Movement is Medicine
“In our own search for beauty and what is good in life, we would do well to head outside and wander around. In an attempt to unlock a deeper part of our consciousness and access high levels of our mind, we would do well to get our body moving and our blood flowing.”
- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key
Have you ever been excited to start a new project, but then found yourself a slave to old routines and bad habits? You can’t explain your perpetuating sadness, but you spend your days in the trap of infinite scroll, eating junk food, and losing moments of your life to TikTok videos.
The harsh truth: There is no pretty picture to paint or a ground-breaking piece of technology that will end procrastination. Procrastination starts and ends with you.
Moving helps you build momentum. Why should stop when you are already moving? Literally. You have already crossed the hurdle from thinking to doing and now all you have to do is keep going. Easy enough.
Ryan Holiday said it best in Stillness is the key,
“Yes we are in motion when we walk, but it is not frenzied motion or even conscious motion - it is repetitive, ritualized motion. It is deliberate. It is an exercise in peace.”
By going for a casual stroll or doing any light exercise, you may find that you seem to unlock the hidden insight you’ve been looking for. Movement creates a shift in your cognitive processing that allows for creative inspiration and unique solutions to come to mind.
You can trick your brain by building the momentum of physical movement. This is a great way to hack your brain out of cyclical thought patterns, doubt, and other inhibiting feelings. Just get up and do something! Anything! Throw something away, change your clothes, clean, or go for a walk.
The point is to get your brain out of the “let’s think about this” mode and shift into the “let’s do something about this” mode. Even getting out of bed after laying down for an extended period of time or just putting your phone down to use the bathroom can be the first steps to tackling your procrastination.
Remember, if you ever feel crippled by your procrastination. Just start doing something and moving your body. Build the momentum of doing so you can slowly direct it to what you want to accomplish.
