How much movement do you have in your life?

Yesterday I was coaching a coach and she said that she can help people who feel unmotivated, but she can’t motivate herself. This is a classic example of the saying “the shoemaker goes barefoot.” I see it quite a lot when I coach coaches.

She told me what she encourages her clients to do. It was all positive things like mindfulness, meditation and gratitude. But these methods are all sedentary. They work fine if you are already in a reasonably good state of mind. However, they can only go so far if you are drowning in negative emotions.

When you are stuck in a negative mood or feeling your frustration levels soar, you need to shift your body in order to shift your state of mind. I wanted her to see for herself that movement is a powerful mood buster. So I invited her to get up and dance with exaggerated movements. We did it together, and after a few minutes she said “My whole body feels rejuvenated. The stress has just melted away.”

At first she said she would use movement every time she felt stressed. So I asked if it was necessary to wait until feeling stressed before doing anything about it. She then decided it would be a good idea to do some kind of movement every day to manage her feelings.

And this is what I invite you to do. You don’t wait until you are suffering from malnutrition before eating a meal. I hope you eat every day! In the same way, I invite you to do some kind of physical movement every day to help to regulate your emotions. Emotional mastery is so important!

I cannot say enough about how helpful it is to have a morning routine that involves some kind of movement. This is why I dance every morning. What kind of movement do you like to do to give you positive feelings?