Activity & recovery, yin and yang, sleep and awake, day and night...opposites that balance each other. We all need balance in our lives. Fitness encompasses the whole person, not just working out to extremes to compensate for poor eating habits or to try to recapture the body we had 20 years ago. It's about loving yourself, nurturing yourself and taking time to rest, recover and sleep after movement. It's about choosing wholesome foods to nourish your body 80% of the time. It's about moving wisely to make your body stronger, not break it down with "killer" workouts without adequate recovery which could be anywhere from one to THREE days--yes, three days. Nor is it about skimping on sleep to cram everything on your To Do list into each day. In a study reported in ACE Fitness Journal, teenaged athletes needed ten hours of sleep a night to adequately recover for optimal sports performance. Personally, I've found this to be true for myself on days of long or intense movement sessions and don't see why this study wouldn't apply to adult athletes as well. It's about taking time to relax and meditate. Meditation could be active meditation such as art therapy while practicing gratitude or mentally "letting go" as you listen to soothing music. It could be yoga. It could even be chopping wood and washing dishes as the Buddhists say, if those are done mindfully. To quote Confucious, "The wise man eats when he's hungry, drinks when he's thirsty, and sleeps when he's tired." How opposite this is to our modern Western society. No wonder we're chronically exhausted, feeling as if our wells have run dry. If you feel you need permission to take time out and to be kind to yourself, I grant you that. Bright blessings and Namaste (Namaste: the divine in me acknowledges the divine in you.)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLover of dance, dance-fitness and aquatic fitness. Archives
January 2020
Categories
All
|