Movement is essential to life and there are many ways to move.

Energy is a blessing. Strength can be cultivated; endurance slowly structured. Bodies are born with a predisposition to the proverbial fast and slow twitch muscles that loosely define one’s preference and natural abilities to marathon or sprint, so to speak. Furthermore, movement can be defined as affecting more than muscles and joints. Physically, mentally, spiritually and naturally movement is evidenced as that which is not stagnant or still, that which is voluntary or involuntary. Movement can be a motion or development, forced or relaxed, coordinated or unskillful. Movement is available to the limited as well as the unlimited; it is a concept to be defined individually and with personal parameters and goals.

To not move is to languish, to decay, to decline. It’s the old “use it or lose it” in real life. Perhaps, though, what is even more significant, is the intention we attach to our action or inaction. Surely finding that sweet spot of stillness enriches our lives, supporting moments of connection with our inner being and multiplying our energies for whatever else fills our existence. Again, it’s a matter of intention. If we allow ourselves to become inadvertently sucked into the mire of dormancy – allowing quiescence to become disabling – we may forever forfeit the awakening from a restful state that makes life something to be thankful for, miraculous.

Indeed, with all that is wrong with this world, there is also much that is right. Often the rightness is seasonal as each of us navigates surges of health, relationship and professional challenges; but the surges recede and we refuel. We refuel, that is, if we keep our mind and body well-maintained.

Before you close this post, hold on. No, I’m not about to harangue about fitness and training and pushing and setting goals and …. No, what I want to submit here is that there are many ways to move and perhaps movement, in and of itself, is the objective.

Our bodies and brains are miraculously made. We are formed to be functionally fit.  Many of us, desiring to go beyond the base level of health and conditioning, want to move into the area of performance and do so with varying degrees of confidence and success. Others seek balanced wellbeing. (No judgment. To each his own but again check that intention!)

Let me give you two personal examples.  My brother and I emphatically share what we have inherited and cultivated. We are clearly the ‘glass half full’ kind of people and overflow with energy, optimism and enthusiasm for oh so much of life. We commit, persevere and are fiercely loyal. Ethics are important to us. I often quip that my brother is so energetic, strong and active that he makes me look like a slug. (Those of you who know me, know that I am a little more active that an icky, crawly slug.)

But here’s the thing. My brother DOES NOT WORKOUT. I say this with emphasis as it is just that startling. He does, however, get equal benefit from all that he does. He is constantly on the go and has never shied away from strength demands. One can “work out” in a gym with a specifically constructed program or one can chop wood and climb mountains. I need not belabor the point.

I, on the other hand, have trained all my life from hours of class and rehearsal as a professional dancer to my work as a personal trainer designing fitness programs and encouraging clients to exercise regularly. Even today my Peloton rides, strength sessions and Yoga practices are structured as I continue to both model and teach. I also practice what I preach and this is what I’ve learned.

While intention is mandatory, balance is as well. We can stand on one foot physically, take care to work opposing muscle groups (how many times have I said that?) or weigh active/passive, training/rest. So that which I have learned is all about varying activity. We can build on the fascination of the standing desk or the admonition to stretch periodically during the course of a work day. We can intentionally plan blocks of time to work “out” or to work “outdoors,” to play sports and with our kids, to recreate and to literally realize the value of fun. And we can vary pace and intensity.

Once again, a personal example.  Coming from a long history of periodized running and cycling training, I am aware of the value of the LSD, long slow distance, to build endurance. Now I have swapped out the LSD for long, meandering walks with my chocolate lab, Sophie. On trails she is off leash, on country roads she is leashed. Either way, we work together. I defer (with admittedly occasional annoyance) to her nose, as she takes forever to sniff out scents along the way. She, in turn, sits and waits with sighing patience while I frame a scene and snap a picture. In another situation, those long pauses would have negated the value of the “workout” with distressing results. Wait! These long walks are not workouts. They are an additional option to move both physically and mentally, benefiting body and soul. Perhaps there is more to movement than muscular. Do we not shape mental stamina and emotional tolerance? Do we not encourage vision and focus and identification and introspection?

It may not always be what we plan or what we prefer, but there are many ways to move and each bears its own blessing and abundance. May you move each and every day, one way or another, with intention and with balance – and maybe even stop to sniff or snap a photo.