How Movement Fuels Your Creativity and Productivity

Met anyone recently who hasn’t said they are busy? Anyone who is like “oh yea I’ve plenty of free time”? No? Didn’t think so.

In the busyness of life we can often get caught up in our heads. In our thinking minds. Sitting for long hours hustling away, pushing through and ignoring the needs of our bodies and minds. We unfairly expect them to keep giving 110% and to be able to consistently show up day after day being productive when we aren’t giving them what they need to function optimally.

How many times have you stopped work to take a break and suddenly been hit by a wave of hunger, you feel starving. Like in the red everyone stay away from me I’m getting hangry as hell kinda starving. Somehow that strong feeling was ignored and repressed while you were working.

Or ever been busting for a wee but keep telling yourself I’ll just send one more email then I’ll go. Or hit ‘cancel’ on the gym class you booked because you feel you don’t have time and need to keep working.

You are a human being first. An entrepreneur second. Meet your human needs and the rest will flow so much easier.

Human beings are born to move. It is in our nature, in our DNA. It is not just a ‘nice to have’. It is vital for our day to day emotional well-being, productivity, creativity and joy.

If you are struggling with low energy, feeling unproductive and end the day crashed out on the sofa doom scrolling because you’re so wiped? The movement might be the key for you 🗝.

☀️ Movement boosts your energy and productivity

Mini movement breaks during the day, stretches at your desk, short strolls, gym classes, pilates, yoga…whatever kind of movement brings you joy start sprinkling more into your day.

Exercise helps release neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. These hormones do more than make us feel good (which is a win in itself!)- they play a key role in our cognitive function.

🧩 Dopamine supports executive function in our brain which helps us problem solve, focus and be able to hold things in our minds short term (our working memory).

☀️ Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that helps regulate mood, feelings of happiness, and overall emotional well-being. It’s often referred to as the "feel-good" neurotransmitter because it contributes to feelings of happiness and calm. It makes sense that when we are feeling good we are going to be able to approach our work with more ease, creativity, flow and joy.

🌿Movement also helps lower cortisol levels (stress hormone). And without the foggy cloud of stress lingering over us we are going to make better decisions and be able to think more clearly when we dive into those all important tasks that move the needle on our business.

🧠 Doing a little dance around your living room, going for a workout, heading outside for a walk or run- it all gets more blood and oxygen flowing to the brain so a big energy and mood boost just from that alone!

Then of course there are the benefits of it boosting our resilience and helping us get better at handling stress and better able to bounce back from challenges. It also helps us see we are capable of doing hard things which is so key for entrepreneurship! If we can give our mind evidence that we are able to push through discomfort, to challenge ourselves and to come out the other side stronger and better then this is going to translate into more confidence when we approach business challenges too,

All these amazing benefits come from both intentional exercise (the gym, a run, a pilates class, a big walk) and from smaller daily movement (taking a mini movement break and doing some stretches at your desk, doing some star jumps to wake you up, parking further away from the coffee shop).

Get out the all or nothing mindset

Some movement is always better than no movement.

I see this a lot in clients- they think if they can’t go the gym for a full hour because they are busy there is no point going at all. Or if they only have 1o mins for a walk because they have to much to do they might as well stay home. But going to the gym for 20mins is better than not going at all- you’ll still get the amazing benefits I shared above.

Going for a short walk even for 10mins is better than staying inside all day.

Doing 5 mins stretching on your lunch break is still better than sitting at your desk all day not moving.

The key?

Start finding small and achievable ways to get more movement in. Sure you might have an ideal goal of working out or moving 4 times a week but for now? Let’s just start….

🌿 A 10 minute walk to end each day

🧘‍♀️ A 5 minute stretching break mid morning

🌸 Doing a few blood pumping moves before you sit down at your desk like some squats or kettlebell swings! Only needs to be 1o of each to get your blood flowing.

☀️ Know you current step count? Set a goal to add 1000 extra steps a day this week to your average. Next week add another 1000.

🏋️‍♀️ What is an achievable amount of times you could go to the gym on your busiest weeks? Note: Not your IDEAL week but your BUSIEST week. Set that as your baseline. So we don’t set a target to go 4 times, only have time for 1 and get into the all or nothing mindset of well if I can only do one what’s the point I just won’t go.

Movement does so much more than just support our physical health

It gives an immediate boost to our mental well-being, energy, productivity, creativity and the joy we can find in each day.

It gives us opportunity to get some mental rest into your day too. To get out of that ‘thinking’ mind and back to connecting our minds and bodies and creating a greater sense of inner balance. Giving our brains a break is so important for our energy and also our ability to keep showing up day after day and giving our big dreams and goals what they need to come to life.

So take a moment to pause & reflect on your day to day…

What small ways could you start to add in a little more movement?