Breathing also helps

The list of benefits arising from meditation is long.  It includes stuff like lower blood pressure, longer life, reduced stress, and the like.  But what if we can’t cope with sitting still?

Here are a couple of alternatives:

1.     Go to yoga.  You get to move and meditate at the same time.

2.     Go to church.  Depending on your faith tradition, you can pray/meditate while standing, sitting, and/or kneeling.  Some traditions even incorporate dance.  Singing and chanting also count.

3.     Write in your journal.  It can have the same letting-go-of-thoughts effect.  And you get to move your hand the whole time.

4.     Go for a walk.  Without the headphones.  Be present.

And the colors!

I get excited about fall.  Somehow, after the summer, I feel ready to get stuff done.  I like the cooler mornings.  I like sweaters.  I like socks, crazy or otherwise.

However, some people find the shift in tilt a little less pleasant.  The increase in darkness seems more depressing than cozy.

Cardio to the rescue!  There is no better mood-enhancer than getting the heart pumping.  Maybe it doesn’t feel fabulous in the moment (maybe it does!), but definitely afterwards we can sense a shift in our outlook.  Not only that, but we’ll sleep better and we are all saner after a good night of sleep.

Run, walk, swim, dance, hop, whatever it takes!

Adaptation

One good reason to experiment with different kinds of exercise lies buried in the fact that stuff sometimes happens.

When it’s a question of bad stuff, like poor air quality, injury, depression, sleep interruption, traffic, or hair-related problems, we have to find something that will keep us moving without making us feel worse.  If, for example, we have a knee issue, it might be time to do all upper body.  If the air outside makes us cough, it might be time to hit the gym or the mall for walking.  If we have trouble with weight-bearing, we can try swimming.

Even good stuff can require us to adapt.  Maybe we have been blessed with a new partner or baby or puppy.  Those new beings take a lot of time and energy and we might have to find ways to be extra efficient in our workouts (or invite them along) in order to make it work.

What we do doesn’t matter that much.  But we do have to do it.  Go play.