When I was at massage school, we had a saying, “move or die”. The saying was rooted in the fact that every cell, tissue, and organ system requires movement to thrive. Essentially, if you don’t move, your tissues dry out. The toxins in your organs accumulate and your body slowly becomes a stiff fossil, and then you die.
That statement remains as true as ever, but these days I think about how move or die applies to our brains and our nervous systems. If all physical health is utterly dependent on movement, our mental health is as well. After all, it’s only humans who decided that there’s a difference between physical and mental health… silly humans.
Check out my blog post to learn about the benefits of dance on stress.
It is no coincidence that during the pandemic millions of people instinctively took up physical and satisfying domestic tasks like baking, gardening, and home renovation. Our bodies know, even if our consciousness does not, that doing such things helps to make us feel purposeful, calm, and safe.
When we can combine healthy movement with accomplishment – like my dope stack of firewood – our nervous system gets to disperse repressed kinetic energy that’s been accumulating due to stress and our minds get to enjoy all of the mental, emotional and hormonal benefits of a job well done.
It doesn’t have to be running a marathon. Try a home yoga video, put on some music and dance, or get some spring cleaning done.
What are you going to do?
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