Try this…meditating or thinking deeply about people you love, who are important to you, and happy moments of you with your loved ones. Looking at oneself in “a bigger picture” of your life tends to be motivating sedentary people to become more active for health reasons.
A new study published in PNAS (Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), called “self transcendence”, helped 22o sedentary adults become less defensive and more open to getting more active. In the study, a group of adults were “primed” first upon meditating about their loved ones then received a text message relaying the importance of being more active for health reasons verses a group who did not mediate but received the text messages.
They found that the group who practiced “self transcendence” first before receiving the daily text messages logged in more activity measured over a month than the control group who did not practice this self transcendence, but received the daily texts.
“In other words, spending some time thinking about the people you love and your most deeply help values might actually make you more motivated to adopt a healthier lifestyle.”
It’s always easier if we have a “movement” buddy, but when we don’t , thinking for a few minutes about oneself in the world with our most prized possessions~our loved ones of friends and family, might just make us get off the couch and go for the walk or drive to the gym.
In loving health,
C
P.S. This post was inspired by an article on Mind Body Green.
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