You can skip the gym with these everyday activities that count as a workout

September 16, 2022 Janice MacInnis Leave a Comment

Excerpted from: https://www.cnet.com/health/fitness/you-can-skip-the-gym-with-these-10-everyday-activities-that-count-as-a-workout/

It’s a classic dilemma: We need a certain amount of exercise each week, but most of us have trouble motivating ourselves to actually do it. There are a lot of reasons that people don’t exercise more. You may be short on time or energy, or you may not have the equipment that you feel like you need.

But while you might imagine sneakers, sports bras and weight benches when you think of “exercise,” you don’t have to hit the gym to meet the CDC’s guidelines for physical activity. In fact, the CDC’s 2018 National Health Statistics report doesn’t mention the word “exercise” once. Instead, it’s all about physical activity and movement — whether for work, play or by doctor’s orders.

For most of human history, physical activity was incorporated into people’s daily lives in the form of labor and chores. These days, people spend a lot more time sitting still on couches, desk chairs and cars. But our lives still require physical movement each day, and it can be easier to meet your daily exercise quota with activities that you need to do anyway (like mowing the lawn) than set aside extra time to do a dedicated workout.

Rethinking your idea of exercise might inspire you to get even more active — and you’re not necessarily missing out if you skip the gym in favor of sweeping. Here’s what to know.

Can daily activities really count as exercise?

Short answer: Yes. “Your body can’t tell the difference between bending over to pull out a weed and bending down to pick up a kettlebell,” explains Robert S. Herbst, a personal trainer and world champion powerlifter.

Experts divide exercise into two categories: formal exercise and informal exercise. According to Mike Murphy, owner and head physiotherapist of Ireland’s RAPID clinic, most people don’t see informal exercise as, well, actual exercise. “This may be because informal exercise is difficult to quantify — one hour walking seems easier to quantify than cleaning the house. But the reality is that many everyday tasks use up far more energy than light exercise,” Murphy said.

“Everyday walking up and down stairs, to the shops, carrying things, hanging clothes out to dry, etc. — all of these activities build up and over weeks and months these can significantly influence our energy balance (contributing significantly to weight gain or weight loss),” he continued.

In fact, even some formal workouts intentionally mimic the “primal movement patterns that represent our daily movement patterns for life,” such as squatting, pushing, pulling and twisting, as Brian Nunez, Nike master trainer and performance coach, put it. These programs are known as “functional training.” Meanwhile, a workout regimen that involves everyday activities rather than formal exercise is also called NEAT exercise, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

So, in short, don’t discount all the physical activities that you engage in without intending to exercise. Non-exercise activities are a great way to not only improve your health, but also complete tasks more easily and reduce your risk of injury (no more pulling a muscle carrying the groceries in).

Here are 10 everyday activities that count as exercise, according to experts.

Yard or lawn care

Anyone who’s ever mowed the lawn by hand in the height of summer knows that it’s a true workout. Nunez explains: “Aside from the low impact and cardiovascular benefits, mowing the lawn requires a lot of functional movement primal patterns in the process of set up, mowing the lawn and clean up.” Other types of yard work that are a great workout include gardening, weeding, shoveling snow or leaves and much more.

Running errands

Who says your hour-long daily walk can’t be through the aisles of [Costco or Canadian Tire]? Seriously, though, errands often involve plenty of walking, carrying, lifting and other movements.

Cleaning the house

Cleaning the house can involve a wide range of physical movements — going up and down stairs, carrying things from room to room, pushing and pulling the mop or broom and more.

Walking the dog

Need we say more? You may be more occupied with getting your pup exercise during their daily walk, but don’t forget that you’re getting your steps in at that time, too.

Walking, anywhere

You may have heard that sitting for long periods of time is bad for you. But getting up and moving your body every 30 minutes or so is helpful, and walking is great exercise, period — whether it’s to the mailbox, down the hall to wave to your coworker or to grab a snack.

The ‘I’m late’ sprint

If you take public transportation regularly, you probably get a ton of light- to moderate-intensity activity throughout your days just by getting to the bus or train. And if you’re running late and have to jog a little, that’s all the more effort expended.

Playing with kids

Got kids in your life? Getting involved in their play, rather than watching from the nearest couch or bench, will have you out of breath pretty quickly.

