Even though most of our lives are really busy, we are often busy with activities that keep us sitting in a chair, being indoors, and mostly leading sedentary lives. We are all like busy bees minus all the movement that busy bees do all day every day! Our bodies need movement for our muscles and bones to be strong, healthy, and supportive to the rest of our bodies. Our circulatory system, digestive system, immune system, lymphatic system, respiratory system, and frankly all our systems REQUIRE movement to function properly. So I decided to create a list of ideas to increase movement into your busy-as-a-bee life! Try them all and see which ones are the most sustainable to keep up! Try picking three to do on a consistent basis.

Movement Ideas:

1. Do heel lifts/calf raises when you are brushing your teeth.
2. When you are flossing your top teeth, balance on your right foot. When you are flossing your bottom teeth, balance on your left foot.
3. While waiting at a stop lights, retract your shoulders as you breath in and protract your shoulders as you breath out.
4. Go for a ten minute walk outdoors with your family when you are done eating dinner together.
5. Turn on music and dance around as you cook dinner
6. When you are vacuuming, exercise those vocal cords by singing out your favorite tune. The vacuum is roaring so no one will hear you!
7. As you are sitting down at work, to watch TV, or to drive your car, do Kegel exercises. To do Kegel exercises, contract your pelvic floor muscles for 5 seconds and then release for 5 seconds. Repeat as many times as you want.
8. Every time a commercial comes on, get up from the couch and do whatever form of movement you want. You could keep weights in your living room or a yoga mat to help assist you in this movement.
9. When you wake up in the morning, exercise your breathing muscles by taking 5-10 deep, intentional breaths.
10. If you have a job that requires sitting all day, set a timer on your phone to get up out of your chair every 30 minutes to do 5 squats.
11. During your lunch break at work, get outside and go for a walk if you have time.
12. Every night before bed, stretch whatever in your body feels like it needs some stretching. Maybe do this with your spouse, your parents, your kids, or your siblings. You could take turns choosing different stretches to do together.
13. When you are talking our the phone, put the phone on speaker phone and do neck stretches and neck rolls.
14. If you have the option to take the stairs versus the elevator or escalator, always choose the stairs!
15. Turn meetings into walk-and-talk meetings by walking around in your nearest park.
16. When you go up the stairs, go up as many different ways you can think of; hop the entire way up the stairs, take the stairs 3 at a time, with each step do a squat, grapevine up the stairs, with each step do a heel lift.
17. Instead of your usual evening routine, make a playlist of dance songs and have a family dance party!
18. Come up with your own ideas and message them to Mother Earth Medicine so I can add them to the list.

Happy Movement you Busy Bees!