Sitt - Move or die: how the sedentary life is killing us and how movement, not exercise, can save us

At some point, all of us have struggled to maintain our health whether trying to stay fit, recovering from illness, avoiding illness, or taking care of our mental health. Move or Die focuses on time spent sitting, not as a problem to eradicate, but as an opportunity: Start moving, and you can lead a healthier and happier life.

By judo-flipping our sedentary time, we can transform sitting time into an opportunity to enhance our health in ways that were not possible before. With a healthier workforce, organizations and companies experience more productivity and by extension, profit.The most difficult part is changing your mindset. After that, all you need to do is move.

This book is your guide to rethinking popular approaches to health, then opening the door to a new world of movement, different from traditional forms of exercise. It shows you how to incorporate movement throughout your day, elevating your energy, mood, and health.

By now, you may have heard that sitting is the new smoking. A large and growing body of research connects prolonged sitting and sedentary behavior with serious health problems like cancer, diabetes, obesity, and more. However, prolonged sitting doesnt only impact our physical health. The more we sit the more other aspects of us become rigid, like behavior, thinking, communication, and relationship patterns. The problem of being sedentary is a symptom of a larger problem: a generalized stagnation resulting in the stiffening of bodies, the fixation of minds, the staleness of relationships, and the eventual disruption of growth throughout entire organizations.

This book introduces movement as a mindset. It will help you develop the skills to become aware of unhealthy patterns and help you explore choices to move towards healthier possibilities that allow for growth. Central to this work is the creation and pursuit of freedom of movement. Freedom is at the heart of many of our deepest values: freedom of choice, freedom to love whom we wish, financial freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the freedom to vote. We have yet to prioritize our bodies and movement in the same way, particularly in our working environments.

The freedom to move our bodies is central to experiences of optimal health. Movement is the key to accessing resources, creativity, and innovation that can otherwise be trapped when our bodies and our minds are locked in a sitting position for hours on end. When I am discussing movement, I am not just talking about physical movement but also psychological, relational, and organizational.

The relationship between physical health and other aspects of our lives should be obvious. We exist within bodies so it makes sense that if our bodies are stuck, other areas of our lives get stuck as well. Sitting down for long periods reduces blood flow and the production of hormones and neurochemicals. This has an impact on our mental health.

My hope is to inspire you to incorporate the power of movement into your day so you can transform your mind, body, relationships, and organizations by adding new energy, new perspectives, new strength, and an authentic experience of health. I will help you do this by teaching a philosophy of health called the Freedom of Movement. Life is a complex process that requires constant learning and growing: the freedom to move ones mind, body, and relationships is an important method for coping with challenges and facilitating growth.