Exercising While Grieving
Today, in this continuing series of blogs on self care during a period of grief, I discuss the category of Exercising. If you missed Friday’s post about the importance of healthy Eating and Drinking, click here.
Move Through Your Grief
Our bodies are pretty extraordinary. If we support our natural healing, amazing results can occur. Exercise doesn’t need to be some structured activity in a gym (although it can be) the only requirement for exercise is to MOVE.
When we’re grieving, it’s sometimes difficult to get out of bed, shower, get dressed, or move off the couch. As a result, the idea of exercising while grieving may seem completely unattainable. However, like so many things in life, it’s possible, if we just start small.
Here are some ideas to get you started moving:
- Park at the edge of the parking lot and walk a little further to the store of your destination.
- Dance to a favorite song.
- Get down on the floor and play with a child.
- Walk around a park.
- Bike to work.
- Strap on ankle weights before you clean the house.
- Swim at your local activity center.
- Hike in nature.
- Stretch or practice yoga as you watch a guidance video on proper technique.
- Use a step counter to record how many steps you’re making in an average day. Aim to achieve at least 10,000 steps.
- Lift weights in your living room.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- March in place or pace back and forth when you’re talking on the telephone.
Relax and Allow Others to Move You
Movement doesn’t have to involve YOU moving your body. You can also pamper yourself a little bit by having someone else move your body (or the energy within your body) to help flush toxins out of your system and facilitate the flow of lymph:
- Enjoy a massage (deep tissue, lymphatic, reflexology, Thai Yoga, or other modality).
- Invigorate your energetic flow with acupuncture, Reiki, therapeutic touch, sound healing, crystal healing, light healing, or some other energetic healing modality.
- Realign your body with chiropractic, craniosacral therapy, or some other alignment modality.
When we’re grieving, movement of any kind is important to support our immune systems and help flush out accumulated toxins from bad food choices, stress, and emotional upheaval.
