Today’s Joyful activity: Move! This isn’t like yesterday’s gentle walk, this is something to get your heart rate up a bit briefly. Even for just 15 seconds!

{there’s a hilarious video version of this at the end of the post..}

Easy version:

Do something quick, right where you are. 15 jumping jacks, a flight of stairs, even just wave your arms around - whatever is easy and comfortable for you.

Less easy:

Go for a run, hit the boxing gym, do a zumba class online or in real life.

Why?

Stressful situations cause your brain to be flooded in the hormones that used to be for running away from tigers (you’ve probably heard of “fight or flight”). Not many of us are facing that kind of stress anymore, but our bodies still respond in a physical way to stressful situations. One quick way to help move the stress hormones out of you is to literally move - send your body the signal that you are taking care of things (ie. running from the tiger), so that it can go back to a more neutral state.

Ideas for sharing:

If you’re on social media, you can share a picture or short video of today’s prompt. It’s more challenging than the previous days, so feel free to be creative in how you interpret it! Add a quick description of the activity to encourage your friends and followers to try it too!

If you’re doing a “daily Joy texting” partnership with someone, send each other pictures or a description of the burst of activity you did.

You can also share this activity in person. Find a running buddy, or join a fitness class with a friend.

Feel free to share your experience with me! Either in the comments below, or by emailing me.

My personal choice:

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a super physically active person. Whenever I feel the need to flush out my “fight or flight” hormones, I tend to do the easiest thing possible. I find a space that’s big enough that I won’t hurt myself, and then wildly flail my arms around for about 20-30 seconds. It probably looks ridiculous, but it works!