We are in our second week of the 2022 year! We hope you all had a very Happy, Healthy, and Safe New Year! As we start the New Year off, we are focusing on the topics of Goals and Movement in Positive Psychology! This past week, we started a Movement Challenge with the staff as well as a Classroom Movement Challenge. Every day, we challenge the staff to incorporate movement on their own time and in their classrooms for at least 15 minutes per day.
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Here are 7 Benefits of Moving Your Body Every Day:
Exercise Increases Brain Power- Not only does exercise improve your body, but it also helps your mental function. Exercise increases energy levels and increases serotonin in the brain, which leads to improved mental clarity.
Movement Melts Away Stress- As much as it may stress you out to think about exercising, once you actually start working out, you’ll experience less stress in every part of your life. Exercise produces a relaxation response that serves as a positive distraction. It also helps elevate your mood and keep depression at bay.
Exercise Give You Energy- When endorphins are released into your bloodstream during exercise, you feel much more energized the rest of the day. When you improve your strength and stamina, it’s easier to accomplish everyday tasks like carrying groceries and climbing stairs.
It’s Not Hard To Find Time For Fitness– The key is to use your time wisely. Take your kids to the park or ride bikes together and get your physical activity while enjoying family time.
Fitness Can Help Build Relationships- Think of what exercising with a partner can do for a relationship, whether it’s with your spouse, a sibling, friend, or co-worker you used to go to lunch with once a week. Not just that, but exercise is always more fun when there’s someone to do it with. So make a plan to walk with your spouse after dinner every night. Meet your friend or sibling for a yoga class on the weekends. People who have exercise partners stay with their programs and reach their goals more often than those who try to go at it alone.
Exercise Helps Ward Off Diseases- Research has shown that exercise can slow or help prevent heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, and loss of muscle mass.
Fitness Pumps Up Your Heart- Not only does exercise helps fight disease, but it also creates a stronger heart, the most important muscle in the body. That helps make exercise and the activities of daily life feel easier. Within only a couple of days after you start exercising, the body readily adapts to the stimulus it’s getting and it becomes easier. You will feel less fatigue and it will not take as much effort when it comes to breathing. You shouldn’t have as much pain or soreness.
We challenge you and your family to move your body for at least 15 minutes every day for the month of January (more if you can)!
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Be sure to come back next week as we talk more about Goals and Movement!
*research from webmd.com