Healing through movement. Movement as medicine. Is this a new concept? The answer to that is how far back do you want to look? Perhaps take a look at our American hot springs. People would travel to the nearest spring to soak and move in the water. If you were afflicted with a disease such as polio, the hot springs were where you would go to regain your ability to move. They called it taking the cure. Hiking and outdoor sight seeing were considered therapeutic parts of the scope of the cure.
In Europe going back hundres of years ago, people started hiking and and built hunting lodges where they could be in natures and take part in robust activities.
One could look further back to four centuries ago. Healing arts like Acupuncture were created to unblock the flow of movement and restore the flow of energy through the body. The Chinese also designed a workout which is meant to keep a healthy energetic body. Qi gong was created as a movement supplement. It was prescribed to the patient to perform daily. It is my personal belief that the Lymphatic system is stimulated by the precise flowing movements in Qi Gong.
Yoga is somewhere between five and ten centuries old. It was first created to remove stiffness so one could meditate for long periods of time. One of the added benefit was Lymphatic stimulation. The major lymph stations or nodes happen to be in areas of the groin and armpits and chest. People who practice yoga also received a nice flushing and refreshing fluid movement by the activities required to open the joints. Today, yoga is one of the main prescriptions for people with autoimmune diseases which restrict movement.
There is even a movement which is gaining popularity to remove certain punishments in schools and instead replace them with Yoga. Why? Because children who have trouble following instruction don’t need to sit more, they need to move, they need physical activity with releases pent-up energy and aggression, and calms their minds. And they often need attention which is positive versus being scolded and told they’re bad.
One of the great benefits to doing a routine physical activity is mood improvement. We have chemical warehouses in our colon and brain and who knows where elsewhich respond to movement. It doesn’t matter if you walk, dance,run, walk, perform Tai chi or qi gong, or ride your bike. Any of them are going to make you happier overall.
Our bodies were designed for movement and probably think that we must be dying if we’re lying around too much! It cannot be coincidental that every culture has a movement program of some kind or is expected to do hard physical work to survive.
We have seen the painful side effects of eating over processed foods and being too sedentary. The young people in our society are suffering from diseases like type two diabetes at very young ages Too many of them are on medications to keep their minds focused, versus keeping their minds engaged and actively seeking out knowledge.
In fact, were spending billions of dollars on sickness from these issues. So, I find it ironic that the headlines are filled with new scientifically proven theories about how movement is medicine when we’ve really known it all along. We only had to listen.
Valentina Boonstra