Dancing

Maybe you like to go out dancing, or maybe you’re more of the “solo dance party in your pajamas” type. Either way, know that dancing can be a full-body workout and great cardio, too.

Laughing

Ever heard of “laughter yoga”? One 2014 study found that laughter yoga is a better ab workout than crunches or back lifting exercises. So, the more humor you find in your day, the better.

Having sex

Sexual activity is also a moderate-intensity workout. Though, of course, it depends on the specific activity, it uses even more energy than weight training.

About the Author: Kim Wong-Shing is a senior associate editor at CNET, covering health and wellness. She has six years of experience in digital media, and she loves demystifying the world of wellness to make it accessible for any reader.

Five Ways to Keep Your Brain Healthy as you Age

May 26, 2021 Janice MacInnis Leave a Comment

Originally posted at https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_to_keep_your_brain_healthy_as_you_age

Like many people over 60, I sometimes lose my keys or forget the names of favorite films. When I do, it makes me wonder: Is this the beginning of cognitive decline? Or, worse, am I fated to follow in the footsteps of my mother, who died of Lewy-body dementia in her 70s?

“You can affect your brain’s thinking and memory far more than you realize or appreciate, and the vast majority of people haven’t even begun to try,” he writes.According to neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta, CNN medical correspondent and author of the new book Keep Sharp: Building a Better Brain at Any Age, the answer is no. Forgetfulness is normal at all ages, and your genes don’t doom you to dementia. What’s important is taking care of your brain in the best way possible, he argues.

Gupta distills results from hundreds of research studies to help readers understand what’s known (and not known) about keeping your brain healthy. Along the way, he busts common myths—for example, that doing puzzles is a good way to ward off dementia—and replaces them with science-based advice on how to live a longer, healthier life with a more functional brain. He also distinguishes typical memory lapses (like forgetting an acquaintance’s name) from more troublesome ones (like not remembering the way home from a frequent destination)—a distinction I found quite reassuring.

While he’s quick to hail the cognitive strengths of older people (they tend to have better vocabulary skills, for example), he also points out that our cognitive capacities can start to decline much earlier in life than we think, even in early adulthood. That’s why he recommends making lifestyle changes now to improve brainpower at every age—not just when you hit your 60s.

Keep Sharp includes a questionnaire assessing risk for cognitive decline—with some surprising questions, like “Do you sit for most of the day?” or “Do you have a history of depression?” Understanding your risk can inspire you to take corrective action. To that end, here are Gupta’s five keys to a healthier brain.

Move more

“When people ask me what’s the single most important thing they can do to enhance their brain’s function and resiliency to disease, I answer with one word: exercise,” writes Gupta. Being inactive is probably the most significant risk factor in dementia, while staying fit can help stave it off. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much movement to make a difference: Even walking for two minutes every day counts.

Exercise provides many benefits overall, including better stamina, strength, stress management, and immune function. But the main reason movement helps the brain is that it reduces inflammation while stimulating growth factors that promote the function and growth of neural cells. That’s why aerobic exercise (more than stationary exercise, like weightlifting) confers cognitive benefits—though weightlifting can build muscle.

Get enough sleep

“Sleeping well is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your brain functions, as well as your ability to learn and remember new knowledge,” writes Gupta. That’s because sleep seems to clear the brain of debris that might otherwise build up and create problems.

Of course, some people have trouble getting good sleep; so, Gupta’s book reminds them of sleep hygiene principles that can help. He also points to the importance of resting, in general, and suggests replacing daytime naps with stress-reducing walks in nature or meditations.

To reduce stress and rumination (those troublesome thoughts that keep us up at night), he recommends that people add a gratitude practice to their day—which, he writes, “acts like a big reset button.” You can also think about community volunteering, taking regular breaks from email and social media, and avoiding multitasking.

Learn, discover, and find purpose

While puzzles may not be the answer to cognitive decline, we do need to stimulate our brains with learning and discovery, writes Gupta. Learning creates new neural pathways and promotes brain resiliency—something that may help stave off the outward symptoms of dementia (like memory loss) even if you develop the telltale brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s.

“Think of it as a big backup system in the brain that results from enriched life experiences such as education and occupation,” he writes.

