MICROHABITS MATTER

 LEARNING NEW THINGS

MICROHABITS MATTER

One of my life long friends who lives in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada for six months and Spain or France the other six months, has befriended a physiotherapist in Spain. She writes intellectual pieces for the users and students of physiotherapy. One such article caught my attention as it further advances my appreciation of QiGong and TaiChi exercising for the health of my body and mind.

Those of you who know me well, know while I was a student at the University of Ottawa, I was required to take a philosophy class. I loathed the thought but after the first class I was riding high and keen to get totally into it! The focus was “logical reasoning” and it introduced me to various philosophers such as Aristotle.

One quote that he adopted, and that the physiotherapist covets, is something like “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Through my taking QiGong and TaiChi classes, I have felt the mental and physical benefits of simple repetitive movements. All of them keep the blood circulating and wake up our marrow, joints, muscles, organs and mind. They calm our central nervous system and stimulate our brains.

Our insides do need attention, love attention and thrive on attention. Every careful learned move (microhabit) matters. Every careful learned move makes a difference. Every careful learned move brings happiness to the inner mechanics that keep us alive and healthy. I call it silent inner body education. In fact when people ask me to explain QiGong and TaiChi, the best simple answer is just that: “silent, slow and easy, repetitive inner body education” — its focus is on our inside physiological and mental health. 

The microhabits within both of these Ancient Chinese exercises have raised an awareness and presence within me that I had never considered— my insides are much more important than my outside! Consistent repetition of physically easy exercises is key to our short term and long term physiological, neurological and full body health. The experience gives me inner peace, and that peace is both healing and empowering.

I say go slow and simple for a moment, a few moments, once a day and several times a day — every learned and repeated effort (microhabit) helps, every learned and repeated effort matters. Make it a habit!