Today’s guest post is courtesy of Nolan O’Brien, who lives in San Francisco and works for Healthline.com. He is an avid cyclist (doesn’t own a car), an urban gardener and passionate about active living and eating healthy and local veggies.
When I consider taking the stairs instead of the escalator, biking to work, checking out a yoga class, or walking to the grocery store, there is always that devil on my shoulder telling me to choose the “easy” way out: “Take the escalator; drive everywhere; watch a movie; order delivery.”
It’s a daily battle of choices. For this reason (maybe you’ll agree with me) “active living” seems less a “lifestyle”, and more a “state of mind”. It takes discipline, control and often times inspiration. It’s easier to find time to walk when a friend or family member accompanies you, isn’t it? Why is that? Peer pressure, or (maybe) is it a little dose of inspiration?
I think it’s the latter. That’s why essential for my “active living” are people who inspire me to be greater and healthier. When faced with those (seemingly) simple decisions – to walk or to drive – I look to the people in my community: what are my friends choosing to do; (or often more powerful) what are strangers choosing to do?
Lately I’ve been learning a lot of fibromyalgia inflammation. If you are not familiar with Fibromyalgia, here is a quick synopsis; it is an invisible illness that has no known cause and is identifiable by its symptoms: long-term and chronic joint and muscle pain. What do I mean by “invisible”? We don’t know why people with fibromyalgia feel pain. Physically everything (even when examined by doctors) looks OK: there are no strained muscles, bruises, bone fractures or physical stresses of any kind. In fact, many people suffering with fibromyalgia are told by doctors, “nothing appears to be wrong with you”. It has only been recently that some studies are finding that the cause may pertain to neurological or chemical problems in the brain – but nothing is yet certain.
Let’s return to those simple decisions: to drive or to walk; to yoga or to “t.v”. If faced with fibromyalgia, the decision becomes even more difficult. Yet for people suffering with fibromyalgia, the decision is even more important.
There are no cures for fibromyalgia – only opportunities to reduce pain. And while there are a few drugs out there for medicating pain symptoms, the more effective treatments are physical: stretching, physical therapy, exercise and yoga. It sounds evil, doesn’t it? The best way to reduce physical pain is to engage in physical exercise – astounding! Yet every day, thousands and thousands of people suffering from fibromyalgia wake up and make that tough choice: to walk.
And they get the other benefits of active living too: active living prevents disease; improves mental capacity, memory and focus; helps maintain healthy body weight; builds appetite (and presents an opportunity to eat well); reduces stress; and many other benefits.
So next time you’re battling a decision, look to your neighbors, friends and community. That’s what I do. See that person biking by on their way to work. What are they struggling with? What decisions are they battling? It’s impossible to infer the battle, but you know which side won.
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As a fibromyalgia sufferer who also works on staying healthy and fit, I agree wholeheartedly with the above post. Yes, it would be easy to use my fibro as an excuse to not do anything strenuous, but I’ve also found that exercise helps me to feel better. The stronger my muscles are, the fewer flare-ups I seem to experience. And since I’ve been working out regularly, I’ve had few back spasms, too (which is nothing short of miraculous). You mentioned yoga; I also highly recommend Pilates for those of us with fibromyalgia — both good choices.
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