Building cognitive reserve doesn’t happen overnight, he warns—it results from a lifetime of challenging your brain through education, work, social relationships, and other activities. However, just because you don’t have a college education doesn’t mean you will experience greater cognitive decline, either. Aiming to challenge your mind throughout your life is more protective than a formal degree.

Gupta warns that the majority of commercial “brain games” are not effective at staving off dementia, though they may improve memory, because they don’t train problem solving or reasoning—keys to cognitive reserve. People would be better off taking a traditional class or learning a second language, he says, because these activities offer more complex challenges and social contact, too—also important for brain health.

Finding purpose in life can be good for the brain, especially if it involves contact with people of different generations or personal learning and challenge. Research suggests that people with a sense of purpose have reduced risk of suffering the deleterious effects of dementia—even if their brain contains Alzheimer’s plaques—probably because having purpose inspires them to take better care of themselves.

Eat well

“What’s good for the heart is good for the brain,” writes Gupta. Still, there is so much conflicting information out there about diets and dietary supplements, it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff (pun intended).

Gupta takes pains to dispel myths around gluten and so-called “superfoods” (like kale and fish oil). There is no evidence to suggest gluten affects people’s brain function, he says, and kale and fish oil, while good for you, are not going to stop cognitive decline.

While it’s hard to recommend a perfect brain diet based on research, Gupta cites Martha Clare Morris’s work. An epidemiologist and founding member of the Global Council on Brain Health, Morris recommends a Mediterranean-like diet—one rich in vegetables, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, and olive oil.

That diet may not be palatable or available for everyone, though. So, Gupta provides more general diet advice, too (using the acronym SHARP):

Stay away from lots of refined sugar.
Hydrate regularly.
Add more omega-3 fatty acids from dietary sources (not pills).
Reduce portions (possibly trying intermittent fasting).
Plan ahead—meaning, have healthy snacks around so you don’t turn to junk food if you become hungry.

Connect with others

Having close relationships with others you can count on is important to a happy, healthy life, and may help you live longer. It’s important for brain health, too, as research suggests its opposite, loneliness, seems to be a factor in developing Alzheimer’s.

Gupta suggests combining socializing with other activities designed to get you moving or learning. That could mean taking a walk or class with a friend, joining a team sport, or volunteering. Socializing with more diverse people or people of different generations can also be a plus. And staying connected virtually, while less than ideal, may be helpful when one lives in a remote place without many social supports. An added bonus: Learning how to use social media for the first time may help boost memory.

While it’s true each of these lifestyle factors are good for preventing cognitive decline, Gupta has advice for people already experiencing cognitive decline, too. Part of his book is devoted to helping readers experiencing decline to assess where they’re at and figure out how to move forward from there.

For the rest of us, his book is a useful and highly readable primer for sharpening your brain at any age—not just to stave off dementia, but to simply enjoy your life more fully.

“The brain can be continuously and consistently enriched throughout our life no matter your age or access to resources,” he writes. If you change your lifestyle, even a little, he promises, “Your brain—no, your whole body—will love it.”

About the Author

8 Stretches for your Best Night’s Sleep

April 29, 2021 Janice MacInnis 1 Comment

Excerpted from https://www.sleepadvisor.org/stretching-before-bed

For starters, developing an evening stretching routine helps your body to enter a relaxed state more quickly, and stay in a deeper sleep for longer. With fewer points of pain along your back, neck, and shoulders, you’re less likely to toss and turn. This is great for your sleep — and your partner’s sleep, too.

Stretching provides a great alternative nighttime activity to scrolling through social media or reading emails on a screen. When done correctly, studies have shown that practices like yoga and stretching can be incredibly relaxing and meditative. Focusing on your body and the present actions can be a great way to separate yourself from the day’s stresses and signal to your subconscious to stop worrying.

1. Knee to Chest

2. Spinal Twist

3. Side Stretch

4. Lunge

5. Butterfly Pose

6. Child’s Pose

7. Bear Hug

8. Legs Up the Wall

11 Benefits of Stretching that will make anyone want to move their body

January 18, 2021 Shauna Marshall 1 Comment

Reposted from: https://www.self.com/story/benefits-of-stretching

Stretching is one component of fitness that a lot of us find way too easy to skip. But there are some benefits of stretching that might just make you want to add it to your routine.

