MY ROCKING CHAIR JUSTIFIED

I LOVE my rocking chair.  I have a long history of  special relationships with rocking chairs over the years.  Rocking chairs are magical to me.  You can rock and soothe your babies.  You can rock your kids to Kraftwork, instilling the awesomeness of electronic music in them. You can rock away nausea when you are feeling sick.  I don't know, I just love rocking chairs.

As I was spending some serious time in mine the other day, a tiny bit of guilt started to creep in. I had not gone for a walk, or gone to the gym or even really moved about the house that day.  A very very sedentary day I will admit.  And some idiot came on the tv with some kind of report,  told me, right to my face, that a day of sitting is as bad or equal to a day of smoking.  What!!!???  I tried to ignore that little tidbit.  I quickly changed the channel and attempted to forget what had just penetrated my brain.  But I couldn't.

So I did the only thing one does about problems these days.  I grabbed my lappy, who is always by my side, and googled "are rocking chairs a healthy alternative to just sitting?"  And you wouldn't believe what popped up!!!

The very first website I went into had a list, an actual list! of the good things about rocking chairs.

Firstly, rocking definitely aids in circulation in the feet and lower legs!  At least better than just sitting, maybe not quite as much as going to the gym and pushing heavy weights with your legs, but still, better than just sitting.

Secondly, apparently rocking raises endorphins, and higher levels of happy endorphins is super healthy!  You know how stress cortisone raging through your body is bad bad bad, causes cancer etc....? Well happy endorphins do the exact opposite.

Thirdly, in senior homes, they are purposely putting rocking chairs in the lounges.  And when the physical trainer comes, she/he has a whole fifteen minute regime of 'rocking chair' exercises for the oldsters to do.  And they are encouraged to spend MORE time in rocking chairs to improve their overall health!  sigh....yes....

Fourthly, it has been shown in studies that rocking reduces anxiety and depression and improves mental health.  And in those studies it showed that rocking actually improved and slowed dementia.  Say no more!!!  I'm in!!!

I don't really need to say anymore.  Increased mobility, quicker surgery recovery, fix vertigo and chronic pain management were just a few more reasons to spend time in a rocking chair.  And know what?  They are now offering ROCKING CHAIR TRAINING in some senior homes and clinics.  Training!!!!!!  

So I rest my case.  What else can one say?  I love my chair so much I am tempted to name it.  This big old red pleather chair is my safe place, my home, my anchor. If you need me you know where you will probably find me....guiltfree! I know!  If I knew how, I would change this blog's name to "RED ROCKING CHAIR RHETORIC". After all I don't have a purple room anymore and I always write from my chair.  But I don't know how to do that, so I won't.  TTYL

NATURE:  My biggest gratitude is the sound when the soughing wind comes along and blows amongst the evergreens up high.  That beautiful rushing, undulating sound brings back amazing memories stretching way back to when I was little.  But mostly I feel like thats my mom gently communicating with me.  There was nothing more that she loved more than that sound.