my mind wandering while i watch the road. But today i wanted to take a walk. It took about 25 minutes to walk from the mechanic to the supermarket. I walked slowly and observed things. Too bad my camera was out of order so i couldn't take pictures of that cute cat i met and a demonstration held by some college student near traffic light. I met two seniors on the way and had a conversation. Nothing to hurry, right? The mechanic said that it might take a long time before i could get my motorcycle done. 

After bought some fruits, i walked back to the mechanics. Took another 25 minutes but i chose a different route. And in the way back to the mechanic, i felt it! Endorphin surge! Slowly my body felt great. I hummed happily, but slowly that i am sure nobody would hear except myself. Everything looked great. I found a kind of flower that grown in my former house when i was a little girl, about 4 or 5 years old. I touched the flower when i was little, it felt so hairy but interesting to touch, in a non hurtful way. I remembered there were white and pink flowers in front of my former house, but this afternoon i just found the pink one. I stopped for a moment to touch the flower, wow, it felt the same like when i was little (zzz, you don't say Lia??? Haha, of course it does!).

Yeah, i still feel awesome. Hmm, i am going to sleep now, ready to metabolize this precious endorphin. Maybe this is how being on drug feel like? Why being addicted of illegal things if you can achieve the same effect just by exercising? Let's get a weekly dose of our endorphin by exercising!
*a motivation for myself*