While the research on stretching is a bit mixed, there are some legit mental and physical benefits to incorporating it into your routine, whether you stretch pre-workout, at the end of your session, or another time during the day People who make time for stretching may find it helps their workouts—and daily life—feel a little (or a lot) better.

But before we dig into those benefits, it can be helpful to understand what exactly we mean by stretching.

Stretching is basically any movement that lengthens your muscles (and along with them, the tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue) even temporarily, physical therapist and strength coach Ivan Hernandez, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., owner of Executive Park PT and Wellness in New York, tells SELF. Pretty much every time you move your body, something is getting stretched, Candace Harding, D.P.T., a physical therapist and registered yoga teacher in Vienna, Virginia, tells SELF.

To get a little more specific though, there are several different types of stretches. Static stretches involve moving into an end range of motion and then holding that position, physical therapist and strength coach Ravi Patel, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., founder of Impact Health and Performance in Atlanta, tells SELF. Examples of static stretches include pulling your heel to your butt and holding it there to stretch your quad, or bending and pulling your elbow overhead to stretch your tricep.

Dynamic stretches, on the other hand, involve active, controlled movements performed through a larger range of motion, physical therapist Cydni Matsuoka, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., from SPEAR Physical Therapy in New York City, tells SELF. Think: walking lunges, arm circles, and deep squats. Oftentimes dynamic stretches are done pre-workout as a way to prepare your muscles, tendons, and ligaments for exercise, she explains.

There are also ballistic stretches, which involve aggressively bouncing or otherwise moving into an end range of motion, and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) stretches, which involve contracting and relaxing muscles as a way to increase a stretch. Because ballistic stretching is not recommended for the general population (it can be dangerous), and PNF stretching is often done with the assistance of a professional, we’re not going to focus on those two forms of stretching in this article.

Physical Benefits of Stretching

1. Stretching improves flexibility.

Flexibility is the range of motion of a joint, or group of joints, certified exercise physiologist, John Ford, owner of JKF Fitness & Health in New York City, tells SELF. Stretching can help increase your range of motion—both temporarily and in the long-term. The temporary gains may be the result of your nervous system becoming more tolerant to a stretch position, says Patel. These gains often disappear within a day or even a few hours. To actually lengthen the muscle and thus improve your range of motion long term, you need to stretch diligently about five to six days a week, he says.

2. Stretching can help you better recruit your muscles when working out.

If you’re able to stick with a regular stretching routine, you may see only an increase in range of motion, but also improvement in your performance. Ford explains it this way: The more range of motion you have, the more muscle you’ll be able to activate. For example, if you have limited range of motion in your hamstrings, you might only be able to activate, say, 40% of the muscle when performing a single-leg deadlift. But if you increase your hamstring flexibility, you can then activate, say 60%, of that muscle. The result? You’ll gain strength, Ford explains, which would allow you to lift more weight—and thus get even stronger. Having more range of motion can also help you perform a broader range of exercises, he adds.

3. Stretching makes day-to-day life feel easier.

Increasing your flexibility won’t just improve your workouts—it can also make everyday life better, too, says Ford. You may not realize it, but there are a lot of daily tasks that involve some level of flexibility. Like squatting to sink in and out of a chair, leaning over to get in your car, and bending down to scoop up your toddler. By boosting your flexibility with stretching, you’ll be able to perform these small but essential day-to-day movements more easily and effectively.

4. Stretching primes you for your workout.

Experts typically recommend dynamic stretches before a workout. That’s because pre-workout dynamic stretches are “a way of moving slow before you move fast,” says Hernandez. By doing this, “you’re preparing your body to work efficiently in order to both produce and absorb high forces,” he explains.

Dynamic stretches can also help fire up the mind-muscle connection, says Ford. The mind-muscle connection is basically the notion that you can help your muscles work more efficiently during a workout just by thinking about the ones you are activating as you move. For example, if you have a solid mind-muscle connection when you’re deadlifting, you can make sure that your hamstrings and glutes are engaging and doing the work rather than your lower back.

5. Stretching may decrease your risk of injury.

Warming up before a workout can help reduce your risk of injury, and dynamic stretching is one component of a good warm-up (along with light movement that gets your heart rate up). Dynamic stretching helps warm up your muscles, joints, and tendons, and temporarily increases your range of motion. This, in turn, can help you perform the moves in your workout with the ideal body positioning.

