Are You Sitting Too Much? 

It’s Time To Find Out!

 

 

Imagine waking up fresh as a daisy, nailing your working day, and still having plenty of energy to enjoy some well-deserved family time in the evening before heading off to bed content and restful.

Sounds good, no? While it may sound like some far-fetched utopian dream, being consistently content and energized is well within your reach—all you have to do is make some tweaks to your lifestyle.

  Did you know? The average person spends around  nine hours (or more) of their waking day sitting down. That’s a lot when you really think about it. 

Our emotions and consciousness are so deeply rooted we space out without realizing, but our subconscious keeps us going. So, ever thought why that happens and what can you do about it?

In addition to diet, sleep, and exercise, sitting down for excessive periods of time can have a significant impact on your overall health and wellbeing. In short, if you sit down too much, you will suffer, both physically and mentally.

The reason your brain is often overwhelmed by your daily life (or just ‘struggling through’) is because it subconsciously follows a deeply etched sedentary habit. 

Now, if standing is one of your main habits, you’re likely to feel better, enhance your energy levels, and flood your brain with mood enhancing chemicals like serotonin and dopamine.

If you are feeling sluggish, you might be sitting down too much. 

Here’s how to find out..

 

Deal with your emotions & train your brain

Before we delve any deeper into sitting down, let’s take a moment to explore emotions and the role they play in our everyday health & wellbeing.

Emotions are powerful, so dealing with them head-on is one approach. By learning how to be present and tune into your surroundings, you will form solid foundations for your emotional processing abilities. 

Life is busy. There will always be loads of stuff to do, but don’t allow your brain to trick you into unhealthy habits. 

Every time you take on a task or activity, stop and think about it. Is what you’re doing efficient or beneficial to your life? Is there a better way to do it? Or, is what you’re doing harmful to your wellbeing?  

 

 

When you start processing your emotions and training yourself to be more mindful, you will make positive changes consistently—which brings us back to sitting down.

As humans, we’re not built to sit for long periods—the most sedentary of activities was simply meant to be a short interval between standing and moving. But, these days it feels like we take standing intervals between sitting. The more tuned in you are and the better you are at processing your emotions, the more mindful you will be about sitting down for excessive periods. These small changes can show you visible results in your mental and physical health over the long term.

 

Try the Chair Test

Now that you know how mindfulness and emotional processing plays a role in your daily wellbeing, let’s get back to the issue at hand: your sitting habits. It’s time for The Chair Test. 

This simple test will determine where you stand—we mean sit (no pun intended)!

It’s simple: explore these tasks and answer YES or NO. Based on your answer score, you will know the truth about your sitting habits. So, go ahead, open your eyes to reality.

1. You spend the first 30mins after waking on the bed scrolling through your phone.
2. You drive or get a cab instead of using public transport (even though you can).
3. You spend more than 30mins a day idle at a stretch.
4. The couch has pushed in on one side where you sit.
5.  You work sitting down because that feels productive to you.
6. You love all home décor that revolves around sitting like a bean bag or a dining chair.
7. Drinking at the bar is more exciting than standing up or moving around the room.
8. You love your laptop or desktop.
9. Picnics at the park have been your favorite lately.
10. Netflix viewing binges at night is a regular fixture

 

Score Yourself:

For each YES you get one point.

 0: Congrats, you aren’t a chair addict so you’re in the green zone.

1-2: You’re a chair pre-addict.

3-5: You’re a chair addict.

6-8: You’re a prisoner of your chair.

9-10:  You’re super sedentary, it’s time to make a change.

 

Are you a sitting addict? It’s time to take a STAND, literally. Never fear, here at Humbleworks HQ, we know a thing or two about the benefits of reducing your sitting time. And, we’re going to give you a few pointers on making those lifestyle tweaks that will help you work towards a happier, healthier life.

 

Take it one step at a time 

Moving on from one sedentary activity to the next doesn’t qualify as taking a ‘one step at a time’ approach. To make a sustainable change, you have to break your excessive sitting habits.

 

 

We recommend you make changes incrementally, and at your own pace, keeping the end goal of sitting less without effort in mind at all times.

Start with the simple 30:5 rule: move around after every 30 minutes of sitting to free your muscles and maintain your body mechanism. 

Slowly move on to standing for meetings and coffee breaks, and when you’re ready, invest in a standing desk to enjoy all of those health-boosting benefits while you’re working. Baby steps lead to a greater change, the kind that sticks. So, don’t leap, take your time—you will get there in the end, and it will be worth it. 

 

 

In today’s world, most of our activities are based on being idle, but there are alternative (better) ways to do things—and most of them involve moving or standing. 

So, take heed of this wake-up call before it’s too late. And, if you’re looking for further inspiration, find out more about our standing desks and how they can help!