Too busy to exercise? Too harried to focus on yourself?

If you’re like most, when life becomes hectic, we shave time from self care. Makes sense, right? You’ve got lots to do, limited time and only so much energy, focus and attention. So we save time by skipping our exercise routine for the day. Or perhaps several days. Maybe even a few weeks depending on our life and career rhythms. At a quick blanch, it makes sense.

Why is motion so important? Well … actually, there are both physiological and mental/emotional benefits to ‘regular motion.’ We’ve long been aware of the many physical benefits of exercise – strength, flexibility, cardiovascular health, greater bone density, enhanced metabolism, and OH! so much more. And some of those benefits can be a bit more illusive to observe; they are nevertheless, occurring.

Most people, when confronted with very busy times in life become a bit more stressed out. Have you ever noticed that much of our ‘stress’ comes from literally living in future or past moments. Movement of the body (things like exercise, walking, dance, sex, etc.) encourages us to be in the present moment. Engaging in activities that make use of the physical body allow us to put our focus on breath, motion, feeling the sensations of the body. These types of experiences allow us to become present by placing our focus on the body.

Making use of technique that involves engaging the senses – things like observing what colors are directly around you, what smells can you detect, what is the ambient noise around you; noticing what sensations your skin is presently feeling. This is a very simple exercise that packs a great punch in terms of results when used during times of stress or nervousness. If you can makes these observations, you notice your focus is no longer on what you may fretting over, but rather on the world directly in front of you.

And like the above, exercise accomplishes the same goal – bringing us back to the present moment. While we may not be soothing the emotional body directly, becoming very present also accomplishes soothing emotional states. It is almost impossible to be stressed out when you firmly occupy your present. The beauty of exercise is that you become present AND you also deliver meaningful benefits to your physicality.

Even more significant and much less widely known, it that motion assists your body in cleansing itself. Your lymphatic system, a system that is as extensive as the cardiovascular system, is responsible for cleaning every single cell in the body. Unlike the cardiovascular system, the lymphatic system does NOT have a pump (the heart). Motion – literally your daily motion – is the ‘pump’ that circulates your lymph. That means ALL your motion supports the circulation of this life giving system, the cleansing of all your cells, and therefore you’re assisting your body in manifesting health.

How much do you think your house would smell if you did not take out the trash for a week? How about a month? Do you think in that month, you’d begin to see the ‘science experiments’ growing in your trash? Just as we can observe the degradation of a growing garbage heap, we can also observe the degradation in a body that does not move. Ever notice how quickly bed ridden people can form bed sores or become sick? Precisely because the chief cleansing system of the body is much less effective when the body has no motion.

One other ‘less visible’ benefits of a regular regime is brain chemistry. Exercise produces the same endorphins as sex and thereby generally produces, moods that are lighter and brighter.

While we generally place our focus on the visible benefits of physical exercise, many less visible pluses are also occurring. I wanted to write this to help illuminate some of these pluses to exercise – it’s always helpful to have ‘gentle reminders’ of why we work so hard on our upkeep of the physical shell. And yes, having a great looking shell is very fine …. and over time, I think the less visible benefits of keeping up with your daily maintenance of motion actually conveys more valuable gains in life.