Take a squat for example. If you tried to do the movement without warming up first, you wouldn’t be able to sink as low, Randi Blackmon, ACSM-certified exercise physiologist in Houston, Texas, tells SELF. To compensate for that shortened range of motion, you might lean forward, which could stress your back, or turn your knees in, which could cause pain on the outside of that joint, she explains. But if you dynamically warm up first and then squat, you have a better chance of actually nailing the move, pain-free.

6. Stretching helps calm your body after exercise.

It’s important to give your body time to cool down after a workout before you go on about the rest of your day, says Patel. Doing so will help lower your heart rate, calm your breathing, and more quickly ease you out of the heightened state you were in while exercising. One way to achieve this calmed state, says Patel, is to do static stretching combined with deep breathing.

Stretching after a workout can also increase blood flow, boost oxygen levels, help deliver nutrients to your body and your muscles, and help aid with the recovery process, Jennifer Morgan, P.T., D.P.T., C.S.C.S., a sports physical therapist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, previously told SELF.

7. Stretching can pinpoint bodily imbalances.

Stretching can be a great way to identify imbalances in flexibility or areas of extra tightness in the body, which then gives you a chance to correct those problem areas before they lead to injury, says Ford. For example, say you’re stretching your hips in a lunging hip flexor stretch and notice that you’re able to sink deeper into the stretch on your right side compared to your left. That discrepancy would alert you to the fact that you have an imbalance in hip openness that’s probably also showing up when you do exercises involving the hips, like running, squatting, and lunging.

With that intel, you can then be extra cognizant to work your hips evenly through their full range of motion whenever you perform exercises involving the hips. You may also want to add more unilateral exercises into your routine to further combat the imbalance.

8. Stretching can improve achiness.

If you work a traditional desk job, you’re probably sitting for eight hours or more every day. And now, thanks to stay-at-home life, many of us are spending even more time on our butts after the workday wraps. All that time in the same position can cause certain muscles, like your hip flexors, to adaptively shorten and thus feel “tight,” explains Matsuoka.

A consistent static stretching routine may help reverse that adaptive shortening and thus alleviate that achy sensation by increasing flexibility in the muscle, says Matsuoka. You can also combat that tightness by simply moving more during the day. One easy way to achieve that? Do five minutes of dynamic stretching every hour, says Ford, who suggests moves like hip circles and swinging arm hugs. These brief bursts of activity can go a long way to combating your daytime tightness, he says.

Mental Benefits of Stretching

1. Stretching helps you relaaaaax.

For a lot of people, stretching just feels good. And things that make us feel good—whether that’s eating a warm chocolate chip cookie, taking a hot bath, or stretching—can help reduce chronic stress and bring us closer to a calmer state, Hernandez explains.

Stretching can be especially relaxing mentally if you pair it with deep breathing. Every time you release a deep breath, imagine you’re letting go of a stressor in your life and then sink a tiny bit lower into the stretch, suggests Blackmon. (Just make sure you’re not stretching to the point of pain.) Stretching in this very intentional way can definitely give you a mental boost, she says.

2. Stretching serves as an act of self-care.

Ford considers stretching a true act of self-care. The movement not only provides a sense of release and helps you feel connected to your body, but it can also serve as a powerful reminder that you took the time to do something restorative for yourself. “That just plays such a big, big role mentally,” Ford says.

3. Stretching ends your workout on a positive note.

Finishing your workout with tough AF burpees, or a lung-busting sprint down the block might not leave you with the most, um, pleasant impression of your exercise session. Doing some gentle stretches, on the other hand, can help you end your workout on a happier, calmer note. And if doing those gentle stretches makes you think more positively about the workout in general and thus more likely to do it again, then that right there is a benefit, says Hernandez.

How “Fake Commuting” Can Improve Work-from-home and Work Life Balance

December 11, 2020 Shauna Marshall Leave a Comment

Reposted from: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-fake-commuting-can-improves-wfh-work-life-balance-2020-12

People have started ‘fake commuting’ because they crave the alone time they used to get on their way to the office — and experts say it’s a smart idea

Fake commuter

“I had started to gain weight over lockdown, and I knew it was mainly because I wasn’t moving around during the day,” said Charlotte Barnacle.

