Stay in Motion to Save Your Health, Sanity, and Planet

Light up your life

You, and every atom within you, is in motion. Electrons move around the nucleus of each of your atoms, so think of them as little electric cords coiled around the center of positive and neutral (no charge) particles.

Think about the energy created in a light bulb furiously zipping about in the middle of the lamp to help you remember the electric cord (electrons) circle around the base of the lamp.

Then just imagine the scale is zillions of times smaller than a lamp.

Every atom external to your moving body is also in motion.

You are in motion at almost twenty miles per second. That is how quickly the Earth orbits around the sun.

Of course, everything else is in motion too. The spinning earth, all the whirling moons, stars, and galaxies.

These lights can become our light. Go the extra mile to find them, far from light pollution, and they can help light the way.

Live like an animal

Motion is our actual norm. If we sit around all the time, (We do), we will be fat and helpless when it comes time to hunt for edible plants and animals.

As primates, we have been bipedal for at least six million years. There are myriad theories. We stood up to see over the grass. To carry objects. To display our size. To follow herds. To wade and forage in the water. to conserve energy. To get less U.V.

We are still bipedal, but we are in a definite slump as our backs, shoulders, poor posture, organs, and joints will tell us if we listen.

Ironically, perhaps, we now move all over the planet, as cars and jets do, but we do it sitting around. Upon our devices, we often slouch without noticing.

How, then, did we become more sedentary than our predecessors?

Something went wrong about 200 years ago. We converted fossil fuels to energy instead of merely converting calories into human motion.

Most other animals obtain food and mates without a huge amount of indirect energy being wasted. Think of how all other animals live in order to borrow some of their simplicity and determination.

As with most lessons, we can learn from nature’s examples. We may not live without technology, but we can be more efficient with it. And remember that we have human bodies.

Getting our motion mojo back

Step one to rejoin the non-sedentary human race is to acknowledge that we are in motion, and we are animals — organisms that animate — that evolved to move.

Evolution is still being driven by the environment (always true) but since our modern environment is created by us, we have a choice as what kind of lifestyle we create and we maintain.

Not often discussed is that the energy we consume by sitting around is primarily from fossil fuel and/or battery-stored motion.

Motion that we make with physical exercise is human use of calories and is much healthier for our muscles as well as the quality of our air and weather. Use this as motivation to self-heal and self-regulate.

It’s of course, the ‘feel better as a better person’ ethical thing to do, as well.

Get outdoors and mindfully immerse yourself into living systems. Choose to walk, climb, swim, bike, dance, play active games, and more. Switch out to try new things with new people. Be active with others. If you still feel a need for the gym, consider walking there!

Reduce work stress and strain

When not able to move for recreation, make it part of your work.

Desk exercise is highly recommended. Or, sit on an exercise ball, or a standing desk sometimes, to stretch, lunge, rotate, and extend your neck and limbs.

Do this for just a couple of minutes. Set a non-intrusive on-the-half-hour reminder to keep your heart pumping, your muscles moving, and your posture noticed, and to reduce accumulative slump and inattention disorders that affect blood flow. This keeps you more attuned to avoid aches and pains throughout the body that we get from inattention.

Take walking meetings, and walking lunches, when possible. Always take the stairs and/or long corridors if you can.

When shopping at any store, use the cart as an anchor to stretch, and lunge out arms and legs periodically. If someone asks why you are making strange motions, share the wealth and help their heart get moving too!

Also as part of shopping, make sure you park far from the store. It is less stressful than circling to get that close by parking stall. It will provide a wider, maybe even shadier, spot for you, and you get the bonus benefit of exercise. There is also a human animal element. In being less competitive and territorial, you will just feel more in control and less frustrated. Walking back and forth provides just enough time to calm your pulse, clear your mind, and take in more oxygen.

Put music, or sing, while doing your housework. Make routine chores more fun by adding some dance steps.

At home, every kind of intimate activity is good exercise too, with the added benefit of bonding with loved ones. Everything from family dancing while watching television shows, to sweating while horizontal can fit into this category of adding more meaning and movement — even being moved emotionally — to your life.

Volunteer to be mobile

We evolved in small social groups that moved around to get things done collaboratively; following seasonal foods and flocks.

Today we can travel abroad to make a difference, or stay home and make a difference. Or both.

We still have this need for motion in our DNA. When you volunteer to walk dogs, or foster cats, or clean up a shore, collect citizen science data, you are moving in ways that are of tremendous good for your body and soul.

There are millions of volunteer causes to get moving on. And the world needs your presence and participation more than ever.

Find you passion, and put your mental and physical passion into it.

…

Clap, follow, highlight, and/or comment for more Christyl Rivers

—

This post was previously published on medium.com.

***