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Hey Reader,

This past week, I was sicker than I've been in a long time. What started as a mild cold suddenly morphed into something much less mild plus a 2 day migraine.

I'm ok now -- no more migraine, no more coughing jags waking me up in the middle of the night -- but at the peak of that nastiness, all I wanted to do was rest.

Well, not all. I actually did still want to move my body.

That might sound absolutely nuts. If rest was what my body needed, shouldn't I have given my body that?

This leads me to my Movement Snack this week.

Movement Snack this week:

To be clear, I did rest my body. And I opted out of some of the movement I usually have planned. I didn't run this week at all because that is the hardest on my body of all of the weekly movement I do.

I did lift weights, but that still felt good to me. I took it slowly. I didn't push harder than I needed to. It also helped that on the days I was scheduled to lift weights, I was feeling a little bit better.

On the days that I felt especially shitty, I did yoga. My practice was slow and brief and mostly standing poses because my nose was running like a faucet so down dog would have been gross.

This morning, I felt mostly back to normal but still low energy. It was a weights day, so I didn't push extra hard. I listened to my body.

Am I saying that everyone should move their body when they're sick?

Definitely not.

I had a nasty cold and a migraine but I never had a fever. I didn't have achy joints or sore throat. I wasn't nauseous or throwing up. On the days when I had a migraine, I took medication, which helped. But I also didn't push my body hard. I moved gently because I knew a little bit of movement would feel good for me.

I am a big believer in movement, in particular that moving a little bit every day is good for your body and your mind, as well as your overall health. So I do have a slight bias, but it's one that science bears out.

Here's the Cliff's Notes:

If you're sick, adjust your movement practice accordingly. Your body might be begging for rest and only rest, in which case please do that.

But your body also might benefit from movement. If movement is something that typically makes you feel good or feel better, consider doing a little bit of gentle movement and see how you feel. Cat/cow is always a great place to start. Or standing side body stretches.

If you need a little more guidance, I have a playlist on my YouTube channel called "Mellow and Gentle" which is a bunch of chill practices that might feel great on sick or low energy days. You can check it out and bookmark it here.

If you want more classes like this to add to this playlist, particularly ones that are extra gentle for when you're under the weather, please let me know!

In the meantime, if you're a fan of mellower movement practices, most of the mellow and gentle classes I create live in the online library of MOVE, my online movement studio. I create a chill practice every month built around a monthly pose and a theme. This month our pose is eagle pose, so it's a shoulder and hips focused class that closes with the option to take a long restorative.

If you're in MOVE, that practice is already in the hub waiting for you!

If you're not in MOVE and would like to try it out, you can join me live this Thursday at 12pm ET. I teach this class live every Thursday on zoom and I'd love for you to come as my guest. Just respond to this email to let me know and I'll send you the link to join.

Question of the week:

What's your go-to remedy when you have a cold? I'll share mine if you share yours with me!

I look forward to hearing about from you and hopefully see you on the mat soon, too!

Warmly,

Naomi

Want to stay in touch during the week? Here are a 2 easy ways:

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I also recently published an article on Fit Bottomed Girls, a list of perimenopause experts you can actually trust -- meaning ones who aren't trying to sell you their own brand of supplements or tracking devices you don't need. You can read it here.