Five Top Tips to Care for Your Body While You Work!
“I just need to get through this busy spell, then I’ll have the time.”
Has anyone else been saying that for at least the last 3 years now? 😅
Full disclosure, this was my view at 21:33 last Sunday. Sometimes you just gotta mind map it out!
When you’re dedicated to your job or focused on growing your business it is so easy to spend every second thinking about work. Feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do anything except work.
You might collect some new aches and pains along the way, or have old ones return with a vengeance… and then just accept that this is how life is now. My body hurts and that’s just that.
But that’s not quite true.
We don’t need to live with aches and pains, and being dedicated to your job is not incompatible with caring for your body.
And we don’t need to take hours out of our day to make a big difference to how our bodies feel.
If you think you need to go big or go back to your desk, or if you feel helpless about changing how your body feels I have some great news for you!
Integrating movement into your day will help you care for your body while you boss your work life.
Integrated movement isn’t anything fancy - it’s quite simply moving little and often throughout the day. I said simply, because it can be simple but I know it isn’t always easy, so here are my top five tips…
Four Top Tips For Integrating Movement into Your Day That Aren’t Just “Set an Alarm”
I’d ignore the alarm too. If that was the solution we would all already be doing it!!
Top Tip #1 Bin your thoughts on what counts as ‘enough’ movement
If we can’t do enough, why start, right?
I’m the same… I don’t like to half-ass things, but your body has no idea what ‘enough’ is. It will respond to the movement you give it, so any movement is enough to help you start feeling more supple and pain-free!
Do what you can, and enjoy knowing that you’ve started! You’re on the way!
Top Tip #2 Join Flown - They will guide you through movement breaks!
Flown has taken the stress-rest balancing act and built a wonderful community out of it. I use Flown every day (no joke!), and it helps me structure my work so I know I’m getting enough done, and take regular breaks for my body and mind!
If you’d like to try Flown, you can get 30 days free here! 👇
Top Tip #3 Work out how much time you actually have - and not just in your head!
Have you ever heard of time-blindness?
Nope, this isn’t an excuse for ignoring the aging process. It’s one of the symptoms of ADHD, and in short, it means struggling to deal with time. Struggling to know how long things will take, not feeling the passage of time, and not intuitively ‘seeing’ tasks in a linear order.
My Sunsama dashboard today! It gives me a way of linking my tasks to time, and visually seeing what I’ve got to do - and it yells at me if I schedule too much!
Newsflash - We don’t all perceive time the same way! So if you’re continually at a loss for how long things will take or struggle to prioritise, I have another suggestion for you - Sunsama.
Sunsama has been a game changer for my days - I use it every day (alongside Flown) to help me understand how much time I have. then I can SCHEDULE my movement breaks!
If you don’t know how much time you have, of course, you struggle to integrate movement into your day! Start with the time issue, then the movement can follow! You can try Sunsama here! 👇
Top Tip #4 Start with one or two movements you know feel good!
Even putting your arms over your head counts - Snapped while I was proofreading this post!
You already know how to roll your shoulders back and down - so start there!
The basics still work. Use them! You don’t need to look for new exercises, you already know ways to move that feel good for you. If you need to, write a list or mind-map the exercises and stretches you already know and pop that on your desk as a visual prompt!
If it feels to simple, then it’s perfect!
…And if you do nothing else, take a moment to breath, roll your shoulders back, and then keep working.
I’ve gone from physical jobs to desk jobs, from a project manager to a business owner, and from feeling stiff and crunchy to feeling free in my body even when deadlines loom. If you’re feeling sore and stuck and like you need help integrating movement into your life, you can reach out right here!
