After reading a post by Mr. Money Mustache (MMM) called The Low Information Diet, I was inspired to try to limit my use of Facebook, since I’m somewhat addicted to it, and to spend more of my time in activities, as opposed to past-times.
Ironically, the inspiration to change my habits comes not only from MMM but also from something I read on FB (thus the irony), which was about a study done on sitting. The results of the study were that too much sitting shortens your life expectancy. It stands to reason that sitting too much isn’t good for you, but mostly the prevailing wisdom has always been, “exercise more, it’s good for your health, it will improve your life span and quality of life.” but this was just, “Sitting too much is bad. Try getting up and doing. Take many breaks from sitting,” and other fairly easy suggestions like that. Somehow it struck a chord. I have never been consistent at exercising and that may always be an issue for me, but the idea that by simply getting up and moving around you can improve your life… and since you’re up how about doing the dishes you’ve been avoiding; doing the laundry; hanging up those pictures that have been stacked in your corner; organizing a closet that’s been driving you crazy; and today, instead of going on FB, I decided to go out and put away my garden tools that got left out yesterday after my little ankle-twisting incident. While I was out there I thought I may as well plant the two little Mums I had bought recently. Finished planting just as the rain started in earnest. The weather was quite wild for awhile there, warm but windy and working itself up until it was raining quite hard. Great to be out planting during all that. I digress, but, this is a gardening blog after all… So, one activity leads to another, instead of allowing inertia to take over too easily.
I’m excited about this new habit forming in my life. Getting up when I notice I’ve been sitting too long. When I’m tempted to sit down, asking myself, is there anything I could do first? Those who are close to me, reading this, might say, “hmmm, I can’t say I’ve noticed any big change as yet”; but change has to start in your head. Sometimes, it takes awhile to progress to Stage 2, where people start to notice. This change may result in more writing, photographing and gardening in my life, at least until the snow flies and then there will be more posts like this…
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