Joy from Movement

July 27, 2021

You may or may not have heard the phrase ‘Motion is Lotion’ referring to how movement helps your body lubricate your joints so movement is easier. Movement also helps with circulation and maintaining your muscles. Oh no I can hear you say, this post isn’t going to be about exercise is it?

No, it is about movement.

How do I like moving?

I love playing volleyball so it brings me great joy when a group of us get together to play. As we get older we laugh more as we play as well. It is rare that I play volleyball anymore so I consider it a treat.

I love swimming and so in Canada summer’s warmer weather provides that opportunity. I have gone in the water both later and earlier in the year, but those are mostly quick dips that shock my body and not full swims. When we travel to warm destinations we plan our trips so we can regularly swim and snorkel in warm ocean waters. A stop on Isla Holbox in Mexico included a memorable tour to see the whale sharks and snorkel alongside them. I highly recommend planning activities that allow you to move your body in ways you love while you are on vacation.

I love dancing so for my heart and lungs I either dance or do high intensity interval training to great dance music. This is my daily movement activity of choice.

I like walking, have bought great hiking shoes and live on a wonderful property in the middle of nowhere so this is my second movement activity of choice.

On our property we have both field and forest.

Walking through the field and the forest both bring my husband and I joy, but differently.

Walks through the field bring us joy as we stroke our pine trees and say hello to them. We do this because on a 49 acre property we have fewer than 20 pine trees. There used to be a porcupine on our property who loved our pine trees. It was great for her/him, not so great for them. While she/he was here our pine tree population was decreased to two, and one of those had been girdled. That tree survived and it has taken 15 years for our pines to begin to re-establish themselves. I like to think that our encouragement and love have helped.

Then there are the flowers. The colour of our field changes with the months of the year and from year to year. We used to have lots of Brown-eyed Susans, for the last two years we have had none. We love the smell of our Valerian, but are concerned with its invasiveness. Last year we had only a couple of milkweed plants for our Monarch butterflies, this year we have milkweed everywhere and therefore many more Monarchs – yay! We always have a large variety of purple wildflowers including vetch, lots of yellows including buttercups, and lots of whites including a wild baby’s breath. Finally, we have enjoyed watching as our trees have moved into the field. We have been mowing a path through our field for years. When we started there were no trees close to the path and only a couple of trees further in the field. We also only had ferns in one area of the field. Now our path is surrounded by trees on both sides of it and we have ferns in three areas. Many years we have also been blessed to have giant puffballs in late summer to early fall. That is when we have a meal of mushroom steaks that if left whole would be larger than our frypan! What a blessing.

In the animal department we enjoy watching hawks ride the afternoon updrafts, rabbits eating clover and our other wildflowers or come and investigate us, red efts, red squirrels, chipmunks, wild turkeys sauntering across the field on their way from here to there, deer playing, fox and coyote hunting voles and other small creatures, snakes enjoying the heat of summer, praying mantis, crickets, grasshoppers, voles, moles, and many other insects. Lately we have been using an app to identify the birds we listen to each day. What a blessing technology can be! We have lived here for 20 years now and have just learned the names of all the birds we hear singing. They include Blue Jays, various sparrows, warblers, wrens, ravens, Kingbirds, bald eagles, Vireo, Eastern Meadowlarks, waterthrushes, ovenbirds and a pileated woodpecker.

In our forest we enjoy the many mosses, fungi and plants on the forest floor, the insects and small animals we come across, listening to the birds singing, and of course walking among the trees, it is so peaceful.

This past Spring we started clearing out the dead material from up to 40’ of the cedar woods on the South side of our driveway. I started doing this work during my morning exercise routine, between high intensity intervals of movement. I cut dead branches and gathered fallen ones. Later we removed them and used them to fill holes elsewhere on our property. This movement became a favoured activity for myself because it was movement with a purpose. Yves and I continued this activity until the plants on the forest floor started coming up.

I also love the movement that comes from gardening. Often Yves and I weed while we are on the phone so we are focused on our conversations instead of completing a chore that is often not viewed as enjoyable in and of itself. Now that we have raised bed gardens I don’t actually mind weeding because it does not take very long anymore (meaning about an hour a week).

Movement is good for our body, but it is not always something we enjoy doing. It took me years to ensure I invested time each day to moving my body. For me the key was identifying activities I love to do and incorporating those activities into my life. Movement would not work for me any other way, if I do not enjoy doing it, I won’t do it, so I work hard to make sure I do activities that bring me joy.

My challenge to you this week if you are not already moving regularly, is to make a list of activities you enjoy doing that involve movement. How can you incorporate those activities into your life so your body can serve you the way you need it to? Commit to doing something each day to get your body moving. I highly recommend dancing to your favourite music – music lifts my Spirit as I move my body and I am sure it can do the same for you!

Remember, motion is lotion!

Velvet

Joyfully moving to music every day!