Movement As Medicine | Valeria Murillo | TEDxUniversity of Tirana Women

Quick Overview

Valeria Murillo argues that movement, not just exercise, is the most accessible form of healing, capable of releasing feel-good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins in the brain, which helps combat feelings of depression and anxiety, a realization she came to after experiencing severe depression during her third pregnancy while living abroad in China.

Key Points: Movement, rather than just exercise, is presented as the most accessible form of healing available to everyone. Physical activity releases three key brain chemicals: dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, which act as natural antidepressants and mood regulators. The speaker, Valeria Murillo, shared a personal story of severe depression and feeling unable to move during her third pregnancy while living in China without a support system. Murillo realized that movement provided her with clarity, confidence, strength, a sense of belonging, and connection with herself, which traditional medicine did not fully address. She emphasizes that movement is not about looking good or fitness; it is about feeling good mentally and spiritually. Murillo started her journey by trying out a functional gym near her home in Albania and later opened her own studio. The core message is that we should start moving one step, one walk, or one stretch at a time, rather than waiting for external answers or perfection.

Context: Valeria Murillo delivers a TEDx talk titled "Movement as Medicine" at TEDxUniversity of Tirana Women, sharing her personal journey of overcoming severe depression. She contrasts the prescriptive nature of medicine, which teaches how to heal others, with the self-healing power of movement. Her turning point came after moving to China while pregnant with her third child, where she felt isolated and deeply depressed, leading her to seek a deeper connection to herself through physical activity.

Detailed Analysis

Valeria Murillo opens her talk by acknowledging her initial nervousness and immediately introduces her central theme: we stop moving because we grow old, but we grow old because we stop moving. She uses a simple demonstration with a water bottle to illustrate that holding onto stress, anxiety, and trauma makes life feel heavy, and that stopping movement exacerbates this burden. Murillo reveals that her personal journey began when she was 22, lacking discipline and healthy habits, and later, during her third pregnancy while living in China without support, she experienced profound depression and felt disconnected from herself. She states that medicine teaches how to heal others, but movement teaches how to heal oneself. Following this realization, she began to move, which brought her clarity, confidence, strength, and a sense of connection. She highlights the scientific basis for this, noting that exercise releases dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, which act as natural antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Murillo contrasts the feeling of accomplishment after a workout with the feeling of calm and relaxation derived from movement, emphasizing that this is not about looking good or fitness, but about mental and spiritual well-being. She concludes by urging the audience to take one small step—one stretch, one walk—at a time, rather than waiting for external validation or perfection to start moving.