The 'Showing Up' Muscle
"Brainy What-Why-How"
Your weekly nibble of science-backed goodness to help you move better and feel unstoppable.
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What (the TL:DR)
Showing up* is a muscle too.
*showing up for your workout, your yoga practice, meditation, whatever else.
Not literally. But like a muscle, we can train ourselves to show up -- not perfectly, not for a PB, not for the best workout ever -- but just to BE THERE, even when everything around us is making that difficult.
And it's the showing up that gets you results.
Not planning to show up.
Not telling people you're going to show up.
But actually showing up even when you feel like garbage.
Why (the geeky neurology)
We tend to think motivation comes first: I feel motivated, therefore I do the thing.
But it actually works the other way around, too.
Research suggests that what we do can influence how ready we are to do more of it***. So rather than waiting for motivation to magically arrive before you start, sometimes the act of starting is what gets the ball rolling.
Basically: doing can change how ready you are to do. Showing up can influence how ready you are to keep going.
And there’s a nice reality check here, too. In a randomised study of 877 gym members**, researchers asked one group to plan exactly when they would go to the gym over the next two weeks. Planning did NOT increase their gym attendance compared with the control group.
So “just make a plan!” isn’t necessarily the magic answer.
Sometimes the thing you need to practise isn’t planning the thing, optimising the thing and certainly not finishing the thing.
It’s starting.
You don’t have to convince yourself to do the whole thing.
Just give your brain the first bit of evidence:
We’re doing this.
And then show TF up.
How (apply it to your life)
Literally just show up.
On the yoga mat: unroll your yoga mat. Stand on it. Take a breath.
In the gym: arrive at the gym, walk through the door.
For those anti-aging things you're working on like grip strength and reflexive balance*: stack your habits and work your grip strength while you make your coffee, or stand on one foot while you blow-dry your hair.
Get it done. Or get some of it done.
Or start your free trial to Move With Adell and
follow along the upcoming 31-day No-Excuses Challenge (Starts 1 Oct) 🎃
a playlist of classes and workouts that are all under 11 minutes,
most of them around 5 minutes only.
Practice showing up, not being perfect,
Adell xoxo
Go ahead and work on your reflexive balance with this 30-day challenge
**https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3630237/
***https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3630237/
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