Exercise is not Easy

Especially around kids

I mean some of us are kinetic and like to move, and certainly that is the way most humans seem to be born into the world

But then so many things go wrong.

We go to school, or doctors offices, or other places where the adults in our lives asks us to sit still.

to calm down

to stop moving so much

And I get it, as a parent who is on a constant vigil to keep these kids alive.

Sometimes I am too tired to continue to watch them moving.

Much too tired for that.

But this is how we learn not to move.

By being told to sit still

Discovering TV, smart phones, video games

things that passively entertain us

Even hand crafts like sewing or quilting, knitting, crocheting and needlework slow us down

and make us sit still

and then slowly but surely our bodies start to complain

Aches and lack of flexibility

Injuries when we go and actually play with our kids

Years working in an office in front of a computer

These all cause us to stop moving

So then the siren call of exercise starts. Especially if we have gained weight,

or just gotten slumpy in the mirror.

But most of it isn’t fun

It’s just something we do because we bought the program, bought the gym membership, bought the idea that if we do lots and lots of aerobics we will be happy again

We will look like the models, or the amazing mothers on TV.

Because who really wants to admit to stretch marks?

Or that we’d rather eat chocolate and ice cream and catch up on our sleep than move our bodies.

Because watching our children and keeping them from committing suicide accidentally, because they are constantly moving is

Exhausting

But yet we have to move our bodies too…

How do we change this?

How do we figure this out?

How do we stop shaming our bodies, our lives, ourselves?

Because after years of being told to sit still, we now suddenly have to move. Our brains aren’t wired to move any more, our body doesn’t remember, and yet if we can keep at it, day in and day out it will help.

At least we can try, to give ourselves grace. To understand it’s our fault and not our fault.

And to just make the subtlest choices to stand instead of sit, to walk instead of drive, to dance instead of sit still.

And maybe every now and then not admonish our children to sit still.