Would You Care to Dance?

Categories: Blog, blog Nov 24, 2019

If you’re familiar with OS you know that we come from the view that we were all made to move and movement keeps us strong and able. One of the greatest things you can do for yourself is to move your body the way it was designed to move often, every day. 

 

Two thousand years ago, this would not have even been a discussion.

 

Without technology humans most likely moved throughout the day every day. They used manpower and beast power. There were no engines, tractors, machines, computers, cars, or airplanes. People moved to live. They farmed, hunted, and gathered. They also depended on one another in community. Anyway, movement was not an issue for people back then. They had other issues. 

 

My point is that today, with all of our wonderful advances, we don’t use and move our body as it is intended or capable of being moved.

 

Technology is not a bad thing, I love it, but it can distract us or dissuade us from taking care of our bodies. Humans were simply not meant to spend over 10 hours a day in a chair. We’ve got way too many joints, muscles and tendons to not use them. We are built the way we are for a reason - to move. 

 

Fortunately for us, a little can go a long ways. It only takes a little movement, regular movement, to keep our ability to move the way we want to. Simple things like moving all of our joints and muscles by rolling and rocking on the floor or simply going for a deliberate walk using our arms and not just our legs can keep our bodies ready and able to move even as we age. 

 

Our bodies give us what we ask of them. If we regularly ask our bodies to move, we will retain our ability to move throughout every season in life. If we only ask our bodies to sit and stare at a tablet we will only retain the ability to do that as we age. That means if we aren’t able to move the way we want to right now, we haven’t been asking our bodies the right questions. 

 

The good news is that if we ask it nicely, it will give us what we want. What I mean is that if we engage in our design, no matter what state it is in, we are telling our bodies that we want something from it. We are asking it to allow us to move again. If we ask regularly, if we show up every day and move where we can, our bodies will understand that we want to move again and it will lay the foundation for us to do so. 

 

Basically, when we move regularly, it is as if we are asking our bodies, “Would you care to dance?” Of course the answer is “Yes, yes I believe I would.” We are built to move and we are designed to be able to always receive what we ask of our bodies (gently of course). Don’t force yourself on yourself. It is only through neglect, only through putting our bodies in perpetual timeout that our bodies start to fade away. 

 

Don’t neglect your design. Ask your body to dance and move freely throughout your life. 

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