Move To Feel Good
Recalibrate the way you move to better serve your body.
Exercise doesn’t need to be highly regimented, results oriented, measured, data-driven, painful, dreadful, or time consuming.
In fact, you’ll get better results if you find some form of movement that you enjoy. Explore new ways to move that feel good.
If you dread exercise but want to incorporate more of it into your daily life - shift your perception around exercise. Stop calling it “exercise” or “working out” if that’s a turn-off, and just think of it as “movement”. Recalibrate the way you move to better serve your body.
There is great power in simplicity. Just Listen to your Body.
It doesn’t need to be grueling in order to “count” or be effective. There is great power in simplicity. Listen to your body and find what works for you. Forget pace, certain number of steps, length of time, the latest trends – just do what feels right. Move with ease and joy. That is when you’ll start seeing results.
Movement should be natural, willful, enjoyable, convenient, and if you can also make it social – even better.
Although scheduling a class in advance can keep you accountable, it can also add an element of stress. Sometimes it’s better to wake up and decide what your body feels like doing that day.
The only thing that matters is that you enjoy it and that you feel better afterwards - physically and mentally. Find ways to make it natural, sustainable, and fun so that it’s easier to incorporate into your daily life rather than a chore.
There are so many options for movement and exercise. If you’re getting stuck, don’t know where to start, having trouble finding one you like, or having difficulty getting into a routine, reach out to me - I’d love to help.
Benefits of Movement
We all know there are countless benefits to exercising, but I’d like to reiterate a few of the most compelling:
Exercise activates parasympathetic nervous system and lowers inflammation, which are two very important factors in preventing disease. Therefore exercise drastically decreases your chances of developing an illness.
It also generates more “brain-derived neurotrophic factor”, or BDNF, which is a protein in the brain that promotes growth of new brain cells. What fertilizer does to a garden, BDNF does to the brain.
When you do any sort of movement, you’re sending your brain “feel good” chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins.
Movement has also to proven to significantly boost creativity, improve focus, alleviate symptoms of ADD, ADHD, depression, addiction and other mental disorders. According to research from Duke University, just 30 min of movement a day can be more effective than most medications that are typically prescribed to treat those disorders.
Movement is critical to longevity. Incorporating some form of movement into your daily routine is especially important if you have a job that requires you to sit at a desk all day. Sedentary behaviors lead to bone loss, especially after age 30, which causes restriction of movement, increase for injury, and reduces your ability to remain independent and active as you grow old.
