Guest Column: Time to Spring Clean Your Health

By Roseanna Frechette,

Springtime is a great time for taking a clean look at the personal inventory of our lives. We naturally feel an urge to dig into the cupboards and closets of our homes in an invigorating effort to let go what we don’t need and reorganize what we do. But the spring fever for purging, cleansing, and refreshing is not limited to our closets. For the health conscious person, springtime is a great time to consider a clean bill of health.

For most people exercise promotes health. But many people are stuck on one type of exercise, which can lead to depletion and fatigue. And some people don’t participate at all, because they feel unfit and unable to do anything about it, which creates a sense of lethargy and stagnation.

If we were to consider health as a matter of good clean energy, we might see that neither overdoing nor under doing exercise creates optimal health. Energy is meant to flow, like water. And water makes a great springtime metaphor for how we might promote a refreshing sense of health through the energy of exercise.

Consider a body of water that either drains away or sits stagnant. In both cases, no energy is flowing. But a body of water that is replenished through abundant snowmelt or rainfall becomes a healthy resource. Moving water remains fairly clean through the powers of oxygenation and circulation. And a well-oxygenated environment tends to discourage bacteria and other disease-related substances from thriving.

Not only are we like bodies of water; we are bodies of water. According to Wikipedia, our bodies contain 55-60% water! Therefore we need good circulation and steady replenishment just as any Rocky Mountain lake or stream would.

Besides literally taking in water, we can consider a well-rounded, non-depleting exercise regime as a way of keeping the waters of our health vital and clean. If your body is giving you the stiff, sore, fatigued messages of repetitive overuse, consider both subtracting from and adding to your exercise regime. If you’re feeling stuck about getting going at all, get clear with yourself about what types of been-there-done-that exercise you’re resisting and consider trying something completely new.

Just as you might consider cleaning out your closets, you might also consider going through your workout bag of tricks. Since spring cleaning is a welcome ritual whereby we shake the built-up dust out and promote a refreshing sense of something new, imagine how you might exude a healthy glow by springing into a change of exercise routine.

The Oxford Club is happy to share a good variety of fitness center options with you. Consider taking a tour of our facility soon. With mind/body lectures, specialty classes, and weekend workshops, we can help open your senses to greater possibilities!

Roseanna Frechette is Yoga Director and Business Development Rep for The Oxford Club, 1616 17th Street, in LoDo: oxfordclubspa.com; 303-628-5522. This article first appeared in the Downtown Denver News of LoDo.