Exercising Gratitude [Self-Love Letter]

Hi Byte Wellness Fam!

How are you feeling? I feel grateful.

I’m so grateful for the community we’ve built around reclaiming our wellbeing. I hope you’ll keep supporting each other in your wellness journeys online and in your real life communities.

This week opens our Wellness RESET conversation about movement as a wellness superpower.

This is the 3rd of 4 wellness superpowers in our Wellness RESET challenge. Check out previous Self-Love Letters to learn about the other 2 we’ve covered.

In Wednesday’s #PhyteWellWednesday workshop, we broke down the idea of gentle movement as active rest.

Text TEXT to 1(866)717-1919 to join the text thread and get invites to the weekly #PhyteWellWednesday Workshops (every Wednesday at 7pm CT/8pm ET).

Check out the recording above.

By the way, if you want Self-Love Letters like this one sent to your email every week, you can sign up here.

Discussion Question

How often do you sit when you could stand? How often do you ride (in a car) when you could walk?

Our Wellness Cheat Code: Vitamin M

Now, let’s get into the science behind Vitamin M (movement) and its positive effects on our health and wellness.

It turns out that physical activity (of all sorts) reduces the risk of disease and death from most of the conditions that are responsible for killing Black women. Relatively new discoveries emerging over the last decade suggest that those benefits may primarily be caused by what we call Vitamin M (myokines). Myokines are anti-inflammatory chemical signals that are released from muscle when its used (https://doi.org/10.1210/endrev/bnaa024).

Myokines benefit multiple organ systems. They controlling appetite and metabolism to help us maintain a healthy weight. They dilate blood vessels in order to lower our blood pressure. They help us prevent the clogged arteries that lead to heart attack and stroke by healing the inner lining of blood vessels that have been injured by the turbulent flow of high blood pressures. They help us prevent type 2 diabetes by telling the pancreas to release more insulin to drive sugar from the blood into the muscles, thus lower blood sugar levels.

But, myokines don’t ONLY protect us from these largely preventable chronic diseases.

Breaking research suggests that myokines may also be linked to dementia risk. A study published in September 2023 shows that sitting less (moving more) after the age of 60 is tied to lower risks of developing dementia over the next 5-6 years.

Just to close the loop, and in case you missed it, we make myokines when we move. Muscle movement produces those healing, regenerative, life-affirming chemicals we just talked about. That’s why we need to move as much as we can.

Movement as Gratitude

Listen. Learning about myokines and how much we need them to live, it’s easy to switch into guilt mode and pressure ourselves into moving more. Or, perhaps, we might shame ourselves for sitting so much.

Instead of conjuring guilt or shame over how much we move, let’s welcome the opportunity to exercise gratitude. I know I could use a little help with being more present and mindful in everyday life. And, I bet I’m not the only one. Recognizing gratitude is a great bridge to mindfulness.

Just take a minute to marvel at the extreme fortune we’re experiencing (at this very moment) in having bodies and brains that were built with complex healing systems.

Those systems work to protect us. They keep us alive. They are the reason we can function as we do in the world. Our muscles and the myokines they produce support so many major functions of life. And still, they are just one piece of those healing systems.

Let’s move because we’re grateful for all our bodies and brains have done and are doing for us. Let’s move because we deserve it.

What some ways you’re showing gratitude for yourself this week? Let’s talk about it.

**Scroll below to review the last few weeks of Wellness RESET, where we covered Stress-Relief and Sleep as wellness superpowers.

Happy, Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse

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