A Move In the Right Direction

“You are how you move,” or should it be, “You are how you don’t move?”

Take a moment and ask yourself the above question, and be honest. Do your movements, or lack thereof, play a role in your attitude towards life and the current outcomes you are living in?

Our body is our soul’s last attempt to get us to listen. The pain you feel, your aching back, your sore feet, your “hunched over the computer” posture, and your sucked-in cell phone body positioning slowly change your interactions with life and negatively affect your overall health and well-being.

The truth is, how we do some things is often how we do most things. So, stop for a moment and assess your posture, your positioning, and your breathing. Ask yourself if this is how you want to be presented to the world. Is this a posture that screams five-star general ready to take on the next task, or are you more like Quasimodo anticipating yet another bag to be thrown on your aching back?

For many of us, we yo-yo from one quick fix to another, one diet to the next, or one fitness fad to the latest with little success. Our same issues are still lingering, and we make little to no measurable change in our everyday lives.

Make today Day One of a new perspective on living. Gain a new outlook on how you are presenting yourself to the world, not just in your yoga or CrossFit class but during all of your daily tasks. You know, the ones where no one is watching you; the ones that you think don’t affect you.

Things like:

• How you sit at your desk
• Lounging on your couch with your cell phone in hand
• How you sit behind the steering wheel
• How much you truly move during the day (total quantity)
• Your shoe choices
• How do you stand in the checkout line
• How you carry your bag, your laundry basket, or your 30-pound kid
• And finally, how you exercise

All the above and more play into how you physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically feel about yourself and life.

Today, pay attention to your feet. What direction are they pointing in when you walk? What type of shoes are you wearing? What part of your foot does and doesn’t touch the surface when your foot hits the ground? Do you spend more time on your bum or your feet?

For the next 24 hours, focus on your feet pointing forward when you walk and stand. Tune in if you are leaner: start to shift your bodyweight back to both feet. Consider kicking off those fancy shoes of yours and going tout naturel (a fancy way of saying all-natural in French) to give those feet a chance to do what they are meant to do in an environment that asks them to move, flex, stretch and breathe.

Every action has a Day One, and today is the day that you step back into your body and learn how to live in it again.

Here’s to a move in the right direction.

This post is part of our Ambassador series.

Hope Zavara owns and operates a yoga and functional fitness studio in her hometown of Hartford, WI. Along with the brick-and-mortar studio, Hope operates an online studio as well as training and seminars both live and online. You can find out more about her at www.HopeCoreFitness.com or www.HopeZvara.com.

Hope’s mission is to help others purposefully excel. Her own early struggle with a life-threatening eating disorder and then the loss of her first child led her to realize that her name is not just a name, but a symbol. Hope has helped change thousands of lives over the past 15 years, going beyond her experience in the fitness and wellness industry.