Can I Practice What I Preach Right Now?
It’s getting harder to practice what I preach. I now understand how a lot of you feel. Let me explain.
Before this all went down, I was commuting an average of 13 hours a week between all my appointments. My commutes involved a lot of bike riding, walking, and standing in packed trains. I was seeing an average of 15 clients a week, each session involving physical movement to interact with my client. I was teaching 9 yoga/mobility classes a week, on my feet moving, demonstrating, and interacting with everyone in class. And then just like that, in a span of a few days, all of this disappeared.
In the beginning, I didn’t really notice the extent to which my movement habits were changing as a product of my new environment. I kept a morning movement practice and I kept going outside for my runs. But that didn’t cut it because I spent those first three weeks frantically working at my desk to take my business online. I spent more hours working on my computer and my phone in those days than I ever have in my life — I’ve never had a full time desk job. I started to experience major numbing in my forearms, my low back would ache by the end of the day, and most importantly, as the days went on, I found it more and more difficult to get motivated to move my body.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been countless times in the past that I’ve felt like shit for whatever reason and haven’t had the motivation to exercise or move. But those times were a direct result of mood swings, emotional lows. What’s happening now is different. It’s a direct result of my new lifestyle.
The past few years I’ve urged all of you to move more throughout your daily lives because I was doing it and I felt better than I ever have in my life. But what I realize now is that I was living a lifestyle that made more movement incredibly accessible. Moving throughout my day by teaching and commuting made me want to move more, it made getting outside for a run easier, it made going to the gym more appealing, it made exploring movements at home more accessible—I was already half way there because I was out and about all the time. My mind and my body were already in the movement mindset. Now, everything has changed, and sitting more makes me feel like moving less!! WTF??
Those of you who have desk jobs are nodding your heads and saying, umm yeah, welcome to our world. Yes, oh do I get it now and it’s only been 5 weeks! So, I wanted to share with you the TWO things that have actually—true story—helped me.
#1 SHOWING UP REGARDLESS
This has been really hard. This means that I have to give myself permission to not go all out when I don’t feel like it. How many times have you thought, “It’s not worth it to get up and move/exercise if I’m not doing a full hour” or “It won’t be beneficial to go outside and walk if I’m too tired to walk more than once around the block” or “It doesn’t make sense to roll out my yoga mat if the only thing I really want to do on it is lay on the floor”? I say these things regularly, I’m an all or nothing kind of gal. This is where I’m totally wrong and doing myself a major disservice. So, I’ve been showing up regardless. Early last week, I draaaaaged myself out the door for a run. A whole hour later, I got back home beaming with energy and so glad I went out. Don’t roll your eyes yet. Two days ago, I draaaaaaaged myself out the door for a run. Within 10 minutes, I was walking and heading back home. But you know what? I was still so glad I went out. Showing up regularly means we think about it less and less every time until it becomes a habit. When it becomes a habit, it becomes part of a lifestyle. Whether it’s a single stretch on your mat or a full hour yoga practice, you still showed up and that’s what’s important. In this blog post that I wrote about consistency, I talk about Dr. Andrew Huberman’s findings on how we can access our dopamine system intentionally by rewarding ourselves for the small wins regularly—micro rewards. This REALLY WORKS.
#2 MOVEMENT SNACKS
Piggy backing off the last point, when all I have the motivation/energy/time for is a quick pick me up, I choose a particular movement I love that I know get’s my body juiced up. I have a whole repertoire of faves so I don’t have to scratch my head thinking about what to do when I get out of my chair. They’re quick, they do the trick, and I can always do more if I feel like it or have the time. I call them movement snacks because it’s just like a real snack. Not a full meal, just enough fuel to keep me going till the next one. Write them down, so you have something to refer to on the spot. Not sure what to do? E-mail me!
Try these out, let me know how they work for you.
As always, let’s keep moving.
xoxo