Did you know that sitting is bad for you? For long periods of time anyway.
Part of me wonders if it’s like that time that eggs were bad, then they weren’t. Avocado suffered a similar fate too.
Unfortunately though, I think the science this time is irrefutable. And man is there some science!!
Even though it feels so good to crash on the couch at the end of a hard day with your crochet, our bodies don’t naturally love to sit. Case in point: we’ve got over 360 joints and 700 muscles, our blood needs us to move to circulate properly and our skin is elastic so we can move it around (and fit in all the burritos).
When we sit, our joints, muscles and ligaments stretch to accommodate sitting, which isn’t often ideal. Slouching over a crafting project shrinks our chest cavity and limits the amount of oxygen in our lungs and blood. Sitting also compresses tissues and blocks nerves, arteries and veins. This limits nerve signals and reduces blood flow, leading to numbness and swelling.
If that doesn’t convince you, sitting hampers creativity! It reduces blood flow and oxygen in the blood stream, which in turn dips your concentration as your brain activity slows.
I know, annoying right? There’s nothing better than sitting down after a hard day and doing some creating. Some of my best craft projects were done sitting down. The rest were done lying down. Hardly any were done standing.
So how do I marry what I love to do, which involves a lot of sitting, and my desire to live a long, healthy life?
The answer is ‘Stand Up and Craft!’.
‘Stand Up and Craft’ is a movement that calls for all crafters to think twice before sitting down and crafting.
I’ve been doing it for a few weeks now, and it works. I take each craft as it comes, and the parts that I can do standing, I do! My workspace is now the kitchen bench much to my dog’s disgust. My lap is no longer readily accessible for snuggling.
I find that if I’m standing, I’m more likely to move around the house to source different materials, or take on another task while I’m waiting for some glue to dry. I also feel a lot more energetic and my workspace is cleaner because I’m more motivated to keep the kitchen clean and tidy.
What have you got to lose? Go on, join me and #standupandcraft!
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