A friend told me, “I need to walk so I can sit; and I need to sit so I can walk.”
I am that person who has lived a healthy lifestyle since adolescence. I’m glad, because I reap the benefits. However, no body escapes the wear and tear of life – especially from these past few Covid years.
Like most people, my job turned upside down. Like most of us, I was personally affected by the virus. My husband almost died from it. When he returned home after three months of hospitalization, we decided to change our lives.
While he was rehabilitating and enduring long Covid, we packed up a large home and business. We landed in a small rental for a year while we built our dream home in a new community.
I left my job without another one in place. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. A tornado lifted me out of my black and white world and dropped me near the Emerald City. Whew! How my body and soul ached.
I started moving again after nearly 10 consecutive months of high stress and little exercise. My body felt like it aged ten years. I started by walking my new neighborhood. The distance I was used to was challenging so I biked to discover more of my new community. I restarted my yoga and mat Pilates practices within the small space we lived. I even joined the local gym. What had been a lifelong refuge – fitness – had become a chore. While this was a common theme for most of my fitness clients, never for me. So, I practiced what I preached. I started slow and gave my body time to rest. I pushed myself to be consistent. By the tenth month I was moving again with pleasure and motivation.
Life stressors and sedentary habits aged my body within a short period of time. Movement, exercise, and activity restored what I had lost. While I do experience the wear of an aging body, like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, exercise is the oil for the joints and massage for the muscles.
Yes, I move so I can enjoy relaxing; I relax so I can store energy to move again.