Your body used to like this

There was a time you moved for no reason at all. You danced in the kitchen, took the stairs two at a time, swam because the water felt good, walked the long way because the evening was nice.

Nobody was counting anything. Your body was simply a thing you lived in and moved through the world with, and sometimes moving felt wonderful.

Then somewhere, movement got recategorized. It became exercise, which is to say it became a duty, a discipline, a thing done for results rather than for how it feels.

And once it became a should, it joined the long list of shoulds you carry. Something to feel guilty about skipping rather than something to look forward to.

That shift cost you something real. Not fitness, but the plain animal pleasure of being in a body that is moving because it wants to.

Because there is a pleasure there, and you know it. The particular satisfaction of stretching when you wake up.

The way your shoulders drop after a walk you did not need to take. The involuntary smile when a song comes on and your body moves before you decide to.

None of that has anything to do with discipline. It is simply what bodies enjoy, and yours has not stopped enjoying it.

So here is the way back, and it involves no plan and no goal. Today, move your body once in a way that feels good, purely for how it feels.

Dance across the kitchen while the kettle heats. Stretch on the floor for as long as your body likes it.

Walk out the door with no route in mind and no intention of coming back improved. Put your hands in the garden and let your back complain a little.

You are not training for anything. You are just remembering that your body is yours to enjoy, and not only one more thing to manage.

Things worth remembering your body enjoys:

Today, notice the moments your body actually enjoys itself, the stretch, the warmth, the ease of a good walk. Those moments are not incidental. They are yours.

See you tomorrow.