Jul 30, 2008 / by corematters / 2 Comments

Ironic that Jagger didn’t think he could get any. He should be the most satisfied person on earth. Why? Cause he never stops moving!

Jagger-Unplugged? Overweight? Sedentary? I don’t think so…

So why is it that WE can’t get out of our chairs?

Simple. It’s our programming. Specifically, our brains’ programming. By doing the same thing again and again (ie, habitually), we have not only created the neural path that takes us to our chairs, but we’ve deepened it, entrenched it, trapped ourselves there.

Our brain reads this program as data about our environment, so it arranges our bodies accordingly. It slows our metabolism to conserve energy, making it difficult to move. It conserves our fat stores since we’ve reported to it that our hunting and gathering only takes 20 minutes–we won’t be trekking for days before our feast, so we don’t need to use up our energy supply searching for more.

And we all know how difficult it becomes to carry around an extra 10 or 20 pounds…But the neural path, the programming, won’t change, no matter how much weight the body adds. The neural path nevers says, “Enough storage!” The information just recycles.

Thoughts recycle. Feelings recycle. Non-movement recycles.

You may even be suffering from a form of depression. At its core, depression is defined as an absence of moving toward something.

And moving toward a seat doesn’t count. We must be moving toward a goal. An accomplishment. An achievement.

One thing science now understands about us, is that the mind, body and brain all influence one another. So when you feel good when you exercise–or move–(because the brain has released its feel-good chemical arsenal), you also feel good about yourself. That’s profound. Feeling good about yourself cannot be traced to a particular area or chemical in the brain.

So what can you do? You can trick your brain out of its “hibernation” by using your body. You got to Move it …Move it.

If you move your body, your brain will have no choice.

It will create new dendrils, process new imagery, new smells, new sounds. It will crank up all its dormant chemicals and send new body signals.

(For example, regular exercise increases dopamine storage in the brain, as well as triggering specific enzyme production. Which ones? The dopamine receptors in the reward center of the brain. Dopamine receptors produce exactly what we want: satisfaction.)

Regular movement which you do on a schedule is stabalizing. Our bodies love rhythm. And the rhythm of a schedule brings stability.

Accomplishments create satisfaction. Feeling satisfied improves self-esteem.

Self-esteem, stability, feeling good: these are the things we move toward with every step we take.

Every move we make.

Any dance we dance.

So, can we get some satisfaction if we hit the floor like Mick? Absolutely.