How Sedentary Life Zaps Our Pleasure
You might be a Chair Addict. Like for real.
I perceive this in my own experiences. The more I do it, the more I want it. I found an article to help me understand and explain it...
Sedentary life is physiologically addictive. Add a book or a screen? Even more so.
An addiction to sitting, like all addictions, works by reeducating the sensory system. IT RESHAPES EXPERIENCES OF PLEASURE.
When it comes to the pleasure of moving, humans are born with it. Babies gyrate incessantly; toddlers dance; children run, skip and play.
Because it is fun. Because it feels good. Because they want to.
Until they don’t.
What happens? Sedentary activities—like reading, watching, video gaming — TRAIN PEOPLE TO DESIRE FORMS OF EXPERIENCE WHOSE PLEASURES COMPETE WITH THE JOY OF MOVING THEIR BODILY SELVES, without offering the full range of benefits.
Watching that high-speed chase ramps your pulse; reading that romance novel (or those IG captions) pulls on your heart. You see, you hear, you feel — as if the experience is yours, which it is, in part, but not completely.
The power of media is fierce, and that is why humans love it so. They do not simply convey information, THEY ENGAGE AND GRATIFY A DEEP NEED TO MOVE OUR BODILY SELVES.
➡️ But we are not actually moving our bodies! ⬅️
And in the process, in so far as we are “moved” and experience this as pleasure, WE LEARN TO PERCEIVE MEDIA AS RESOURCES FOR RESPONDING TO DISTRESS that arise in any realm of our physio-spiritual lives.
When tired, bored, agitated or in some kind of “pain,” we escape into a screen, dive into a book, or check social media. While doing so is not harmful in an absolute sense, it can be addictive. And keeps us wanting more of that while forgetting the incredible power of moving our bodily selves.
Remixed from “The Power of Movement,” by Kimerer L LaMothe Ph.D. in Psychology Today
Image by Allec Gomes on Unsplash
