Moving out of a funk

Moving helps me think.  It creates a “spark” in my brain—it stimulates my creativity.  Greater minds than mine have said it, too.

“Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” ~ John Muir

Moving helps you think and there is scientific evidence to back it up.  Exercise induced brain chemicals clear your mind and help you think more clearly.  It can help lower your stress, lighten your mood, improve your health and increase your happiness.

So what happens if you just don’t feel like moving?  I didn’t.  I was in a funk.  It just wasn’t happening for me.  What was wrong with me?  I know better.  Two days in a row I went to my closet to find something and it wasn’t there.  My closet was in a clutter.  I had lost, or at the very least, forgotten where I had put some important papers.  My mind was up-ended.  I felt disorganized and, to use one of my favorite words, I felt “dis-combuberated.”

Time out.  I knew what was wrong.  It was my buckets.  One was full and the other was empty.  Let me tell you about my two bucket theory of life.

Bucket one is my stress bucket.  Bucket two is my peace of mind bucket.  When one gets full, the other gets empty.  It doesn’t take much.  One little stress added to another, added to another, fills up that stress bucket.  Filling up your stress bucket depletes your peace of mind bucket, that bucket that makes you feel better, adds to your happiness and your joy of life.

I wasn’t getting on with my usual daily life.  I knew I should get out and exercise but I didn’t feel like it.  I was working long days, I was tired and I just didn’t have the get up and go to get up and go . . . That made me feel even more distressed.  I didn’t have enough energy to exercise.  So, I didn’t.  When you don’t have enough energy to exercise—you don’t have enough energy to exercise—and when you don’t exercise, you don’t have enough energy .  .  . and so it goes.  Do you ever have days like that?

The next morning I took charge.  I put on my running shoes and made myself go.  I forced myself out the door.  Sometimes it’s just like that.  As I ran along Old River Road, the sun glinting off the water, I felt renewed.  My mind felt alive again.  Moving again.  Moving out of my funk.   I think that’s the answer to moving out of your funk.  Moving.

Yours in fitness,
Olivia C. Rossi, RN, MSN