Actually, you were moving long before the day of your birth. Babies in utero kick, punch, get hiccups, suck their thumbs and move their heads. All these movements are vital to the development of bones and joints. Fetal breathing movements, which don’t actually move air in and out of the lungs, help the lungs grow and so the respiratory muscles develop a month or two before breathing air becomes a thing. Your Whole Body Health Depends on Movement, Not Exercise No matter how long you’ve been breathing air, movement has always been more important than exercise. Biomechanist Katy Bowman says you don’t need to exercise, you just need to move. Here’s why: Draw a circle and imagine it filled with all the ways your body moves every day – your heart beating, eyes blinking, breathing (more on this later). If…
Making a Break in Your 60s
Some years ago, at the age of 61, I quit my job, rented out my flat and flew to Australia to research my family history. It was not an easy business. In the days before Airbnb and other similar organisations made letting so much more flexible, agents insisted on a minimum of a year’s lease, with a six-month break clause, gas safety checks, inventories, fire-proofing and so on. On my part, there was the cancelling of utilities, council tax, water and phone and broadband contracts. I had to inform – and pay – my insurance and mortgage companies. And, of course, there was the packing up and storing of all my personal stuff. (Fortunately, I have a loft.) I Don’t Regard Myself as a Particularly Adventurous Person I’m a cautious soul by nature, and I like a certain predictability in…
Don’t Let Regrets Keep You from Enjoying the Holidays
As the holiday season is upon us – with friends and families making plans to get together, stores filled to the rafters with gifts to give to loved ones, airports and train-stations jammed with travelers hurrying to their joyful destinations – some may feel lost in all this happy celebration. After all, once we hit 60 or more, some of our family and friends have probably made their transition into the Great Beyond, and however you define that passage, the truth is, we miss them. And with that, some of us may have regrets. Things we left unsaid, harsh words never taken back, choices made we wish we hadn’t. The holidays can feel glum and depressing rather than a time of joy and laughter. Push Regrets Aside You would think that the older we get, the more regrets we would…