Convenience is killing us - why moving more in everyday life is important, and how to start doing it

Concerned about what happens to you as you age? Read on, or listen on YouTube.

As many of you here know, I am absolutely and increasingly passionate about the vital importance of movement in living and aging well.

Does that resonate with you? As you’ve started getting a little older (which, after all, we’re all doing!!), you might have found yourself becoming a bit more restricted physically or energy-wise in terms of what you feel able to do, or how well/for how long you feel able to do it.

You’re not alone! But what can we do about it? Let’s explore…

Think back a few years… What do you avoid doing now, or find less easy or pleasurable? It might be hobbies, activities of day-to-day life, or just getting playful in terms of your movement when you’re out on a walk. And in what ways have you set your life up to be more convenient - to save you time and energy - in ways that maybe weren’t available to you 10, 20 or 30 years ago?

Life is just so much easier these days than it was even a decade or two ago, right? Who remembers (at the time of writing in 2025, I’m aged 47, just for a bit of context), actually having to get up to change the channel on the TV (you know, from one to another of the only four available!!)? Or having to get up to get the phone cable to plug in the computer to get on the internet? Or washing everything up because there was no dishwasher (ok, that was a bit before my time, but still!)? And if we go back quite a bit further, we now have all sorts of mod cons, like cars, water on tap, and telephones - all of which are very convenient, and all of which curtail our movement.

With research clearly showing that we are getting less in the way of physical activity these days than we used to¹, and the massive negative effects of this trend (lack of physical activity significantly increases the risk of cognitive decline, many serious illnesses, and overall mortality, amongst other things), how do we get out of this rut??

We might well be very clear that moving less decreases our quality of life - and know that if we live a long time (like I imagine most of us here wish to do), that we want to do so in good health please!!

A couple of problems though in getting out of the slide towards sedentary living, as I see them. One, we have been fed the story that we must “exercise” to increase our movement - which essentially means physical exertion over and above our usual everyday activities. This kind of more intense movement might feel inaccessible to some of us, at least right now - traditional ’exercise’ might feel out of reach due to illness, injury or some other physical restriction. Then the risk is that we say, well, there’s nothing I can do - and means we rule out the activities of daily living as ’not counting’ towards an increase in movement in our lives.

Two, it’s a VERY vicious circle. We find it more difficult to move as we age (or perhaps I should say, easier not to), so we move a little less, which then means it becomes a little more difficult to move, which means we move even less… You get the idea.

More traditional physical exercise is very important. There’s plenty of research on that too. Things like strength training will have a massive impact on your wellbeing as you age (don’t worry, you can start small!). But it appears that this sort of movement doesn’t replace getting more movement into everyday life - it complements it. So if we can work on increasing movement in our daily life, before or as well as introducing some more obviously ’exercise’ type activities, we will really be onto something.

So here are two simple things you can do.

One - start doing Somatic Movement. The best time is 20 (or more) years ago - the next best time is now. Somatic Movement frees up the muscle tension and reduces the aches and pains that make it difficult to move. So it makes movement easier. So you’re more inclined to move more. So you move more. So it gets easier to move… Now we’re into a virtuous circle - which is definitely what we want.

Two - stop aiming for convenience, and start aiming for movement. Which might mean, very simply, instead of carrying 4 items in one go even though you can, you carry two and then the other two so that you move about more. Or you put such-and-such an item across the room so that you have to get up and go to it instead of just reaching for it (what about moving the remote for example?!!). Or you wipe the floor with a cloth, on your hands and knees, rather than using a mop. Or you stop getting your kids to pick up that thing you just dropped onto the floor so that you have to bend down and pick it up yourself instead. What you do NOT have to do is formal ’exercise’ (yet??) - ANY form of physical activity is helpful. Even a little shows significant benefits. And keep an eye out for my upcoming blog post to give you TONS of ideas for moving more in everyday life!

So yes, convenience is helpful and easy and saves time, and has brought so much to our lives. And when you’re pressured for time, as many of us are, it’s hard to think of doing things that aren’t going to be the most convenient, most efficient. But what if convenience is killing us. Slowly but surely, in the long term. Sometimes we will HAVE to lean towards convenience (and note, if that’s what you need right now in your life, you GRAB it - this is not to guilt anyone who needs convenience right now). But if we can reduce convenience and up movement in our lives - we will be doing ourselves a MASSIVE favour.

So the questions are, where can you bring more movement in, and how can you make that movement easier? Start Somatics with us, and look for all opportunities to move in everyday life that you can find.

Let’s do this!! Emilie xx

¹See for example here, here and here.

Emilie Leeks

Author

Emilie is a heart-centred life mentor and space holder, supporting those on a healing path. This is not an easy journey, and often we can find ourselves losing our way. Emilie's work meets you where you're at, with beautiful, accepting support and connection, and weaves that support with practices and explorations in self-compassion, body connection, and a return to a deep trust in ourselves. Note: all blog post content which refers to them, has been read and agreed to by Emilie's children.

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