Movement and body Awareness Key To Improved Physical And Mental Health

It’s possible to place a lot of pressure on yourself and believe those click-bait articles that remind you that when it comes to exercise, you’re simply not doing ‘enough’. But once you remove all the noise, the reality is simple. Regular, daily movement that amounts to around half-an-hour in your day, 5-days a week, is sufficient for maintaining generally good health. This means that anything from walking up some stairs to carrying groceries counts as ‘exercise’.

Intentionally moving your body is also a good way of building body awareness, which relates to clearly understanding where and how your body takes up and moves in space. Better body awareness can help to improve balance and reduce cases of clumsiness and injury. It can also help with diet, as you become more tuned in to when you’re hungry versus not.

Better movement and body awareness can improve not only physical health but mental health as well, since as you become more ‘one’ with your body, grow in strength and stamina, and feel healthier, your self-esteem begins to improve. Movement also releases endorphins (aka the ‘happiness hormone’). And, if you take up movement with others – like walking around the block with a friend – you feed your emotional health through socialisation.

Once you’ve got in the habit of moving your body daily, you might then want to take up a more ‘challenging’ but still fun exercise like salsa dancing. Specifically, salsa body movement builds body awareness, improves flexibility, and teaches you a new skill that you can show off at parties!

So, instead of ‘forcing’ yourself to exercise, all you need to do is simply learn to embrace the joys of everyday movement, and then add in one slightly more intensive activity – your body and mind will thank you.