If you follow me on social media you already know that we have been doing a movement challenge through the month of October. What and how much you move isn't the focus this time around, moreso just moving intentionally every. single. day. 

Benefits of creating habits for movement include:

1. You will be more likely to continue moving beyond a given challenge

2. Chances are, if you are starting at even 10 minutes of walking or 1 sun salutation, you will eventually turn 10 min into 30 and 1 sun salutation into a yoga flow.

3. Setting an achievable goal will have more benefit to your internal reward center and mental state that creating an unsustainable plan.

4. Consistency matters. The body is dynamic and requires movement. Small efforts can often have compound benefit in contrast to sporadic but rare activity.

5. Doing what we say we are going to do has been shown to increase confidence and self esteem.

6. Exercise has shown to have better or equal benefit to depression or low mental state when compared to anti-depressants.

7. When life gets busy, exercise can be an easy thing to drop due to "having no time" or frankly being too tired. Maintaining daily movement however often has outcomes that will support you by improving energy levels and allowing for a more restful sleep.

8. When the days become shorter and colder, our animal instinct is to hibernate and slow down. This isn't always bad, but slowing down doesn't have to equal being sedentary. It can mean nurturing rest and sleep habits or shifting the types of activities you are choosing.

9. You may need to be creative in finding opportunities for movement be it the activity itself (while your kids are on the park, try out the monkey bars for example) or finding the pockets of time where you can (do you have a 30 minute window between picking up kids? Maybe stop at the flight of stairs on the way and walk or run a flight, or instead of having a zoom meeting see if you are able to meet for a walk instead).

10. Maintaining and improving our health and resiliency requires healthy habits. Regular movement habits are a big one!

Movement matters.