I’ve learned I need quiet movement several times a week.
No earbuds, no instructors, no music, no conversation, no audiobooks, no podcasts, no noise.
Prioritizing this several times a week changed my life.
This quiet movement time is when I:
✨ brainstorm ideas
✨ work through problems
✨ sit with feelings
✨ think of solutions
✨ sort through priorities
✨ let thoughts bubble up.
Prioritizing this quiet, distraction-free time to move my body in a way that brings me joy is one of my favorite ways to take care of myself, one of my favorite ways to recharge.
I swear by this time for my creativity, my productivity, and my overall well-being. And one of my favorite ways is to take an early morning walk around the neighborhood in a weighted vest.
Let me back up.
I used to have terrible upper back and neck pain. Terrible. I’d pull my trap muscle all the time.
And, one of the first books I ever read about the power of habits, the power of taking care of yourself with small, sustainable habits, swore by a slowwww, daily walk with a weighted vest.
If you’d love a short version of the book, an magazine article featuring the author - “3 Super-Easy Ways to Get Moving *Now*, According to a Functional Medicine Doc” - had a great excerpt explaining the benefits of a daily walk with a weighted vest.
“[Walking with a weighted vest] helps the overused trapezius muscles (used to carry your head) to release,” I read. The article lists other benefits (like improved posture), but all I read was that walking with a weighted vest could help rest the very muscle I continuously kept aggravating.
So I found a 12 pound weighted vest (the article/book say to get one less than ten percent of your body weight), I started doing slowwww neighborhood walks with my weighted vest several times a week, and I stopped experiencing my upper back/neck pain. Maybe it was the walking, maybe it was the weighted vest, maybe it was something else entirely - but I do know that when I stop prioritizing my weighted walks, not only does my mental health start going downhill, my trap muscle also starts getting angry.
So I walk with a weighted vest. Happily.
In a pinch, I’ll even wear it around the house.
Note: I rely on this ritual so much that I even bought a second weighted vest to keep in our Airstream.
You deserve whatever you need to take care of yourself. Like quiet walks around the neighborhood in a weighted vest to clear out the mental gunk and alleviate back pain. ❤️
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