A resolution to enjoy

I wonder how many fitness trackers were received as presents over Christmas and whether they have encouraged resolutions for increased fitness. It is amazing that we can measure our steps taken, our running speed, our heart rates and even our sleeping can be monitored. Whilst they can be useful to provide information I am worried that they can kill the joy of exercise or even increase anxiety about our activities. (There is evidence that some people are so anxious about their sleep patterns that they are suffering from insomnia!)

It can be very easy to get caught up in the urge to do better each time you go for a run so that slowing down to admire the blossom on a tree, to pat a friendly dog, to say hello to a friend becomes an issue. We are a competitive species, that's how we have evolved, but we also have the capacity and need to admire beauty, to enjoy contact and sociability and to just have fun.

Enjoy your fitness tracker but use it as a tool, not a master. Maybe don't wear it sometimes and see how that feels.Get back to enjoying and doing things because you want to. After all the device may know that you've done the run, slept the sleep, walked the steps but you were the being who saw the first snowdrop of January and felt your spirits lift because of it.