I write to you from my brand new standing desk. This high-tech piece of office equipment, a cornerstone of the Silicon Valley start-up, has been fashioned by setting my computer on top of my roommate’s printer at the kitchen counter. Not as shiny and sleek as the standing desks that grace Business Insider as the golden elixir of the 90-hour work week, but it will do. Bouncing up and down to the new Lil Uzi Vert song on my Weekly Discover Playlist on Spotify, I type each word with more umph than usual. For this is the way my body likes to move. Rocking my hips from side to side on the beat, I step touch and press send on the email I was writing.
Recently I read the book No Sweat by Michelle Segar. Segar is an amazing psychology professor here at Michigan, a woman I admire, and someone that I had the pleasure of meeting last week to talk about conducting a study about the mental and physical health of college students. Segar’s book was thought-provoking, extremely readable, and had so much psychology interwound through each chapter that I couldn’t help but adore it. She unpacks the question of why humans don’t exercise more, despite knowing that it is good for them. This question has been one that I personally ask myself, frequently. Why don’t I exercise when I know that it is good for me, that I will be nicer, happier, and less stressed as a result? Why do I often choose to lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, or sit and eat more food when I am super stressed out, missing my yoga class that I know will make me more relaxed? As much as I try to motivate myself into making good decisions, I often choose the worse option of the two for my long-term happiness and health. And I am a pretty rational, growth mindset-advocating person! I have read about the benefits of exercise, devour books about the psychology of motivation, and really try to make healthy habits, and yet, frequently, I fail to choose what is best for me.
Segar’s response is that humans are emotional creatures, and often times we make decisions for short-term pleasurable feelings, instead of the long-term benefits that we cognitively know to be true. As theologian James K. A. Smith said at a talk on Thursday, “a human is not simply a brain on a stick.” He also said that 5-7% of the decisions we make throughout one day are actually cognitively chosen by us, the rest are a result of our subconscious, habits, and emotional systems.
As I examined my own life, I definitely agreed. Sometimes, it just feels so much easier to eat something or lay in my bed, my time-tested ways of feeling good in the short-term, instead of exercising or doing something productive. Segar’s solution, is to change our mindset about exercise, removing the “should” from the conversation. Instead of viewing exercise as a chore, something that needs to be done, we are much more likely to exercise if we view it as a gift for our bodies, something we enjoy doing. This requires that we move in the way our bodies love to move. At first a bit skeptical, I tried to think of an exercise that I really loved, to no avail. But then I realized I was asking the wrong question. Instead of asking about exercise, a word that I associate with obligation and “should”, I needed to ask myself in what ways does my body love to move itself.
So this is how I ended up gyrating my hips from side to side at my rudimentary stand-up desk writing this reflection. This question of “how do you, Sarah Wood, like to move your body?” was answered with an hour long stroll through the Arb yesterday, an early morning dance session that carried me through my teeth brushing and showering, and a Hilary Duff sing-a-long, complete with full lyrical choreography around the kitchen making hummus with my mom. It has resulted in me leaving for my classes 15 minutes earlier to take the longest meander possible, choosing the stairs over the elevator so I can hum to my favorite song without freaking out those sardined in the elevator with me, and looking for ways to dance through my day. A former competitive dancer, it has been a long time since I have danced for fun, with no one watching or judging, moving not to improve, but to enjoy. I have felt my yoga practice begin to flow in ways it has never before when I change my mindset from exercise to movement, as I move with the internal rhythm I haven’t listened to in years. Once my body started to enjoy moving, I found joy in my body. Not for what it looks like or what it should be doing, but for what it loves doing.
Today I was thinking about my experience living in Barcelona for 6 months, a time when I was my most joyful, loved my body, and never considered spending a precious moment in the gym. Reflecting on how I spent my time, I realized that I moved my body in the ways it loved to move, without even trying. I walked everywhere, often 5 or 6 miles a day, always with the company of a friend or awesome playlist. At night, my friends and I spent hours dancing, moving our bodies in their most joyful expressions, limbs flailing and laughing until our stomachs hurt. Of course there are some major differences between Barcelona in the spring and mid-semester of Ann Arbor’s winter, but I have committed myself to applying these insights about my body’s most jubilant movements to my Ann Arbor reality. I vow to bring the bright spots of Barcelona back in the form of micro-moves, small changes in my everyday.
I now set these intentions:
- Walk as much as I can, wherever I can. Travel with an exploration mindset, the lightness of curiosity, and the company of great music or conversation
- Find ways to dance wherever and however possible. While doing mindless tasks, at the bar, in my yoga flows… all are places to move joyfully, in the way my body loves
If I must go, I will walk. If I must do, I will dance. Paying attention to my body and giving it the movement that it loves, the chains of “should” and “must” have melted away and given me space. In this space I will walk, I will dance, and I will move. In this space, I feel free.