Every morning before her workday, medical office assistant hops in her car and drives. She spends anywhere from three minutes to 90 minutes on the road, before returning home and getting started with her day.

Cameron is a “fake commuter,” an increasingly common work-from-home trend that’s being praised by workers and productivity coaches alike. “Fake commuting” is a substitute for the “me time” commuters once got on their way to a formal office space, whether they walked, drove, read a book or listened to a podcast on the train. Commuters had the time to clear their minds on their daily commute. With fake commuting, those who work from home do, too.

We spoke to experts and seasoned fake commuters to understand the benefits of fake commuting and how to implement it in our own lives as the pandemic looms on.

Commuting created boundaries between work and home — fake commuting does too

In 2018, the average American spent 225 hours (over nine calendar days!) commuting. However, since the pandemic started, more people are working from home and working 3 hours more daily than they did before.

“Commuting was a great legitimate experience to set up a barrier between the outside world of work, family, [or] social life and demanding your attention,” explains clinical psychologist Dr. Jeannette Raymond. “‘Fake commute’ time is about setting up personal care boundaries — emotional oases and a guilt-free space [and] time to check in on themselves.” The real commute, she explains, created those boundaries artificially; now people have to do it for themselves in a world where those boundaries are increasingly blurred.

Unblurring the lines between work and home when you’re working from home

As someone who’s been working from home for over a year, Rianna Kate, wellness educator and lifestyle coach says she came across the idea of fake commuting when some of her clients, who weren’t used to working from home, were forced to do so due to the pandemic. Because that commute time was no longer there to fill, she explains, people were reluctant to make that time themselves.

Fake commuting coach

Librarian Lucy Ahmed does an hour-long fake commute walk after work.

“Suddenly, people were waking up late, grabbing a laptop off the floor next to their bed, sitting in bed in their pajamas [and] checking their emails,” said Kate. “Normally, when you are in an office, you shut your laptop, walk out the door, get on the [train] and come home.”

Fake commuting can be an opportunity to get active

Charlotte Barnacle, a project management officer from Oxfordshire, UK, took to fake commuting after she realized her work-from-home lifestyle was somewhat sedentary.

“I had started to gain weight over lockdown, and I knew it was mainly because I wasn’t moving around during the day,” said Barnacle, whose commute lasted up to half an hour by car. “Although at the office I sat at a desk all day, I was walking… around the building a lot and getting out for a lunchtime walk.”

Since starting a daily 2.5-mile fake commute in the form of a walk, she’s come to notice a surge of energy. “Walking before breakfast really gives me a feeling of accomplishment and sets me up for the day.”

Fake commuting is not the same as winding down after a long day

Fake commutes are not about “rewards,” like drinking a glass of wine after work, or watching a show, explains Raymond, they are about “erecting necessary personal boundaries that allow a person to separate family life from work life from reward time and friend time.”

Librarian Lucy Ahmed, whose commute was once a 45-minute walk each way, found her hour-long fake commute walk after work (in addition to a morning run) to be instrumental in bookending her day. “I decompress and disengage, psychologically drawing a line under the day… [it] keeps work and home separate.”

Reaping the benefits of ‘fake commuting’

Nowadays, as we switch between hundreds of open tabs on our laptop, shopping online while replying to work emails during the day and streaming shows into the night, we have no boundaries. ” Without [boundaries] one becomes disoriented, overwhelmed, and unable to monitor when you need a break; when you need a chance of pace or activity,” explained Raymond.

Akanksha Singh

Writer Akanksha Singh

It might be hard, but the first thing to do is give yourself permission to draw boundaries. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and drowning in family stuff, children’s schooling and having no break, says Raymond, adding it might even feel like there is no legitimate reason to take breaks since everything blurred into everything else.

Once you’ve done that, Kate suggests working out what works for you. It might not be Ahmed’s morning run and walk schedule or Cameron’s daily drive. Rather says Kate, it’s about taking guilt-free time for yourself and setting up boundaries.

Whether that’s multiple desktops set up on your Mac to draw lines between your “work” and “personal” modes like Kate, setting a time every morning to say, “Today I’m going to turn off my laptop at 5 and go for a walk,” or listening to a true-crime podcast, fake commuting, however you choose to practice is about your individual mental health.

Category: Get Active