How to Age Gracefully: Daily Movement for Longevity & Peace of Mind
This piece is intended to get you thinking about movement & aging in a different way. In addition, I’ve created a 15-minute follow-along daily movement routine to keep you on the path to aging gracefully. For more resources check out my YouTube page: Movement Parallels Life
What is your story around AGING?
As soon as we’re born, the aging process begins. We don’t necessarily think about it as children or teenagers, but at some point we start to become aware of our years. We start looking for signs of our decline, we expect it. Once that narrative starts, it just seems to get stronger with time.
We’re all going through it and we’re all validating that it’s happening. Thus, we end up normalizing this story of aging as the process of breaking down and becoming obsolete.
When was the first time in your life you remember saying to yourself “Ugh, I’m getting old.” How many times has that thought popped up since then?
What if we devoted more energy & intention to changing this story?
A Vision for Aging Gracefully
Although, aging is inescapable…we can influence how we age through our perspective and lifestyle habits. It starts with creating a vision for how you want to age and then reverse engineering the habits that will support this vision.
My vision of aging is to continue expanding my world. As I grow older, I want to keep learning new things. I want to stay open to new ideas and cultural shifts. I want to continue seeing the world with curiosity and wonder. I want to turn my lived experiences into wisdom…and share what I’ve learned to help others.
With this vision in mind, I strive to cultivate habits to stay active, challenged, and inspired. At 38, I don’t have all the answers, but I use this vision to guide my decision making now. It’s a constant work-in-progress.
As soon as I started to feel old, I attempted to defy my age with excessive high-intensity exercise and rigid lifestyle habits. This approach eventually took it’s toll mentally and physically.
When I began accepting the aging process, I learned how to work with my body in a healthier way. My workouts shifted to create more balance in strength & mobility. My perspective shifted to longevity & sustainability.
Perhaps when we’re younger, we’re all a bit more self-centered and ego-driven. Time & experience prompted me to be more mindful of giving my body what it needs to thrive…so that I can better serve others in the world.
This mindfulness has overflowed into all other aspects of my life. And that has led to the realization that the ways we move are directly linked to the ways we think, feel, and live.
How we MOVE is how we LIVE
Movement is more than just exercise. Your movement & health habits are intertwined with your core values and worldview. Take time to consider how your movement & life overlap. I’ve been kind of obsessed with this idea for a long time (hence the name Movement Parallels Life). It’s been helpful in my evolution of recognizing patterns, building awareness, and connecting the dots to better understand myself.
Perhaps you’ve heard the saying before…“the way we do ONE THING is the way that we do ALL THINGS”.
I first took notice of this idea in one of my first fitness jobs. It was a high-end health club and I started out by working the floor — passing out towels, answering questions, and trying to drum up business.
I’ve always loved “people watching” and over those months I began to learn people’s different habits. How they would work out, how they socialized, and how they carried themselves in the world.
I noticed a rigidity and defensiveness in some people that was reflected in their movements & posture. In others, I noticed a lightness and exuberance and, this too, was reflected in the ways they moved.
Chronological age didn’t completely account for these “vibes”. I remember one lady in particular. She was in her 70’s but I swear she had 20 year old energy — exuberant and frenetic. She loved to shock everyone with her age and happily told them the secret to her longevity. She wasn’t a fitness guru, but her message was on point… keep on moving.
The simplicity of that message always stuck with me. Moving your body is a great start. In time, I came to learn the importance of HOW.
How we’re moving and thinking about movement. How we are exploring the overlap between movement, fitness, and our everyday lives.
This deeper exploration of movement can yield greater self-awareness. It’s a personal journey that is developed through our practice.
Daily Movement Practice
Aging gracefully requires a long-term commitment to balancing performance & restoration. Performance (i.e. a tough workout) gets all the clout, but RESTORATION is the key to longevity.
Think of restoration as the active process of maintaining your body and your movement. After all, when it comes to movement — you use it or you lose it. All of those little things we take for granted, like getting up & down from the ground, need to be practiced in order to be useable for life.
I call this practice the Daily Dose. Light movement sessions to maintain joints, strengthen movement patterns, and foster the mind-body connection. The prescription is a minimum of 30 minutes per day (all at once or broken up) of general movement & mobility. It’s not exactly a workout…think of it as a supplement. Your daily movement multi-vitamin.
The Daily Dose requires no equipment to get started….just a few basic movements to build your routine and a shift in your mindset.
The Movements
The Daily Dose practice is built on foundational, ground-based movements like rolling & rocking, sitting, crawling, kneeling, and getting up and down. This is essentially mirroring Mother Nature’s developmental blueprint for babies & toddlers.
These seemingly basic movements will provide your body with loads of “movement nutrition”. The diverse array of positions and movements is feeding your body the nutrients it needs to keep joints healthy and the body in balance.
There are many patterns to learn and your movement vocabulary will grow with time. If you’re brand new, I recommend starting out with this Daily Movement routine. From there, I have volumes of follow-along videos designed to introduce you to new movements and keep your practice growing. It will all come together, organically, over time. Eventually you’ll build a practice that fits you like a glove.
The Mindset
Your daily practice will also prompt a shift in your mindset around movement. It will challenge you to think beyond the box of traditional exercise and consider movement from a more holistic perspective.
In this, you can let go of some of the rigid thinking about form and sets & reps. Instead, focus on feeling the movements from the inside out. Be present in your body and pay attention to the sensations that arise.
These movements are generally very safe and easy to modify. This creates an environment more conducive to play & exploration. Forget perfection. Cultivate a “growth mindset” and embrace the natural learning process.
Avoid…
Turning it into work or a grind.
Viewing your body as a problem that needs fixing.
Comparing yourself to others.
Unrealistic expectations & perfectionism.
Instead, be open to finding the joy in movement, stay consistent in your practice, and allow all that goodness to resonate throughout your life.
Bringing it all together
The aging process often comes with the assumption that we’re doomed to decline. This narrative can be psychologically limiting and cause us to withdraw from life as we age.
Our expectations of getting older turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy. We stop moving, we lose strength & mobility, we lose the confidence to be out in the world, we stop moving…it’s a vicious cycle.
Aging gracefully is the result of sound habits in movement, recovery, nutrition, and stress management. Daily movement practice is a big piece of the puzzle. It will help you maintain your physical health, sharpen your cognition, and manage your emotional stress load. All of this facilitates a more positive and open perspective on life.
Aging is inevitable…but we can strongly influence how we age. By embracing the changes, revising our mindset, and prioritizing healthy lifestyle habits we can reframe the aging process in a more positive light.
When we keep the body strong & pliable, the mind follows. In turn, taking care of your body & mind insures your heart can stay open to a life of joy.
Keep on growing…but never grow old.
Beginners Daily Dose Movement Routine
Aging gracefully is a process. You don’t have to have all the knowledge or answers right away…you just have to show up with an open mind and a desire to improve. There’s no better time to start than right now!
