As a trainer, when I meet with clients one of the first things I ask is, " what do you like to do?" This is an important question, as it lets me in to learn a little more about the person. It tells a short story about one's personality, about their passions or struggles. It helps me to formulate ways to inspire a healthy mindset.
Here is how I see it. A person can eat all of the veggies they want, but if their attitude is not positive, or their emotional health is not in a healthy place, the stress hormones the body produces as a result, can cause more dis-stress within the body than those veggies can counteract. How do we deal with dis-stress within our bodies?
Think about that last time you felt at peace, felt blissful, had so much fun you couldn't stand it. Translate those feelings into movement. Happy movement.
Happy movement might mean dancing for me, or, for my husband, working the deck on a sailboat. It might mean running with friends, or going on a mindful beach walk. It might mean rowing a boat or kayak over the cool waters. It might mean sweating together amongst a small group of friends, or flowing from an upward dog to a downward facing dog. Whatever it is for you, we need more of it. We need it often. We must find ways to do it routinely.
Movement involves using muscles to move our bodies, which burn calories, and keep our joints healthy. Movement in the form of things that we enjoy doing gives us intrinsic motivation to keep on doing it. That is, we do it for the sheer joy of doing it, not because we get a prize for doing it. We look forward to doing it, therefore we make efforts to do it more often. THIS is inspired movement. It becomes almost therapeutic for us. We generate more happy chemicals within our bodies. Enough happy chemicals can kick those (dis-)stress hormones to the curb.
We win!
So think about what you enjoy doing. How do you like to move your body? Add some inspired movement to your wellness routine.
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