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I needed this reminder today: I feel 1000% better when I move my body.

I was sluggish this morning, didn’t get out of bed to work out, and went into my workday trying not to carry stress from a pretty exhausting end of the work week last week. But it followed me anyway. And though I closed the workday knowing more than when I started that should have brought some relief, I still felt the stress tightening in my body and push tears to my eyes.

A big part of me just wanted to have a drink or more and say this was a good enough excuse to drink a little on a Monday and destress.

A smaller part of me knew I needed to go run. I’m trying a running plan right now and I knew I might miss tomorrow (because of an early DMV trip in the works), and it would be even harder to stay on track. So somehow I mustered some energy to get myself out the door again right when I got home.

I’m so glad I did. By the first mile, I felt clear-headed again — forgetting my earlier headache and putting some of my stress into perspective. I felt strong again, motivated. It wasn’t quite a runner’s high tonight, but it was so clear I needed to get out of my thoughts and into my body.

I learned about this when I read Burnout last year: you need to complete the stress cycle with movement. You need to let the adrenaline drop somewhere. I first got into running again because I was going through a stressful time at work over a year ago and used after-work trail runs to work it out of my body and stay mentally healthy. It worked. And it worked again tonight.

So I don’t know if you need to hear this, but I did today: move. You won’t regret it.

With Love,

Natalie