Celebrating Activity

[livingdeb]

Here's a quote I really like (I can't find who created it):

"Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do, not a punishment for what you ate."

But my brain proposes these wacky responses:

* Yes, I should find ways to make the punishment more fun.

* No, right, everyone should exercise, even if they don't eat too much, because exercise is good for you. So it's really a punishment for living a life of leisure.

* "Exercise" in itself means something you should do. Celebrating is something you (ideally) want to do (I admit that some celebrations are no fun for at least some of the people involved). So this quote should be about activity, not exercise.

* And, well sure, some activity actually is fun. Stretching feels really good sometimes, like after waking up in the morning and after sitting too long. I like dancing to music. And of course it's obvious just how many movements I like to celebrate whenever something's aching or broken and I can't do those things.

* Oh yeah? Well what about all the aching the day after the celebrations, huh?

* And what about when we celebrate things that it turns out our bodies can't do after all?

Comments

[reedrover]

I've found in the past year or so that I'm back to liking how my body feels. I want to move because moving feels good, and when I make a deliberate effort to attend to feelings and feedback (celebrate my body), I notice that comprehensively positive feeling of body and mind in harmony for a purpose of motion. I want to shovel because the process is good for the barn *and* I feel competent and capable while I do it. I like how my back, butt, and leg muscles feel when they engage together to take me up the stairs. It doesn't feel "good" so much as "right and correct." Yes, this is how I am built to function. All is precisely as it should be.