Many find themselves in this tired cycle: It begins with a burst of enthusiasm, exercising five days a week, ignoring junk food urges, and feeling great; but after a month or so, that enthusiastic energy has diminished, and the cycle begins again.

Anne Cox, associate professor for sport and exercise psychology, has a passion for this behavior. For the past 15 years, she has dedicated her career to researching the relationship between physical activity and an individual’s motivation to be active. She recently published a study that discovered that the motivation for exercise comes from mindful engagement.

Cox’s experience as a collegiate athlete and psychology major led her to want to learn more about what provokes people to move and what hinders others.

“We are naturally attracted to movement in its various forms, and you can tell that by looking at preschoolers or elementary school kids,” Cox said. “If you let them go out at recess, most of them are going to choose to move their bodies.”

As individuals grow older, the competitive outside world begins to affect them, such as sports teams and social media. Most get into situations that are rewarding in an extrinsic way, and winning becomes more important than having fun, Cox said.

As a result, a shift occurs in the brain, so that the primary reason to move is no longer about enjoying oneself, it all “becomes part of an equation,” and is based on mainly external reasons to do so, Cox said.

The messages individuals receive from society often associate movement with how an ideal body should look, along with what should be eaten in order to achieve that body type, overlooking the real reason why it is important to keep active, Cox said.

“We’re told to move just to get to this end product,” Cox said, “and the great irony is that sense of motivation does not help you keep moving. It’s not very successful at making you maintain physical activity across your life span; it feels controlling.”

Women tend to hear the message earlier than boys that they need to look a certain way to be accepted. A very high number of girls in fourth and fifth grade are starting to diet, Cox said.

Cox is passionate about shifting that message and helping people realize that they all have the potential to learn to enjoy movement in whatever form they find most gratifying.

“I’m very concerned about young girls and setting them on that course which some women never learn to get off of,” Cox said. “My mission is to make everyone feel good moving their body and to learn or re-learn that is the case.”

Cox said someone who is intrinsically motivated will not be variable with their diet and exercise routines. If individuals are able to maintain their intrinsic motivation or re-develop it, then they’re more likely to do it regularly because they enjoy it, Cox said.