The Mind Must Move

By Linda Fisher Thornton

We know that to stay healthy, we have to move. Many of us wear wrist bands that track the number of steps we take daily to make sure we “stay in the healthy zone.” I have been increasing my steps each year, and have enjoyed more energy and a sense of improved well-being. While we can easily track our physical steps, our mental steps are more elusive. Our thinking process is deeply connected to our physical systems and grounded in our personal experiences. Just as we may tend toward physical inertia (binge watching Netflix on the coach), we may also tend toward mental inertia. Change is hard, and the comfort zone is as compelling as the couch as a place to stay and rest.

When we don’t move, our bodies deteriorate

Evelyn O’Neill, manager of outpatient exercise programs at the Harvard-affiliated Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, says “Lack of movement is perhaps more to blame than anything for a host of health problems.” (quoted by Matthew Solan, Executive Editor, Harvard Men’s Health Watch in “Move more every day to combat a sedentary lifestyle”)

When we don’t move our minds, our minds deteriorate too.

We’ve probably all met people who haven’t updated their thinking in 40 years. It seems as if they live in a different world from the one we live in today. If we stop learning and updating our thinking, we quickly fall out of step with social norms and expectations. Being out step means we make ethical mistakes without even knowing it. This post by Ethical Systems describes the difficulty we have in changing our minds, especially when we are around our peer group.

It seems to me that a sedentary mind is even more worrisome than a sedentary body. A sendentary body will deteriorate within itself, but a sedentary mind (blind to changing societal expectations and values) may make decisions that harm others, on an individual or global scale.