Sitting on your ass is detrimental…

June 28th, 2024

…to your body and to your mind and to your physical and mental well-being. That is very obvious, right? Too bad I forget about it on a regular basis. Of course, I mean sitting on your ass for eight hours a day in front of a computer screen at work and some more hours doing the same thing at home. And on the weekends, double that. I know there is nothing I can do about what I do at work since my job requires me to sit on my ass in front of a monitor. On the other hand, I can control my behavior after work when I can finally decide what and how I will do in my free time. Unfortunately, even though I stay active for a few hours a day, recently my free time looks a lot like what I do at work — sitting on my ass staring at the computer screen…

I had a seriously tough week at work. And it seems like every work week for the last few months is thought and only getting tougher. There are too many responsibilities for me to handle in a normal and efficient way, and there is way too much stress with the deadlines and incompetence of others that I deal with daily. Today I took a day off, but still in the morning I felt iffy and fragile and wondered how will my extended weekend look like. I was afraid I would have to deal with anxiety and exhaustion and mental instability. But then, I went on a bike ride — just for an hour. And that was enough to change my emotional state. After coming home and taking a shower I suddenly realized that my anxiety was gone. I felt fine and strong. Then I spend several hours doing intensive physical labor in the garden and around the house — in a scorching 32-degree Celsius weather. Again, I felt muscle and back aches when I was done, but I felt very well mentally. And after an afternoon nap, I feel energetic and effective and purposeful in my thoughts and actions. Of course, physical activity will not work for everybody suffering from mental exhaustion, but it seems that it works very well for me. I want to keep remembering that.