The Movement Habit

 

    Making a habit is at once super hard and super easy. We automate so much in out lives that we don't even think about it half the time! Every day has a rhythm, a routine. You get up, make coffee, browse Facebook or other site to catch up on your social media, you go to work, eat dinner, and tend to go to the same places. This just makes life more manageable, predictable, and minimizes the mental resources we need to expend on a daily basis.

    What gets complicated, though, is when we try to introduce NEW habits into the mix. I recently did this, myself! I wanted to get more consistent movement practice in my routine, and wanted to go about it in a reasonable, reliable, efficient manner. For a few years now, I have been a follower of Zen Habits, a blog about just such changes! I went out and bought his book. Simply stated, the way to build a new habit is to start small, a minute or two a day, and gradually add in more as you become more successful. Currently, I get up at 5 am and get about an hour of my fundamentals in every morning, more or less, before work. My "trigger" is the alarm clock.

    Some days you do more, some days you do less. Sometimes I get an additional 30 - 60 minutes of movement in the evening, sometimes I don't. The point is to follow the essentials, or the minimum viable habit. But when you're looking at movement, we can look beyond a "workout routine" or determined time set aside for "exercise."

    Gravity is constantly at work on us. How we sit, stand, move, walk, travel through space is ALWAYS a certain kind of training. We might be training in moving and standing well, or we might be training poor postural and movement habits. But to just add a little bit, to add novel movements in to our day, is something that doesn't require a lot of commitment or a lot of thought. Try adding a few deep breaths after brushing your teeth, do a deep squat or a lunge stretch after driving to work, stretch your arms overhead a few times a day at work. Simple things, to keep your body-mind integrated and your awareness turned toward your quality of movement, even a little, during the day.

    If you need an idea, check out my video on shaking and swinging! Simple, silly, and gets you moving!