Is More Always (ever) Better?

Moving Away from More

Exercise is something that has always been in my life. For much of that time it’s been a constant push to go harder, faster stronger… and those were always equated to better.

Then I got sick.

Overnight I went from ignoring the signs to being forced to stop. I had ignored the shaking, the exhaustion and kept pushing to be ‘better’ or so I thought. In the end I was leading myself to illness and disease. I was running away from something and needed to stop, acknowledge and make a plan.

I began to investigate, to listen, to ask. I got some homework from my functional medicine Doc. He said: Walk, don’t run.

He said to walk a few times a week for UP TO an hour… but walk?? Don’t run, don’t jog, don’t sprint, don’t high intensity anything… just walk? And so I did. And it was in these walks I began the process of finding my way back to homeostasis, to balance, to hOMe. I slowed down and I noticed. I breathed deeply instead of gasping for breath to burn more and more… I exercised my whole body intentionally and found it began to get better.

In our culture we push, we strive, we go and get it…. or we feel (and are often told) we are failing. When we get present and take what it is we need only at that time. Sometimes what we need IS a push, a fire, a call for more… but at least ½ of the time it’s a push for less. A call for an undoing. for healing. Being okay with less and learning that old saying

‘less is more’

can be so glaringly true is a practice in and of itself. I still catch myself caught in team ‘harder and more is better’ and my body promptly shakes itself to remind me that more is not my better all the time. Often it is just the opposite.

Begin to train yourself to rest, train yourself to listen in stillness. Enjoy the slow, gentle, rhythmic movement of walking, strolling or a non-heated gentle yoga class. You’ll find the spaces that need more are often found once we surrender to doing less. Add nature into your walk and reap the accelerated results back to your healthy hOMe.